Who was the most recent Democrat before Clinton to be reelected for a second term as US President?
Second-term curse of Truman, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton. Second-term curse The second-term curse is the perceived tendency of second terms of U.S. presidents to be less successful than their first terms. According to the "curse", the second terms of U.S. presidents have usually been plagued by a major scandal, policy inertia, some sort of catastrophe, or other problems. There have been twenty-one U.S. presidents who have served a second term, each of whom has faced difficulties attributable to the curse. The legend behind the second-term curse is that after Franklin D. Roosevelt broke the "de facto" second term limit by running
George Clinton (vice president) their candidate for vice president. While the Republicans joined in the general acclamation of Washington for a second term as president, they objected to the allegedly "monarchical" attitude of Vice President Adams. Clinton was nominated rather than Thomas Jefferson because the Virginia electors could not vote for Washington, and for a second Virginian. Clinton received 50 electoral votes to 77 for Adams. His candidacy was damaged by his anti-Federalist record and by his narrow and disputed re-election as governor in 1792. (He won by only 108 votes, and the substantial anti-Clinton vote of Otsego County was excluded on a technicality.)