The 29th U.S. President

 

Warren Harding

Born: November 2, 1865

Died: August 2, 1923

Term in Office: 1921-1923

 

Decades before the Orange Man who ran in 2016 and took that election (forever tainting my faith in the general public's collective wisdom), this man was the "MANA" president...(Make America Normal Again). In the first presidential campaign following World War I, Harding promised to return the country to "normalcy." Getting back to "normal," in this Republican's terms, meant achieving all the standard Republican goals: higher tariffs to protect U.S. products, lower business taxes, and a huge reduction in the number of immigrants allowed into the country (in Harding's case, he targeted folks from eastern and southern Europe).

Harding achieved those things in '21 and '22, plus, and this is considered his most important presidential accomplishment, he and Secretary of State Charles Hughes hosted an international conference that focused on major world powers halting the arms race, at least in regard to the production of large naval vessels. (This was decades before the threat of nuclear annihilation, remember.)

The year 1923 proved to be very bad for our man Warren. Scandals, which were largely kept from the American public at the time, plagued the administration. His director of the Veterans Bureau was discovered to be profiting from the sales of government medical supplies to private businesses. The president allowed him to flee the country to escape prosecution. Within the next three months two members of the administration had committed suicide – the general counsel of the Veterans Bureau and the attorney general's private secretary.

Harding's health and well-being was suffering from the stress of all this bad news, and he took a trip to Alaska for some healing. On the way back, coming through San Francisco, he fell ill and died within a couple of days, the victim of stroke or heart attack, it is believed.

The nation mourned for their fallen commander-in-chief for a time, and then the scandals were made public; those that are mentioned above and several more, including the Teapot Dome affair, in which the secretary of the interior profited from the transfer of oil reserves from the Navy to the Department of the Interior and subsequently accepted money and gifts from oil companies that were allowed to lease said reserves. Though Harding was never personally implicated in these scandals, he knew of them and didn't come forward to correct things.

Reports of drunkenness in the White House in those years of Prohibition didn't help his reputation, either.

One other revelation made public after his death was the fact that an extramarital affair from before his presidency resulted in the birth of a child. DNA results in 2015 confirmed that he was indeed the father.

So it's little wonder that this guy makes almost every list of 10 worst presidents. Too bad, as he seems to have been a pretty standup guy prior to taking that office.

Thanks to www.britannica.com for resource material.

Peace, everyone, and take care choosing with whom you associate.