Even though Tuesday’s post on LBJ wasn’t too popular, I guess this week’s theme continues with another presidential museum. Yesterday I was watching the evening news because I am 75 years old, and to my surprise they were talking about a weird museum. How exciting! Since 1965 a small bank in northwest Kansas celebrates all 60 losers of the U.S. presidential elections. Don’t worry! 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney was added this week at a FREE reception with coffee and cookies. The “They Also Ran Gallery” was the brainchild of former bank president (do I see a theme here?) William Walter Rouse who was given a copy of a book called They Also Ran by Irving Stone (Expect the Mitt Romney sequel I Also Ran…Through $800 Million Dollars next summer). Anyway, Stone’s book is the story of nineteen men who all suffered the same fate: they were defeated for the presidency of the United States. Rouse must have a thing for losers, because the book inspired him to start a loser museum. How about that? Located on the upper floor of the bank, the gallery of presidential underachiever portraits starts with Thomas Jefferson, who lost to John Adams in 1796 before defeating Adams for the presidency in 1800, and of course ends with John McCain and Mitt Romney. But those are some of the famous names. Do you know anything about Rufus King, William H. Crawford, John Charles Fremont or James B. Weaver? Of course you don’t. They have faded into obscurity, because that’s usually what happens to losers. But they live on at the museum, which surprisingly, attracts a few hundred visitors a year. Nobody likes a loser, well, except at the They Also Ran Gallery.
They Also Ran Gallery
