By Dale Glading
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If you ask your average New Jersey resident to name the only president born in the Garden State, most of them will either draw a blank or guess incorrectly by saying, “Woodrow Wilson”. Wilson, the 28th President of the United States, served as New Jersey’s 34th Governor and Princeton University’s 13th President. However, this son of slave owners and father of the modern-day Progressive movement was actually born in Staunton VA.
The correct answer would be Grover Cleveland, who was born on March 18, 1837 in Caldwell NJ. Cleveland also died in New Jersey and was buried in Princeton. In between, however, Cleveland spent much of his adult life in New York, where he served – in rapid succession – as Sheriff of Erie County, Mayor of Buffalo, and Governor.
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Cleveland was a true political reformer, making enemies of the Tammany Hall faction of the Democratic Party along the way. However, its opposition failed to prevent his nomination in 1884 and his election later that same year over James Blaine of Maine. Cleveland’s popular vote victory was by the thinnest of margins (1/4 of 1%), but he won the electoral college by a more comfortable 37 votes.
Four years later, Cleveland again won the popular vote, 48.6% to 47.8%, over Benjamin Harrison of Indiana. However, Harrison claimed both the electoral college, 233-168, and the presidency. Cleveland happily returned to private life with his new – and much younger – bride and their growing family.
In 1892, Cleveland was once again nominated by the Democrats and faced Harrison in a rematch of the 1888 election. This time, Cleveland won both the popular vote and the electoral college convincingly, making him the only president in American history to serve two nonconsecutive terms in the White House.
Which brings us to Donald John Trump…
Against Hillary Clinton in 2016, Trump lost the popular vote by almost 3 million votes. However, his 304-227 victory in the electoral college made him the 45th President of the United States.
After four tumultuous years – and 24/7 media attacks – Trump lost the hotly contested 2020 election to a consummate Washington insider, Joe Biden. Historians will have a heyday dissecting the 2020 election for generations to come but, without a worldwide pandemic causing an economic recession, most pundits believe that DJT would have coasted to re-election.
A private citizen once more, Donald Trump can now follow one of three courses. Behind Door #1 lies a life of leisure, far from the public eye, and filled with family… and round after round of golf.
Door #2 reveals Donald Trump as political kingmaker, never again running for office himself but making or breaking the aspirations of others within the Republican Party. It is hard to conceive of a GOP candidate winning in 2024 without at least the tacit support of Donald Trump. Conversely, it is very easy to imagine one political career after another going down in flames if “the Donald” places them in his crosshairs.
And then there is Door #3, the one in which former President Trump launches an all-out attempt to return to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Channeling his inner Ralph “How sweet it is” Kramden, Trump would like nothing better than winning a grudge match against Joe Biden (providing, of course, that Uncle Joe retains enough cognitive ability to run for re-election in 2024).
But Trump run the risk of losing to Biden twice… if indeed, he was successful in claiming the GOP nomination?
The truth of the matter is that second acts in presidential politics rarely end well. Think Richard Nixon and Watergate; Ronald Reagan and Iran-Contra; and Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky. Add Ulysses Grant and the Panic of 1873; and Grover Cleveland and the Panic of 1893 to the mix – not to mention two assassinations (Lincoln and McKinley).
Once a president becomes a lame duck, the opposition no longer fears him. Worse yet, the up and comers in his own party are only too happy to start feasting on his political bones as they jockey for position.
The world of sports and the world of entertainment are also replete with second act failures. Muhammad Ali kept coming back and back and back again, tarnishing his stellar career – and accelerating the onset of his Parkinson’s Disease – as he lost three of his last four fights to the likes of Leon Spinks and Trevor Berbick. And whereas Hoboken’s favorite son, Francis Albert Sinatra, made a triumphal return from a short-lived and self-imposed retirement with his “Ol’ Blue Eyes is Back” album, even he didn’t know when to exit the stage gracefully. One thousand concerts after his 1973 comeback, Frank collapsed in mid-song in Richmond VA, never to perform before a paying audience again.
It is said that pregnant women soon forget the pain and agony of childbirth, the coos and smiles of their newborn miracle erasing all thoughts of labor. But will Donald Trump’s short-term memory allow him to compartmentalize two impeachments and the relentlessly negative coverage of the mainstream media?
If I were a betting man, I would lay even money that the 45th President of the United States will not become the 47th… by his own choosing. Instead, look for Donald Trump to select Door #2.
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Dale Glading is an ordained minister and former N.J. Republican candidate for Congress.
