President Bill Clinton is a habitual reader of presidential biographies, attempting to learn how his presidency might compare with those of the past. The presidential life of Warren Gamaliel Harding might prove instructive reading. The strengths and weaknesses of no other American president so match those of William Jefferson Clinton as Harding, now judged by professional historians, not entirely fairly, as America’s worst president.
Although the Harding administration, from 1921 to 1923, has passed into our historical memory as a corrupt cesspool, and Harding himself as a facile womanizer, his administration had virtues that mirror politics today. At his sudden death in August 1923, Harding was a much-admired figure, and for some the greatest president since Lincoln.
It was widely assumed that Harding would have been re-elected in the 1924 elections, even though several scandals had already been revealed and a political crony had committed suicide under mysterious circumstances. Harding was widely liked as a convivial fellow and made a sustained attempt to connect with the public. He genuinely liked people.
In contrast to Woodrow Wilson, Harding’s predecessor, Harding could feel people’s pain. In contrast to many of his predecessors and successors, Harding cared about civil liberties and race relations (his opponents whispered that he was of mixed-race ancestry) and gave a brave speech in Montgomery, Ala., calling for an end to economic, political and educational discrimination. Like Clinton, Harding was an energetic orator, speaking at length, in a florid style that he labeled “bloviating.”
During the Harding administration the economy boomed, and the president reduced the national debt, cut taxes and created the Bureau of the Budget. America was at peace during the period and the administration negotiated the first arms reduction conference in history, limiting the size of navies. Further, although we recall the poor choices for Harding’s Cabinet, many of the major Cabinet departments, including the departments of State, Treasury and Commerce, were filled with highly able figures, “the best minds” of the era. Harding, like Clinton, was a gregarious, compassionate human being, well-liked as a person. He appointed many able figures, and led the nation into an era of peace, prosperity and public confidence.
Yet there was a darker side to the Harding administration. Although not revealed at the time, Harding had affairs both while he was president and before, including an encounter in a White House closet. Florence Harding was a dominating, cold, imperious woman, and the president looked elsewhere for comfort. If Harding never smoked marijuana, he certainly violated Prohibition with enthusiasm. His investments, often based on tips supplied by friends and associates, always seemed to turn out poorly.
Of course, central to our memory of the Harding administration is the character of those with whom he surrounded himself. “The Ohio Gang,” the moniker for Harding’s friends and associates from small-town Ohio, frequently led him into trouble. These regional cronies seemed sleazy according to national standards. Perhaps Harding’s bon mot might echo today in the White House corridors, “I have no troubled with my enemies, but my God-damn friends, they’re the one’s that keep me walking the floor nights.”
Yet Harding’s enemies (a vast left-wing conspiracy?) certainly contributed to the tarnishing of the president’s reputation. The Teapot Dome scandal, in which the secretary of the interior was bribed to sell oil leases (of which Harding knew nothing), was pushed first by the environment lobby that objected to the pro-development policies of the Republicans and later by Democratic lawmakers and journalists. American presidents are always attacked by their political opponents; that is how the game is played. Politics is hardball, and reputation is what is at stake.
We do not know how the scandals that swirl around President Clinton will end. However, should they lead to Clinton’s resignation, the question for starchy and upright Al Gore is the same as it was for Calvin Coolidge: Should I embrace my now-disgraced predecessor or should I distance myself as far as possible, preserving my own political career? Coolidge’s choice to turn his back on the memory of President Harding led to the solidification of Harding’s reputation as America’s worst president and to the election of President Coolidge. Will history repeat itself?
