Today In History: Obama Shapes Health Policy Team, 1876 Election Forfeited To Hayes

March 2, 2017, is the 61st day of the year, with 304 days remaining. The moon is in a waxing crescent phase, with illumination at 18 percent.

President Hayes Wins 1876 Election; Tilden Wins Popular Vote

The presidential election of 1876 saw the rise of two major candidates: Rutherford B. Hayes, a Republican, and Samuel J. Tilden, a Democrat. The votes were in, and initial returns seemed to indicate a victory in Tilden's favor, who won the popular vote with 4,284,020 votes against Hayes' 4,036,572. Tilden's 184 electoral votes were still one vote short of a majority, with Hayes' 165 electoral votes leaving the would-be president 20 ballots from a win.

Those 20 electoral votes — one from Oregon and 19 from three southern states retaining Republican-controlled electoral boards — remained disputed. Both parties, however, claimed victory, and both parties submitted respective lists detailing accusations of fraud, violence, intimidation or other acts against their opponent. Controversy persisted for months, but in the end, on the eve of the inauguration on March 5, 1877, a resolution was realized, and the Congress-appointed Electoral Commission broke the deadlock in Hayes' favor.

Obama Names New Team to Run Health Policy for Administration

Following the announcement of President Obama's nomination for secretary of Health and Human Services, with Gov. Kathleen Sebelius emerging as the president's pick, additional names were selected to join in a show of formidable talent, but on this day in 2009, distinctions of authority were not clear.

Obama appointed Nancy-Ann DeParle to coordinate health policy for his administration, heightening her to the role of counselor to the president as well as director of the White House Office of Health Reform. Then-Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said of negotiations with Congress on health care, "A lot of people who work in this building and in different agencies will be involved."

Gibbs went on to comment that while DeParle would head health care reform, negotiations would allow for "the entire economic team" to be involved.

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Photo credit: Pete Souza, Executive Office of the President of the United States (2009)