Etc.

from the August 19, 2008 edition

Serving as vice president isn't an expressway to Oval Office

While experience as vice president might seem the logical job training for the Oval Office, only 13 VPs have ever served as president, and only eight of those were ever elected to hold the job, the last being George H.W. Bush. Six vice presidents who moved up did so when the men they served under died, were assassinated, or resigned. Only Harry Truman, who took over when Franklin Roosevelt died at the start of his third term, and Lyndon Johnson, who stepped in after John Kennedy's assassination, ever went from serving unexpired terms to winning presidential elections. The presidents who first served as vice presidents, with their years in the White House corner office:

VPs elected to presidency

• John Adams 1797-1801

• Thomas Jefferson 1801-09

• Theodore Roosevelt 1901-09

• Calvin Coolidge 1923-29

• Harry Truman 1945-53

• Lyndon Johnson 1963-69

• Richard Nixon 1969-74

• George H.W. Bush,1989-93

VPs who completed unexpired presidential terms

• John Tyler 1841-45

• Millard Fillmore 1850-53

• Andrew Johnson 1865-69

• Chester A. Arthur 1881-85

• Harry Truman see list above

• Lyndon Johnson see list above

• Gerald Ford 1974-77