To paraphrase Rickover: Lexingtons and Rangers don't vote.
Carriers are enormous, expensive projects. Picking names to curry favor with the politicians who turn the money spigot is just one way to help get them built. Same way that highway overpasses tend to get names for politicians. Hard to say when exactly it started, though my vote is with Carl Vinson.
I think it was the JFK that started the most recent trend.
Harry Truman was one of Bill Clinton's favorite presidents. Guess during whose administration the name for USS Harry S Truman was picked? Likewise Reagan, G.H.W. Bush and Ford - all names picked during a Republican administration.
Dunno who they'll pick if they get around to building a second Ford-class during Obama's administration. Lincoln was his favorite president and we've already got one of those.
I have wondered several times what they could name the next one and I am a bit of a loss. Almost all the Presidents that have been recently notable and are presently 'non-controversial' have been used, not leaving a whole lot of choices. I guess they could use Benjamin Franklin but what after that? My guess is one will be named the
Enterprise, at least if the guys at the top have any sense of history. I have noticed that most of the famous carrier names from WWII have not been used lately, not sure if it is by coincidence or on purpose, the only two that I can think of being used recently
Yorktown (CG) and
Wasp (LHD). The new
America-class LHA's might start using them though if the trend holds. Don't think we will ever get back to giving our warships the cool names the Royal Navy still does, the
HMS Victorious is a SSBN while the
USNS Victorious is an ocean surveillance ship. And nothing beats the
HMS Battleaxe.
