Side Burns

Just a fun one...although there's really only John Quincy Adams, Chester Arthur and Martin Van Buren to pick from, I have to say Martin Van Buren wins.

Portraits

Okay, portraits from the National Portrait Gallery to prove the point:
Franklin Pierce
James Polk
John Kennedy

Runners Up

I have to say I think Polk and, as much as I don't want to, JFK - depending on the picture. Polk still has the stoic look even if he has funky hair.

FUN FACTS:
Polk (11th president, 1845-49) had a nickname of "Young Hickory." First president to serve the nation coast-to-coast and have his photograph taken!

JFK (35th president, 1961-63) was the youngest elected president and the first Catholic to serve. He won a Pulitzer Prize for Profiles in Courage. In a very weird sort of connection, he was shot on my dad's 16th birthday.

Looks alone runners up...?

While Katie and I agreed (though it's still up for debate) that Franklin Pierce won hands-down for looks alone, who would be the rest to round out the top three? Some of our thoughts included James K. Polk, John F. Kennedy, and Thomas Jefferson (all pictured below).

The criteria is that they must be good looking DURING their presidency. There've been quite a few that looked better either before or after (or both) their presidencies. Also, here are some potential categories worth exploring:

• Hottest president who is good looking because he's charismatic (possible examples: Teddy Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, Bill Clinton, John F. Kennedy...)
• President with the best beard
• President that looks the best in a powdered wig
• President that has aged the best and/or best old man
• Most unfortuante-looking presdient (cruel, I know... but we're all discussing it anyway)

Franklin Pierce

I'm going to put out there that Franklin Pierce (14th president, 1853-1857), by looks alone, is our hottest president. And here's the picture to add to that statement.

My mind could possibly be changed, however. We're not talking charisma - that's a whole other subject!

FUN FACTS: Franklin's brother, Benjamin, served at Fort Mackinac as a soldier and married Mdme. LaFramboise's daughter, Josette. He also gave his inaugural address completely from memory - no notes!

What the heck?!?

So the other night, Katie and I were enjoying some fruity beverages when Katie suddenly said, "Ok, top three hottest US Presidents ever." While being quite random, we started thinking and realized that it is truly a difficult question, as many of our nation's leaders have not been the most physically attractive men. We started discussing this question even more the next day and even started searching the internet for portraits. While online, we googled things like "hottest president," on the off-chance that some nerd like us had thought to ever comment on this on the web. Realizing the void of public debate on this question, we decided to create a blog to discuss the answer to our main question and others (who is the hottest president due to charisma? who has the best beard?) while providing general commentary on presidential portraits, etc. Hope you enjoy and please feel free to comment!