Presidents in Retirement: James Buchanan

[kensmind]

James Buchanan attended Abraham Lincoln's inauguration, and he left his successor a mess. As Buchanan rode in a carriage with Abraham Lincoln to Lincoln's inauguration, Buchanan is said to have remarked, “My dear sir, if you are as happy in entering the White House as I shall feel on returning to Wheatland, you are a happy man indeed.”

Comments

[seaivy]

with all that vitriol no wonder he stayed in his house

it's rather sad
he had a good career until the presidency
i wonder what personal flaw caused his inability to deal with the crises

[kensmind]

If you ever get a chance, I think you would like the movie Raising Buchanan. It's a silly comedy about a couple of broke young women who think they can make money by stealing the remains of James Buchanan and holding them for ransom. No one is interested in paying anything for him. In the movie, Buchanan's ghost, played superbly by the late Rene Auberjonois, makes that same argument with the main character. He laments how people only remember the worst about others, and forget how, in his case, he had a distinguished and successful career as a senator, a diplomat and as secretary of state.

I think you can rent the whole movie on YouTube if you're interested. Here's the trailer:

[kensmind]

I found this one too, it's the opening scene of the movie and has more of the Buchanan character in it: