Incumbents

PREZ QUIZ -- Dick Polman, columnist for the Philly Inquirer, devoted a piece to this question: "How many Democratic presidents have been defeated for a second term in the last 120 years? A grand total of  one." Eventually, he got around to supplying the answer. It was Jimmy Carter in 1980. Polman's point was that the odds favor incumbents. True enough, but it would have nice if he had also noted the number of Republican presidents who have been defeated for a second term in the last 120 years. Five minutes in an Almanac provides the answer: Four. Benjamin Harrison in 1892, William Howard Taft in 1912, Herbert Hoover in 1932, and George H.W. Bush in 1992.