'Draft Allen West for President' Groups Continue to Grow

Florida Republican U.S. Rep. Allen West took his seat in Congress two months ago -- and he already is the subject of a presidential draft movement.

West, who was the keynote speaker at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) last month, is the focus of a Facebook group which, when viewed on Thursday afternoon, had more than 2,750 members. Supporters have also set up a website to encourage people to contact West and urge him to join what appears to be a crowded field for the Republican presidential nomination.

The supporters at the site refer to West by his military rank instead of his political title -- as Lt. Col. West instead of Congressman West. There are some precedents for this and sometimes it pays off. For example, Theodore Roosevelt preferred to be called Colonel Roosevelt and, when he sought a third presidential term in 1880, Ulysses S. Grant was referred to by his military rank instead of his political one (no real surprise considering he was a far greater military leader than president).

But not always. While the nation has backed generals who never held elected office before in Dwight Eisenhower, Zachary Taylor and Grant, the other generals elevated to the White House had much longer political careers than West. Rutherford B. Hayes had a solid Civil War record but was probably better known in 1876 for his work in Congress and as a three-term governor of Ohio. James Garfield and Benjamin Harrison were also better known for records in Congress than for their service in the Civil War. Franklin Pierce had a mediocre record as a commander in the War with Mexico but he had spent a decade in Congress and was the youngest member of the U.S. Senate. Andrew Jackson was in politics for more than three decades and had stints in the military before being elected president in 1828. William Henry Harrison was a general in the War of 1812 -- but also spent decades in office as a territorial governor, a congressman, a U.S. senator, in the Ohio Legislature and minister to Colombia.

However, with the exception of Dwight Eisenhower who ranks as one of the greatest generals America ever produced, military leaders have generally stumbled badly when they have sought the White House in the past century. Wesley Clark quickly faded in the Democratic contest to take on George W. Bush in 2004. At the 1920 Republican National Convention, Gen. Leonard Wood was outmaneuvered badly by veteran politicians who eventually put up Warren G. Harding. While there was scattered support for Douglas MacArthur at the 1944 and 1948 Republican conventions, he trailed Thomas Dewey badly and, while he keynoted the 1952 convention, MacArthur was not a factor in the epic showdown between Eisenhower and Robert Taft for the nomination.

Winfield Scott, a brilliant general who captured Mexico City during the Mexican-American war, ran as the Whig nominee in 1852 against Democrat Franklin Pierce. Scots cheered for "gunpowder glory" and hoped he would follow in the steps of William Henry Harrison and Zachary Taylor as Whig generals who won the White House. Not only did Pierce rout Scott, the Whigs were finished and, four years later, could only lamely join the Know Nothings in backing Millard Fillmore for the White House. As the political careers of Scott, MacArthur, Wood, Clark, George McClellan, Winfield Scott Hancock and Admiral George Dewey show, sometimes "gunpowder glory" is simply not enough.