Close presidential elections in the United States are measured, evaluated and remembered primarily by simple statistics. One can easily find out, for example, how many states in the electoral college were won by each presidential candidate, and by how much. But to stop there is to miss the most dramatic parts of the political contests. Why were the votes so close? What issues split the electorate? Was it the behavior or the reputation of the candidates? This book answers these questions and more, identifying and examining 12 of the closest elections, from the 1796 battle between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson to the contested 2000 election between George W. Bush and Al Gore.

America's debt is in the trillions--and yet, like those who worry about borrowing five dollars but not about their unaffordable mortgage, Americans fail to pay attention to this serious situation. The press hovers over annual budgets and the associated deficits (and rare surpluses), but pays little attention to the national debt and even less to the interest spent serving it. Federal politicians seem as powerless to control the debt as they are uninformed about its nature. After tracing fluctuations in the finances of the country from its beginning until 1940, this book examines the administrations of the next 12 presidents (FDR through George W. Bush) and the annual budget deficits and interest expenses that fed the national debt. The startup debt of each administration is shown; then the change in debt through the end of the administration is analyzed to show what areas of government incurred overspending and how much was overspent. Also included are brief biographies of each president, and discussions of foreign and domestic situations, including judicial decisions and sociological changes, that affected fiscal policies and fueled the urge to overspend.