Be it written in the stars or the dumb luck of a cold and meaningless universe, three vice presidents were born today, August 27. LBJ was born on 1908 and was elected vice president in a squeaker of an election in 1960 and then, of course, ascended to the presidency in 1963. He named his penis Jumbo and showed it too way too many people. He also used to make his own vice president, Hubert Humphrey, cry. He was an able legislator but not exactly a nice guy.
Charles G. Dawes, who served under Calvin Coolidge, was born at the end of the Civil War, 1865. He is the only VP to date to have won both a Nobel Peace Prize and to have written a number one pop hit. He got the prize in 1925 for brokering the Dawes Plan for Detente between Germany and France after WWI. And in 1958, Tommy Edwards added lyrics to his song "It's All in the Game." The song soon topped the charts.
And Hannibal Hamlin, Lincoln's first VP, was born in 1809. He was a Maine Abolitionist who generally proved to be uninspiring at his job. That said, Hamlin not only was born on the same day as two other veeps but he died on the same day as two other veeps. He breathed his last breath on July 4, the same day (but not the same year) as Thomas Jefferson and John Adams also passed on.