General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Trump's worst fear is that he will be compared to Herbert Hoover... [View all]ITAL
(1,475 posts)(And I've read two or three bios of him through the years)
Harding seemed more of a well meaning doofus than a crook. Most people said he wasn't the most intelligent guy, but he was great at retail politics and the back slapping sorta thing that was big a century ago. He could give a good speech without really saying anything ("I don't know much about Americanism, but it's a damn good word with which to carry an election." ) And it's not like he didn't have some noteworthy accomplishments in the White House. Along with his Secretary of State, Charles Evans Hughes, the US under Harding spearheaded a disarmament treaty that tried to limit the sizes of the largest Navies in the world. It was a great coup for his administration, though about a decade later most of the signatories were again building up their battle fleets thanks to Germany and Japan.
On the domestic front, Harding successfully steered the country out of the postwar recession. The steel industry had lagged behind the adoption of an 8 hour work day that the railroad industry had gotten the ball rolling on, but a harsh letter from the President to the chairman of US Steel was printed in the press and caused such an outcry, "big steel" finally came along. He at least tried to help African Americans as Harding openly called for more to be done to help them, especially in regard to allowing them to be able to vote. Obviously that went nowhere, but it at least showed his heart was in the right place (he also criticized the Tulsa Race Massacre in multiple speeches).
He was actually quite popular while he was alive since most of the scandals broke AFTER he died.