The Wit Of The White House Trivia Quiz

Answer: Ronald Reagan

Ronald Reagan was the 40th President of the US, serving between 1981 and 1989.
Of the first 44 Presidents, he was the oldest to take office, being just a couple of weeks shy of his 70th birthday.
He was satirised as having a limited attention span, but, at least in hindsight, the achievements of his presidency were significant. Noteworthy among these was promoting a resolution of the 'Cold War' between the USA and USSR.
Reagan had a handy way with words. On hearing that Clint Eastwood was running for Mayor he quipped: "What makes him think a middle-aged actor, who's played with a chimp, could have a future in politics?"

Answer: Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln became President in 1861 and was assassinated in 1865.
During his brief incumbency, Lincoln achieved much. Victory for the Union forces in the War Between The States saw slavery abolished and Lincoln also modernised the economy and strengthened the Federal government.
He was not, though, universally supported or liked and he had to face down determined opposition, particularly from those who had wanted him to drop calls for manumission and sue for a ceasefire during the Civil War. It took a series of military successes in 1864 to make the northern states victorious.

Answer: Bill Clinton

William Jefferson Clinton was the 42nd President and served between 1993 and 2001.
During his incumbency, America entered a sustained period of economic revival and he ordered US military intervention that helped end the Bosnia and Kosovo wars.
He will, though, also be remembered for several sex scandals and he was impeached for perjury for obstruction of justice. He was acquitted.

Answer: Lyndon Johnson

Lyndon Johnson was the 36th President. He was sworn in following the murder of John F Kennedy in 1963 and was re-elected in 1964.
Johnson's incumbency has been characterised by the improvements he oversaw in American society, but he was tarred by accusations that he intensified the unpopular - some said unwinnable - war in Vietnam.

Answer: Barack Obama

Barrack Obama was the 44th President, serving between 2009 and 2017. He was the first President from an African-American background.
Obama's eight years in office saw him frustrated by political opposition, particularly to the health care reforms that he eventually forced through.
In his final State of the Union address in March 2016, Obama said: "It's one of the few regrets of my presidency, that the rancour and suspicion between the parties has gotten worse instead of better."

Answer: John F. Kennedy

John F. Kennedy was the 35th President and served from 1961 until his assassination in 1963.
Much has been written about the "new Camelot" that Kennedy's Presidency offered. It was a time of greater liberalism in America and hopes were high. Kennedy and his glamorous wife were lauded worldwide.
Yet, his first year in office was a disaster (see Bay of Pigs invasion and his humiliation at the hands of Soviet President Nikita Khrushchev at the Vienna summit.)
Many of his ideas were also blocked by Congress.
Yet he overcame this with his adroit handling of the Cuban missile crisis. He also set in motion the process that would lead to cvil rights.
These achievements, conspiracy theorists contend, were reason enough for his assassination.
To put the joke in context, Kennedy had defeated Nixon at the 1960 general election.

Answer: Ulysses S. Grant

Ulysses S. Grant was the 18th President and served between 1869 and 1877.
He was Commanding General of the United States Army from 1864 to 1869, during which his Union Army was victorious over the Confederate States.
On assuming the Presidency, he used the weight of the army to stabilise the country.
Despite this, historians have not been kind to Grant, rating him a "weak" President.

Answer: Jimmy Carter

Jimmy Carter was the 39th President, serving from 1977 to 1981.
He was characterised as having a "folksy" charm but his term was often branded a "failure".
Yet, Carter established the Department of Education and increased college tuition grants for needy students. He also began to phase out federal price controls for natural gas, and crude oil, making people aware of America's unhealthy dependence on imported oil.
His foreign policy was also successful. He was behind a Middle East peace deal involving Egypt and Israel, and also established trading relationships with China and began a process that would eventually see the unravelling of the Soviet Union.
A lot of this was outweighed in the public's mind and he was blamed for the failed operation to rescue American hostages held at the embassy in Iran. Facing a popular rival in 1980 (Ronald Reagan), he lost by a landslide in his second term bid.

Answer: John Adams

John Adams was the second President, serving from 1797 to 1801.
He had played a leading role in persuading Congress to declare independence from Great Britain and helped draft the Declaration of Independence.
Adams was aloof and stubborn and his Presidency was marked by the strength of opposition to him, even in his own Cabinet. However, among his achievements were building up the army and navy and finding a peaceful resolution to a potential war with France that could have proved disastrous to a fledgling nation.
The award-winning musical "1776" opened on Broadway in 1969. It dramatized (in a fictional way) the events that led up to the signing of the Declaration of Independence. This witticism is now often ascribed to the real Adams, but in fact it originated in the musical and has no basis in fact.

Answer: George W. Bush

George W. Bush was the 43rd President, serving from 2001 to 2009.
The defining moment of his Presidency was the terrorist attack on the USA on September 11, 2001 (9/11). His response was to declare a war on terror.
And yet much of his eight-year incumbency is viewed as controversial; even his election was controversial - he was one of a few Presidents to lose the popular vote.
While his response to 9/11 struck a popular chord in the USA, in other policies he was less successful.
He introduced the Patriot Act and restructured national security, both policies that divided the country. In his second term he made changes to social security.
In 2013, the "Economist" magazine opined: "Historians of the future will have more to say about Mr Bush, a flawed leader who achieved a measure of redemption just as his country gave up on him."
The joke in the question was made while Bush was in a proverbial lions' den, the 2001 radio-TV correspondents' dinner.