A Pennsylvania President with a Forgotten Memorial

More primaries today in the 2016 presidential election. Today's biggest prize is Pennsylvania, and today's post is for the only president who was from that state. He is the most recent president who, like Hillary Clinton, previously served as Secretary of State (and that was over 150 years ago!). He is the only president whose birthplace is marked by a pyramid.  He is the only president whose bedroom I've actually slept in. The US Congress commissioned a memorial to him, but it is in an obscure location, DC's Meridian Hill Park, and historians consider him to be one of our worst presidents, so the National Park Service barely mentions this memorial on its website. Click the photo below, at the memorial with my friends Kristin and Carol, to find out who this president is (and why I've slept in his bedroom!)...

The Third Party Candidate Who Finished Second

This year's election cycle has included a more than usual amount of speculation for a third-party run for the presidency, either by Donald Trump if he does not get the nomination or by an establishment Republican if he does.  There have been several mildly-successful third party runs in the past 50 years, such as Ross Perot's wild ride in 1992, Ralph Nader's run in 2000 that debatebly handed the presidency to George W Bush, or the last third-party candidacy that actually won electoral votes, George Wallace's racially-charged run in 1968.  But 1912 was the only time in our nation's history that a third-party candidate actually placed higher than third in the voting, and that run was made by a man who had formerly served as president.  When you click the photo below, you'll not only find out who that man was, but you'll also see why he was sworn into office in this unusual location: