Whether President Roosevelt accepts nomination for a third term or
not he will have achieved a record, as far as I can remember, by even receiving it. On the face of it that seems not to be true, for the other Roosevelt—Theodore—was nominated in 1912 after he had been President twice. But actually he had only served seven and a-half years, not eight. Being Vice-President when President McKinley was assassinated in 1901, he automatically succeeded for the unexpired portion of the current Presidential term, three and a-half years, and was then re-elected for the normal four years. Franklin Delano Roosevelt is the only man to be nominated after serving two full terms—though General Grant came very near achieving that distinction in 1880. But in neither Theodore Roosevelt's case nor Grant's would the third term have followed consecutively on the other two. * * *
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