and the way that zachary taylor would attempt to deal with the mexican session, remember the mexican session, that's that territory ceded by mexico to the united states as a result of the american victory in the war with mexico. his approach to the mexican session would reflect this no-party approach, this no-party idea of his. the election after all had not really provided a solution to the problem of slavery in the territories. and no immediate solution was in sight. now, remember, you've got a long gap here between taylor being elected in november of 1848 and something actually happening in washington. well, first of all, long gap between being elected in november '48 and being sworn into office. those days it was in march, so not until march of 1849 do you have the end of the sort of lame duck period of his predecessor, meanwhile, the gold rush in california was attracting thousands of new settlers west, amid this policy-making vacuum, sectional animosities in congress increased. so there's kind of a lack of leadership, there's a kind of power vacuum and as a result, there's a lo

this was general zachary taylor. now we have a poster from the 1848 campaign with taylor and the immortal mill phil more. the wigs under taylor managed to win, to defeat the democratic party candidate. the democrats faired very badly by internal divisions, especially within new york state, really serious battle within new york state. had new york gone a different direction, the democratic nominee might have been elected instead of zachary taylor, the wig nominee. serious internal divisions within the democratic party in new york. i think i may have talked about this before. a lot of faction al i mean among the democrats in new york. factionalism. hunker group and the barn burner group. we won't get into that, but suffice to say the wigs again end up with a successful candidate with electing the president in the form of zachary taylor, but ironically again, someone who's not really a committed wig. someone who is less than a die hard wig, you know, in the clay or webster mold. taylor had often portrayed himself not as

polk never really liked zachary taylor. didn't think much of it. thought of him as an unimaginative guy. my own view of taylor as a military man was that he strategically was limited. he got himself in a lot of scrapes. he got his armies in unfortunate situations, but technically brilliant, and therefore managed to get his armies out of those scrapes and unfortunate circumstances. >> a whig? >> he was a whig. that was another reason polk didn't like him. he didn't trust whigs. his other great general winfield scott was also a whig. they had terrible relationship throughout the war. >> in those days what would a whig stand for and where would a whig stand today in what party? >> well, in terms of the big question that reverberates through our politics which is concentration of power in washington or out in the states, the whigs were more in favor of concentration of power in washington. in that sense they would be more along the liberal side. but what was emerging was an increasing consciousness and concern about the slavery issue. the whig party was

west of the mississippi river is major general, two stars, richard kent, the son of president zachary taylor. brother-in-law for his first marriage to president jefferson davis. a graduate of yale. tremendously intelligent. one of the finest tactical commanders that the confederates have. kirby smith, richard tighter to not get along. every time kirby smith does something that did it believes is dumb, tattles on them. taylor spent his time getting ready. he has built pose with the help of a black man named carol jones in western louisiana. and he can supply his forces so they can get to it. banks and porter, up the river, taylor has ordered his forces, all the way from the mississippi river across north louisiana, and also in texas, all the way from the texas wine just west of shreveport. everybody gets together to come and to gather. so it takes a while for the forces to come. they are be supplied, they are ready. nobody believes that the yankees can move that quickly, and they did. and so every time the texans try to come across a predetermined point the yankees already added them. it's ju

we would send under zachary taylor an army into mexico for a couple hundred miles. they will see the futility of their effort and would negotiate for peace but the mexicans were a proud people and they wouldn't negotiate. they never won a battle but they never negotiated until the very end, and the war drged on for two years and became a major, major issue. >> do you remember how much it cost this country and how many lives might have been lost? >> i have it in the book. i think the lives might have been -- i probably shouldn't say but i think it's in the book. somewhere in the neighborhood of 17,000 lives, many of them through disease. >> what was the population then, the country, do you remember? >> population. that's in the book, also. i believe the population of the united states at that time would have been somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 million. but again, i'm not good at remembering figures anymore. >> anymore? >> i used to be better. >> now that you're no longer doing this cq, what is your plan? >> i've been looking for another horse to ride and i think

zachary taylor made a cameo on " golden girls." james polk played the younger brother in "wild, wild west." >> you are absolutely right. one time i walked into a best buy and opened a microwave and bush was staring and spinning around the little thing saying, this is amazing. >> it is a joke you can return to. >> i feel like i physicalled it. like i fixed it. it could set off further culture are whats. "entourage" celebrates a lifestyle in which you want to go out and have sex or smoke a dubie. should a president actually bring the office of the presidency into that kind of a -- >> that's fair. >> i would watch "entourage" as they referred to smoking pot as smoking dubies. i would watch the crap out of that show. >> it would great if he wasn't the president and he was a hot dog vendor. like the next scene would be like, isn't that crazy 40u67 -- how much that hot dog vendor looks like president obama? >> and it would be one job he is actually qualified for. >> you are giving me the bait here. you are leaving out one added bonus. mo

william henry harrison, zachary taylor, andrew johnson, and of course the one answer that everybody didw, jimmy carter. none of them successfully named anyone to the high court. we'll be right back. you're watching "the daily rundown" only on msnbc. today i'm talking to people about walmart's low price guarantee. every week they lower thousands of prices and check over 30,000 competitor prices. check out that low price. you want to grab one? grab two. [ male announcer ] that's the walmart low price guarantee! see for yourself how much it can save you. but sometimes i wonder... what's left behind? [ female announcer ] purifying facial cleanser from neutrogena® naturals. removes 99% of dirt and toxins without dyes, parabens or harsh sulfates. so skin feels pure and healthy. [ female announcer ] from neutrogena® naturals. woman: what do you mean, homeowners insurance doesn't cover floods? [ heart rate increases ] man: a few inches of water caused all this? [ heart rate increases ] woman #2: but i don't even live near the water. what you don't know about flood insurance may shock you -- inc

west of the mississippi river, is major general, two stars, richard taye hour, son of president zachary taylor. brother-in-law through his first marriage of president jefferson davis. graduate of yale, tremendously intelligent. one of the finest tactical commanders that the confederates have in the war. kirby smith and richard taylor do not get along. every time kirby smith does something that taylor believes is dumb, he tattles on him. taylor spent his time getting ready. he's built supply depots with the help of a creole black man named carol jones in western louisiana. and he can supply his forces if they can get to them. and as banks and porter come up the river, taylor has ordered his far-flung forces -- and they are far-flung always way from the mississippi river across north louisiana and also in texas all the way from the texas line just west of shreveport down to the bay -- everybody gets together, come, it's a gathering. so it takes a while for these forces to come. they're resupplied. they're ready. nobody believed that the yankees could move that quickly, and they did. and so every