By Berl Falbaum
Donald Trump recently made a political projection—true, it was weird—that stirred the imagination.
Speaking at the Hispanic Leadership Conference in Miami, Trump said one of his pollsters had told him that if George Washington and Abraham Lincoln ran for president and vice president as a team, he—Trump—would win by 40 percent. (OK, I said it was weird).
Forget for a minute why a pollster would conduct such a poll, you have to admit it gives us an opportunity for a unique look at American history.
The first question I had: Can dead people run for president, president and vice president in this case? While I am not a constitutional scholar, I think they could. The only qualifications constitutionally required are that they were born in the U.S., have been a resident in this country for 14 years and are at least 35 years old. So, that’s check, check and check for Washington and Lincoln. Washington would be 289 years old today and Lincoln 213.
Next, I wondered, have dead people ever run for office? I discovered dead people have although not for president and vice president. Generally, they died shortly before an election, too late to have their names erased from ballots.
Not only did the dead receive thousands of votes but, according to Google, 10 dead people actually won the election. I concluded voters believed they would do less damage than the living. Alas, various methods were used to strip them of their victories.
With these questions answered in the positive, it brings us to a match-up between Trump, a Republican, against Washington, who was what we call today an independent, and Lincoln, a Republican but who by today’s policies would probably be considered a Democrat. (Hold your e-mails; I know it’s more complex than that).
One of the major issues would be whether Trump did more for blacks than any other president. He made that claim in June 2020 although he added that Lincoln “did good although it's always questionable.”
Lincoln, who we know was pretty good at debates—remember the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates—could counter with, “What do you mean by questionable? I don’t want to brag, but haven’t you heard of the Emancipation Proclamation that I issued or the Civil War?”
Then Lincoln could follow up with the coup de grace by challenging Trump’s comment in May 2017 that Andrew Jackson was very angry about the Civil War.
“Andrew Jackson was angry about the Civil War?” the 16th President could ask. “He died 16 years before the war started.
“And while I’m at it, the black statesman Frederick Douglass who you said was still doing amazing things, visited the White House frequently when I was in office in the 1860s. If he is still doing anything, that would be amazing.”
Which brings us to Washington who really did not want to be president. He could build on Lincoln’s attack by emphasizing Trump’s tendency to lie.
“I’m sure glad I cut down that cherry tree and admitted it,” Washington could say. “You would have lied about it.
“But much worse, you said we won the Revolutionary War because my Continental Army captured the airports. I didn’t know what airports were until I prepared for this debate. I learned they weren’t constructed until the early 1900s. That is not to say, I don’t wish I had them at the time.
“If I may be permitted an aside, I like Air Force One much better than Horse Carriage One in which I travelled.”
“And let me clear up some more history for you, Mr. Trump,” Washington might say. “In the same speech in which you said ‘our army manned the air and took over the airports,’ you added:
“‘And at Fort McHenry, under the rockets’ red glare, it [the army] had nothing but victory. And when dawn came, their Star-Spangled Banner waved defiant.’
“That is all very moving. The trouble? Our national anthem was not written until 1812 during the Battle of Baltimore, about 13 years after I died in 1799 and 36 years after the war.
“I like the anthem but with all respect to John Stafford Smith who wrote the music to Frances Scott Key’s poem, the Star-Spangled Banner, some of the notes are pretty hard to sing.”
Just before Trump got ready to respond, Washington would interrupt with a slight smile, “All my papers are in the U.S. archives. I didn’t take any of them to Mount Vernon.”
We can anticipate that Trump would charge that Washington’s and Lincoln’s accomplishments were “overrated.” He might even stalk the two (as he did with Hillary Clinton) during any debate.
He would claim that he did not say the comments the two cited; it was all fake news.
We would like to see the results of polls after such a confrontation between the three.
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Berl Falbaum is a veteran journalist and author of 12 books.
