Out in Iowa this week, when asked about his favorite presidents, Jeb Bush picked an unlikely hero.
The former Florida governor mentioned his father and brother, of course, as well as George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. But Bush also singled out James K. Polk for praise, a Democrat who served four years in the 1840s, the Des Moines Register reported on Monday.
Calling Polk “one of the presidents that I really admire," Bush noted Polk stuck to his campaign pledges of getting all of Texas and the Oregon territory and only serving one term in the White House.
“He said what he was going to do and he did what he said he was going to do, and then he left,” Bush said of Polk.
As Bush rightfully noted, historians generally give higher marks to Polk than the public does. Still, our 11th president does creep into the public consciousness on occasion. The alternative rock band They Might Be Giants did a song about Polk and, in a rich irony, Al Gore said he was planning to hang a picture of Polk in the Oval Office had he won the 2000 presidential election.
Not surprisingly, given his family legacy and his outreach to Hispanic voters, Bush did not mention Polk’s leadership during the Mexican-American War. While the war was successful, Polk often put political concerns over military matters as he tried to undermine his two most successful generals: Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott who were both Whigs.
But Bush doesn’t exactly fit the Polk mold electorally. A former House speaker who had been defeated in his re-election bid as governor of Tennessee, Polk was the first dark-horse president, beating far better known Democrats -- former President Martin Van Buren, former Vice President Richard Johnson, Lewis Cass, James Buchanan, John C. Calhoun -- at the 1844 convention in Baltimore. He then defeated Henry Clay in the general election. Bush starts at the front of the crowded Republican presidential pack and comes from a political dynasty while Polk’s roots were far humbler.
Still, the nation could use someone like Polk, a president who kept his word. Polk was one of the hardest working presidents who took only one extended vacation during his four years in office. “Young Hickory” wasn’t exactly the type to jet off to Martha’s Vineyard or spend weeks clearing brush in Texas to escape Washington. Of course that came with a price. Polk’s health collapsed during his presidency despite being the youngest man elected president up to that time. Three months after he left the White House in 1849, Polk came down with chorea and died at the age of 53.
Even with his often poltiically-motivated handling of the war, Polk ranks as one of the better presidents and certainly towers over the other presidents who served between Andew Jackson and Lincoln. Bush could do far worse in his choice of role models than the president who took the young republic to the Pacific.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or follow him on Twitter: @KevinDerbySSN
