[Austin Willard Wright]

Possibly but I assume that the U.S. Congress had a president before 1781. Who was he?

[VRWCmember]

Was he elected by the Electoral College or not? The Constitution is pretty clear about the office of President of the United States. It doesn't say anything about President of the Continental Congress becoming President of the United States by default.

It seems to me that these idiots from Connecticut have the offices confused. I guess since they can't get Loserman elected to the office they have to figure out a way to get some other Connecticut leader appointed to the office -- even if it is over 200 years after the fact.

[VRWCmember]

Launching his campaign is likely the "first inning in a nine inning fight," he says.

Strike Three. Go sit down.

[SedVictaCatoni]

One of these again. The bottom line is this: several governmental bodies existed in the United States before the ratification of the United States Constitution. Some of these had presiding officers who held the title of "president". This is similar to Dick Cheney's title: President of the Senate.

If you want to play semantic games, you could claim that one of these men was therefore "President of the United States", even though everybody is agreed that nobody who was a "president" under the Continental Congresses or the Articles of Confederation government held the portfolio of executive powers which are granted under the Constitution.

Meanwhile, over the last two centuries we've developed a cultural convention that only men elected under the United States Constitution are considered "Presidents of the United States". George Washington was the first of these. End of story.

[dfwgator]

Phew, for a second I thought Algore was going to claim he was the first President.

[Pharmboy]

There's a difference between President of the US and prez of the Continental Congress. Sheesh...