The political controversies surrounding Obama’s recent spate of recess appointments made us wonder how President Obama compares to other past presidents and their recess appointments. Looking at a simple bar chart graphing recess appointments since FDR, it’s not surprising to see that current complainants are taking a shortsighted approach to the issue. Click on the chart below to see a full-sized version.

UPDATE: As per some Facebook users’ suggestions, I’ve created a better chart that now controls for length of time in office. The chart below compares the presidents by ratio of days in office to total recess appointments. Quite a difference! Click to see a full-sized version:

(Thanks to Beth at the Senate Historical Office for sending over the data within minutes of my research request — impressive response time!)

As a side project, I’ve been compiling some raw data on women in the U.S. Congress: senators and representatives, committee chairs, party leaders, significant elections, et cetera. Just charting a stacked graph of women in Congress since 1789 clearly shows why history is such an obstacle to women in American politics — and why the U.S. can’t seem to reach even just 20 percent female representation in Congress.

Globally, the U.S. ranks 74th in percentage of women serving in parliaments or lower houses of Congress, sandwiched in between Turkmenistan and Albania (and ranking far below Bangladesh, Serbia, Eritrea, Afghanistan, Moldova, and Sudan, among others).

Check out the chart (click to enlarge):

“There is a magic in graphs. The profile of a curve reveals in a flash a whole situation – the life history of an epidemic, a panic, or an era of prosperity. The curve informs the mind, awakens the imagination, convinces.”

This is the first paragraph of the preface of Graphic Presentation, a 1939 book posted online recently by the National Archives. The book’s preface, entitled Magic in Graphs, was composed by Henry D. Hubbard, then Secretary of the National Bureau of Standards in Washington, DC. Hubbard’s description of the utility and beauty behind infographics is still just as relevant today as it was in 1939. The full page is posted below — definitely worth a read!

Click to enlarge: