Let me triumph as a bird or not at all.
~ Rutherford B. Hawk
Rutherford B. Hayes; the red-tailed hawk, one of a big variety of birds that fall under the “hawk” label but one which I’ve always especially liked for some reason.
This one goes out to my good friend rtha, for reasons.
Hayes got into office under contended circumstances; there was significant dispute over electoral votes in 1876, and ultimately the whole mess might have gone either way and by sheer count of non-disputed electoral votes was weighted heavily toward Samuel J. Tilden before it was finally resolved with Hayes taking the big chair and a bunch of compromises made on the whole Reconstruction situation. Woo, politics!
Also apparently he was big on the gold standard, so once Ron Paul gets out of the game maybe folks can re-animate Hayes at try and get him to run again.