Presidential Celebrity Doppelgangers

Okay... this is what happens when you have too much time on your hands. I ran George Washington's picture through a face recognition program that claims to match pictures up to their celebrity look-alikes. The results were surprising. Apparently the celebrity that most looks like Washington is Takeshi Kitano - the 5' 5" Japanese actor and director. Who would have guessed?



Of course, once I got started down this path I couldn't just stop with Washington. Therefore, I loaded up a picture of Abraham Lincoln into the face recognition program and what do you know - out popped Jean-Michel Jarre - the French composer and music producer. Yuck.



I decided to give it one more shot and put in a picture of Warren G. Harding - reputedly one of America's best looking presidents - and imagine my surprise to discover that if Yitzhak Rabin and Madonna had ever had a child, he would look a lot like Harding.

I would also like to know what Bill Clinton and John Ashcroft would think about being 68% celebrity matches for Harding.

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?