Visions of Presidential Candidates: Mt. Rushmore Reimagined
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Image Credit: ABC News
In interviews with ABC News, eight of the Republican presidential contenders were asked who they would choose to go up alongside some of the nation’s greatest presidents on Mount Rushmore.
Some of the choices were predictable: Ronald Reagan, John Adams. Earlier this year Chairman of the Reagan Legacy Project Grover Norquist pushed for adding Reagan as part of the former president’s centennial anniversary.
But others came a little out of left field – for example, Michele Bachmann’s pick of James Garfield, who served but 200 days before being assassinated in 1881.
We took things one step further and put together this graphic to show what the South Dakota landmark would look like with all of the candidates’ visions incorporated.
The leaders flanking the original four are (left to right) Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge, Ronald Reagan, James Garfield and John Adams. There’s only one choice missing; Herman Cain said the person he would add had not yet been elected.
The original sculpture took 14 years and 27 days to build, according to the National Park Service website. The Park Service finished up annual preservation work on the monument last month, but there are no plans to change the mountain.
CNN reports that in 1997 the College of William and Mary asked applicants who they would add. Answers included John F. Kennedy, Mother Teresa and Oprah Winfrey.
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Posted by: Rick McDaniel | November 9, 2011, 12:01 pm 12:01 pm
To put more faces on Rushmore is a joke.
There is not enough room fcor Obama’s ears or ego, to become part of that, the state is not large enough.
I know the elites want to annoint Obama as “KING SUPREME”
Posted by: Dana Hayes | November 9, 2011, 12:11 pm 12:11 pm
Stupid question for stupid people. There will be no changing it.
Posted by: pksk531 | November 9, 2011, 12:28 pm 12:28 pm
Hey Dana, did you SEE Obama’s face on that fictitious bunch??? NO!! And, NO mention of him being there either. By your statement, I’d guess that YOU would think gw (ruin the country) bush should be carved up there while the rest of the THINKING world would NEVER even consider it!!!
Posted by: demNme5 | November 9, 2011, 12:34 pm 12:34 pm
Someday, history will show Reagan for the truly stupid man and ignorant president that he was.
Posted by: WorkingClass | November 9, 2011, 12:39 pm 12:39 pm
WorkingClass: I knew that in the 1990s while he was SCREWING the middle-class with his “Trickle Down’ crap! HE’S one of the main reasons this nation is in the mess we’re in today!!!
Posted by: demNme5 | November 9, 2011, 12:50 pm 12:50 pm
Mt. Rushmore is a work of art and was completed in 1941. IT IS FINISHED! To even consider adding another face to the mountain is ludicrous. Gutzon Borglum would be rolling in his grave. It is like trying to add something to the Mona Lisa. Besides, the 4 faces that are there are taking up the only carvable rock left. To add anyone else wouldn’t be possible and would likely harm the existing faces in the process. Jefferson’s nose is already partially held on with a pin.
Posted by: ryburna | November 9, 2011, 12:59 pm 12:59 pm
What is Reagen doing up there? He was one of the worst presidents in history! Trickle down economics? What a failure!
Posted by: rnevelle | November 9, 2011, 1:34 pm 1:34 pm
It’s better to find another mountain, say in Arizona for instance, to rival Mount Rushmore with sculptures of other presidents. Even with that said, I doubt such a project will ever happen because it’ll be so politically charged. Not everyone loved Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton or even Franklin D. Roosevelt, but the classic presidents like Washington and Lincoln are almost universally admired. I say leave Mount Rushmore alone. To add other presidents to it would be to “deface” it (pun intended).
Posted by: JustMeIntheRock | November 9, 2011, 1:37 pm 1:37 pm
I think MLK would be the next logical choice…if we were even talking reality.
Posted by: newcountryman | November 9, 2011, 1:48 pm 1:48 pm
1. Not enough room for anyone else up there and 2. Ronald Reagan? When h*ll freezes over.
Posted by: whatever | November 9, 2011, 4:31 pm 4:31 pm
I would definitely add Franklin D. Roosevelt who led the ‘Greatest Generation’ out of the Great Depression and victory through perseverance and strength during WWII. Assuming the Presidency at the depth of the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt helped the American people regain faith in themselves. He brought hope as he promised prompt, vigorous action, and asserted in his Inaugural Address, “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” The only questionable policy I have found in his 2nd and unprecedented 3rd term as our 32nd president is that he trusted Stalin ignoring repeated concerns and warnings from Churchill that inevitably came to be true in later years during the cold war. The only reason Teddy Roosevelt is included with the other three GREAT presents is that he was an egomaniac and commissioned this sculpture during his presidency – he was however, a environmentalist and did create National Parks to his credit.
Posted by: Rich | November 9, 2011, 5:42 pm 5:42 pm
I agree with DEMNE5. It is a work of art and it is finished. Gutzon Borghim was the artist and the faces were his choice. Doing the same thing on another mountain is not art because it has been done already. Let it be. It is beautiful just as it is.
Posted by: Lauri | November 9, 2011, 10:59 pm 10:59 pm
Yet another article that failed to do any research; Anyone who has visited Mount Rushmore knows that it is impossible to add to the sculpture as there is no more rock suitable for carving. In fact the rock next to Washington’s right shoulder was the original site for Jefferson’s head, but they had to demolish what they had started because they found the rock there was not stable enough. It’s got nothing to do with SHOULD anyone else be there or WHO should be there, but that it CANNOT be done anyway.
Posted by: Greg | November 10, 2011, 8:42 pm 8:42 pm