Former president as member of govt?

[PeterGustafsson]

Hi!


Has it ever happened that a former president has returned to govt, but to as role as secretary for some department, in the USA? Any former prime minister returning as a minister, in any other country?

Well, that just happened in Sweden. Carl Bildt was the prime minister for a conservative/liberal/agrarian party coalition govt in 1991-94. That coalition failed in the 94 elections to no small degree due to his rethoric of "the only way", that the only possible policies to govern the country was to follow his program, with no alterations whatsoever, for a big change to the right. Voters did not agree, and the conservative party (they call themselves moderates here, in order to get more voters) payed the priced at the polls.

Shortly after that, a junior parlimentarian, the then-leader of of the moderate youth league, critized the "only way" rallying cry in a big newspaper article. That was not taken well - Carl Bildt and the rest of the party leadership first publicly scolded him for breaking ranks, and he was put in the party freezerbox.

He had always been very interested in foreign and security policy, so he became high commissioner for Bosnia shortly after the loss. That worked out quite well, and voters all over the political spectrum were impressed with the result - a country in civil war got turned into a country of non-war.

In the meanwhile, a holdover of the Bildt group - who had such a lack of charisma so that he could out-bland Gore, Qayle, and Carter put together - led the moderate party to a crushing defeat in the 2002 elections, against fairly weak competition. Imagine a GOP candidate running against Gore, and that GOP candidate being so inept so that Gore would win not only traditional blue states, but also the Dakotas, Utah, all other mountain states, and Texas. Well, that is how inept that guy was. That prompted some major soul-searching, and the young guy managed to become party chairman.

In the 2006 elections, the coalition (this time with the christian democrats added) portrayed an image of being extremely coherent, all parties agreed to dump several of their core issues which were a hindrance to smooth coalition work.

Also, the new moderate leadership, at the behest of the new chairmain, decided that it is better to have 50% of your policy wishes as law and the other 50% in the thrashbin, rather than 100% of your policy wishes being voted on and 0% passing into law. They decided to dump a lot of stuff that was important to their core voters and party officials, but always ended up alienating the majority of the voters. The core voters had nowhere else to go anyway, since the coalition meant that they would have to vote labor/green/leftist in order to vote against the moderate party.

At the same time, the labor party prime minister declared that unemployment was not a major problem, despite the fact that it is fairly high, in an economy which has a relatively strong surplus (both trade and budget) and one of western Europe´s best growth rates. The coalition could not believe their eyes when the labor gave up their traditionally best rallying cause on their own accord. Combined with the prime minsters bossy personality and general public tiredness of his face and govt., the coalition won.

So, everyone started wondering who would get the various ministerial posts in the new coalition party. As foreign affair minister, the new prime minster appointed Carl Bildt, the same guy who nearly wrecked his political life a decade ago! That stumped all the pundits.

There were some other firsts: Sweden got its first black minister (She is minister of gender equality and integration affairs), its first openly homosexual minister (he is minister of environment), its first openly bisexual minister (he is migration issues minister, 32 years old), and its first pony-tail wearing male minster (he is finance minister, and former senior policymaker in the central bank, 38 years old)

The new minister of cultual affairs deserves special mention. She was member of the conservative party until 1995, but publicly left the party when an EU-sceptical parliament member was kicked out of the party over that very topic. She then joined a conservative think tank, and never touched upon any culture issues. The new prime minister asked if she could rejoin, and take care of the department of cultural affairs. She said yes, but they did not talk about all the policy areas that went into that department. So, when she was first interviewed about her new job, a journalist asked her what she would do in her position as minister of sports. She responded: "Am I minister of sports???...." She mumbled a bit with her new aide, who told her that she indeed had gotten that post. Sensing the surprise, blurted out: "Oh ****, that was more than I knew! But I have played team handball in the 70ies!"

High Comedy!


Have a nice time!

Peter Gustafsson

[scrapinpeg]

William Howard Taft became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court after his presidency.

[PeterGustafsson]

Hi!

William Howard Taft became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court after his presidency.

Close, but not quite the same thing. That was not the cabinet, and furthermore, as Chief Justice he was the leader in his group, not anyone who has to answer to the boss.


Have a nice time!

Peter Gustafsson

[scrapinpeg]

Taft is the only example thus far of a US President who held public office of any kind after his presidency, and so I mentioned him.

[Maeve_Mari]

I found some more post-government activity of former Presidents, to answer the question:

These former Presidents went on to hold other major offices:

• William Howard Taft was the Chief Justice of the United States
• Andrew Johnson returned to the United States Senate
• John Quincy Adams served in the United States House of Representatives
• John Tyler served in the provisional Confederate States Congress during the Civil War. He was elected to the regular Confederate Congress but died before it met.
• Grover Cleveland was defeated in 1888 by Benjamin Harrison for reelection but won the presidency again in 1892

[daeceg]

Generally, it has been the policy of former American presidents to remain a-political in regards to their successors. Jimmy Carter has acted as an unofficial US Ambassador in a few situations, such as pursuading the generals who overthrew Aristide in Haiti (the first time) to surrender rather than have their nation invaded by the US