The Mother of Presidents
Kenneth R. "Ken" Plum
 
         Virginia has the distinction of having the most men born within her borders to become president of the United States.  The "Mother of Presidents" produced four of the first five presidents:  Washington as the first and then skipping to Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe as third to fifth.  Harrison and Tyler were presidents nine and ten respectively.  Woodrow Wilson whose parents lived in Staunton briefly when he was born went on to be the twenty-eighth president elected in 1912.  We have not had a Virginia-born president since that time, nor have we had a Virginian as candidate for president.
 
        Virginia had not been a player in presidential politics for many years until this historic election.  For many it seemed improbable that we could actually be a battleground state.  After all, we had not voted for a Democratic President since Lyndon Johnson in 1964.  Johnson snookered Senator Harry F. Byrd, leader of the political machine that controlled Virginia during the period, into endorsing him.  Byrd, who was a Democrat in name only, regretted the endorsement and split with President Johnson on most Great Society measures.  Before that Harry Truman had carried the state with less than 50 percent of the vote in 1948 when Strom Thurmond of the Dixiecrat Party got ten percent of the Virginia vote.  Segregationist George Wallace got 24 percent of the Virginia vote in 1968.  Democratic candidate George McGovern got just 30 percent of the Virginia vote in 1972, and Michael Dukakis got 39 percent in 1988.  In his winning campaigns of 1992 and 1996 Bill Clinton got 41 and 45 percent of the Virginia vote respectively.
 
        All these numbers highlight further the remarkable win by Barack Obama in Virginia.  He polled over 155,000 votes more than McCain and won with 52 percent of the vote.  Northern Virginia voters provided the winning margin.  Barack Obama would have been elected president without winning the Old Dominion, but the good news is that Virginia that had elected the first African American Governor contributed to electing the first African American President.  For that accomplishment all Virginians can be proud and most especially the army of volunteers amassed by the Obama campaign.
 
        Virginia cannot add Barack Obama to her list of presidential sons, but considering his eleven visits to the Commonwealth during the campaign we should consider him an adopted son.  Jane and I stood just three rows of people from the podium in Manassas along with about 80,000 other people the night before the election when Barack Obama made his final appearance of the campaign.  We could not be more proud of him or of our native state.
 
        Please share your election reflections with me at kenplum@aol.com.