To some extent, his position is unique. Clinton is the first "young" ex-president barred from running again for the job by the 22nd amendment. The two previous men thus affected were Dwight Eisenhower, who was 70 when he left office, and Ronald Reagan, who was 76.
Of those who held the office before Clinton, eight died while president and another six within four years of leaving office. That leaves 26 men (27, if we count Cleveland twice) who have had time to pursue the activities of their choice after leaving the office. Ten of them continued to pursue active political careers, while 17 took other paths.
The first five presidents, all 65 or over when they left office, retired to their "farms" as the political model of their time called on them to do. The first "young" ex-president was John Quincy Adams, a sprightly 61 when he retired. He was elected to the House of Representatives two years after he left the presidency and served 17 years there as the leading anti-slavery exponent in that body, dying on the floor of Congress in 1848. He also, famously, was the lawyer for the slaves of the "Amistad" before the Supreme Court. Andrew Jackson, 70 when he retired, went back to his plantation, whence he served as a "gray eminence" for his party for another dozen years.
Martin Van Buren, defeated at 58 in 1840, was the front-runner for the Democratic nomination in 1844, but the slave-holders defeated him with the first "dark horse" candidate, James K. Polk. Infuriated, he ran as the third-party Free Soil candidate for president in 1848, thereby helping defeat the Democrats. John Tyler, 62, ended up serving in the Confederate Congress.
Millard Fillmore, 53, ran as the third-party "Know-Nothing" candidate for president in 1856. He carried Maryland. Franklin Pierce, a mere 52 when he left office, but a depressed alcoholic, did little in his retirement, which was also true of his 70-year-old successor, James Buchanan. Andrew Johnson, 60 when he left office, was elected to the Senate from his home state of Tennessee in 1875, but died before his term began.
As for U.S. Grant, he tried for a third term in 1880 but lost the nomination to "dark horse" James Garfield. At the convention, 306 of 756 delegates stuck with Grant even on the deciding 36th ballot, thus winning for themselves the name "Stalwarts."
Rutherford Hayes, 58, Benjamin Harrison, 59, and Grover Cleveland, 59 (his second term) all retired from politics after their presidencies. When Cleveland was defeated in his first re-run at a youthful 51, he did, of course, choose to run again four years later.
Theodore Roosevelt became the third former president to run as a third-party candidate on the Progressive ticket in 1912. Of course, TR was only 50 when he left the presidency, and had he not died in 1919, he almost certainly would have become president again in 1920. His one-time friend and later enemy William Howard Taft, 55 when he was defeated, became the only president (although not the only candidate for president) to become chief justice of the Supreme Court. Herbert Hoover, 58, wanted to be nominated again, but his party didn't want him. He later found a long career in public service, heading numerous government commissions.
Harry Truman, the man who brought Hoover back to Washington, was 67 when he left office. He actively, if generally unsuccessfully, endorsed candidates for the Democratic nomination but took no political positions himself. Richard Nixon, 61 when he resigned office, spent the decades after his political death trying, with mixed success, to rehabilitate his reputation. Gerald Ford, 63, turned to golfing.
Jimmy Carter, 56 – whose path has occasionally been cited as one both Clinton and Gore, in their different ways, might want to follow – built himself a new career as an advocate and informal diplomat. Ronald Reagan's retirement was overshadowed by Alzheimer's. George Bush Sr., 68, has had the pleasure of seeing the man who defeated him replaced by his own son, whom he jokingly calls "Quincy."
Age is definitely the major factor in predicting what ex-presidents will do. The average age of the 17 who did not further pursue office was 66; of the 10 who did, 56. All 11 former presidents aged 63 or over retired. Of those 58 or younger, only Pierce, Carter and Hayes did not pursue a further political career, and, as we know, Jimmy Carter remains a "player" in his non-political way.
So, even aside from Bill Clinton's restless and energetic personality, history tells us that he is likely to pursue a further political career of some kind.
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