Thursday, November 02, 2006

Happy Birthday Warren!

It is Warren G. Harding's birthday today. He was born Nov. 2, 1865 and died while in office in 1923. Although the country deeply mourned Harding, soon after his death tales of corruption in his administration began making newspaper headlines. Ever since, historians have ranked Harding as the worst president in history.

Dr. History, however, has a prescription to get Harding out of the historical basement. It is time for a bit of revisionism.

Let us take the main charges against Harding and see if we can spin them:

1. Unable to stand up to his corrupt friends
  • Loyal man, who remember those who got him to the top.
2. Stupid
  • Not an intellectual snob
3. Took too much of a laissez-faire attitude about running the country
  • Able to delegate authority to experts
4. Too fond of big business
  • Valued private enterprise
5. Unfaithful
  • Open to new experiences
6. A drinker (during Prohibition no less)
  • Far-sighted

Now how can any man you can describe as far-sighted, open and loyal ever be voted America's worst president?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Actually, most people would rank Buchanan below Harding as the worst (pre-1968) President. Since then, of course, we have Nixon and the Bushes.

Prup (aka Jim Benton)