President for a Day! Will the REAL 12th President Please Stand Up?

[JohnCrichton]

Friend of mine found this by accident:
http://home.nycap.rr.com/useless/atchison/

[Delthayre]

I do love the obscure nonsense that riddles history. Beside all the wars, political grandeur, and invention, there's weird **** like this.

I love the weird ****.

Personally, if I were in that position, I'd probably speculate about doing some crazy stuff, but then my overbearing sense of conscience would intervene to ensure that I did nothing.

[zmanjz]

No....

Since Taylor was a President Elect at the time, and Polk's term had expired, Atchison was not the president.

Also, as no one can be in both the Legislature AND the executive branch, the fact that Atchison did not resign from the legislature makes it impossible for him to have been the president. (The fact that the year's session of congress was over doesn't matter as the Senator would have continued to act in the role of a Legislator back in his home state.)

Atchison was a senator from 1843 to 1855

this election occoured in 1849

Therefore, under the constitutional requirements of seperation of powers, he was not "The President"

[Tienshin]

Therefore, under the constitutional requirements of seperation of powers, he was not "The President"
Betcha he still used "I was once president" as a pickup line though.