Talk:Warren G. Harding

Moved here from article

Trivia

• Harding is the only U.S. president to be elected on his birthday, November 2 (it was his 55th).
• Harding is the only president since the "Era of Good Feelings" to win his first term with more than 60% of the popular vote. Since 1920, only Franklin Roosevelt (1936), Lyndon Johnson (1964), and Richard Nixon (1972) have won more than 60% of the popular vote, but all three were incumbents.
• Harding was the first U.S. President to ride to his inauguration in an automobile.
• Harding was the first U.S. President to speak on the radio and have one in the White House.
• Harding is the only President to have been an active Rotarian. He attended the Washington, D.C. Club and addressed the 1923 Rotary International Convention in St. Louis, MO.
• Harding was known to host poker games at the White House. A legend has it that Harding once lost a set of White House china that had belonged to President Benjamin Harrison; White House historians have since debunked that myth. [1]
• Norman Thomas, founder of the American Civil Liberties Union and longtime Socialist Party candidate for president, held a childhood job as a newsboy for Harding's Marion Daily Star, where he was supervised by Florence Harding.
• Harding's political rise is discussed in Malcolm Gladwell's book, "Blink". Gladwell attributes Harding's success and popularity to his commanding physical appearance, genial personality and deep gravelly speaking voice, which caused people to overlook or forgive his lack of competence. Gladwell called this the "Harding Factor." (Gladwell also credits Ohio "kingmaker" Harry Daugherty for much of Harding's success, but attributes Daugherty's interest to his perception of Harding's presence as well.)
• The School on the early 1990s Nickelodeon show, "The Adventures of Pete & Pete," was Warren G. Harding High
• Harding is the subject of the song "Warren Harding" by singer-songwriter Al Stewart on his album Past, Present and Future.
• Corruption in the Harding Administration is investigated by H.L. Mencken and James M. Cain in Roy Hoopes' novel, Our Man in Washington.
• Harding had the largest feet of any U.S. President. He wore size 14 shoes.
• In the PC game, Civilization IV, one receives a score at the end of games. One of them is a comparison with one of humanity's leaders, with Harding being the 3rd worst score that one can get.
• Despite the fact that Prohibition made it illegal, Harding served his friends alcohol.
• Harding nicknamed his own penis "Jerry", and his love letters to Mrs. Phillips repeatedly mention "excited conversations" between President Harding and Jerry. (Source: Over 100 love letters from Pres. Harding were released to the public in 2014, the nickname "Jerry" is mentioned dozens of times.)

The Harding's Photos

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Lead is POV

The lead is too long, and it reads like a Harding campaign advertisement.John Paul Parks (talk) 15:04, 6 April 2013 (UTC)

Have you any specific suggestions to improve matters? William Avery (talk) 12:26, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

I think it has become unbalanced. Someone seems to have got an agenda to rescue Harding's reputation, but they've overdone it, and the favourable comments are out of proportion. Valetude (talk) 05:29, 25 May 2013 (UTC)

I think I have straightened it out for the most part, though I did not really focus on length. POV flag removed. Hoppyh (talk) 14:20, 15 June 2013 (UTC)

In my opinion there needs to be some correction in the assessment of Harding such as John W. Dean's book on Warren G. Harding (2004). Harding himself was not personally involved in the finincial corruption. 03:50, 26 May 2014 (UTC)

I reworked the lede. Note that POV means giving too much attention to offbeat views, and that does not happen here. John Dean is amusing--he is not a historian and got the assignment because he was a leader of corruption under Nixon -- then he talked to Congress. America demands that presidents take a vigorous proactive stance regarding corruption. Not knowing about it is a very poor excuse (see Obama and the VA today). Rjensen (talk) 04:13, 26 May 2014 (UTC)

I am taking a risk here. Respectfully, the George W. Bush article barely mentions the massive cost of the Iraq War, loans from China, corporate profiteering, nor Bush or his administration allegedly misleading the people about weapons of mass destruction. Why do some Presidents get better treatement then other Presidents? Theodore Roosevelt had massive corruption in his administration but nobody talks about that. For that matter James Buchanan had massive corruption in his Presidency. Again no mention. The Abraham Lincoln administration started the Crédit Mobilier, a company that had massive fraud, and there is no mention of this in Lincoln's article. Cmguy777 (talk) 21:02, 26 May 2014 (UTC)

Another issue is that the American people can not directly vote for the Presidency. The Electoral college votes for the Presidency so the candidates tend to campaign in states where there is the highest electoral vote. Such as Kennedy in Texas and the TFX fighter program. Cmguy777 (talk) 21:05, 26 May 2014 (UTC)

Our job is to report what the RS actually say. I don't believe that "Theodore Roosevelt had massive corruption in his administration" --it certainly odd that his opponents (Parker, Taft, Wilson, Debs) overlooked it, and all those historians as well. The Repuiblicans made a HUGE deal out of corruption under Buchanan. Rjensen (talk) 22:59, 26 May 2014 (UTC)

Good discussion. By the way Rjensen, your editing on the Warren G. Harding lede looks great! Reform seems hard to come by in Washington D.C. Party politics and a spoils system of some sort always seem to get in the way. Cmguy777 (talk) 00:51, 27 May 2014 (UTC)

Raising Harding to Master Mason

As I understand, Harding had been initiated years ago, but failed to advance due to a member of his lodge blocking him from moving on-- not a normal happening, but not totally unheard of. I think I read in a biography this might have been because the member believed rumors of Harding's possible African-American ancestry. Anyway, with Harding's national profile, it became embarrassing to the Masons that he hadn't been allowed to take his degrees (to be considered a full member of freemasonry, you must be a Master Mason), so the black-balling member absented himself, and the advancement occurred. Does someone have access to something that can be referred to for the story? The current sentence doesn't quite capture the subtlety of the situation.PhilD86 (talk) 23:32, 2 August 2013 (UTC)

Burial

'Their remains were re-interred December 20, 1927, at the newly completed Harding Memorial in Marion in 1931.'

Something wrong here. I believe they were re-interred somewhere else, before being re-re-interred at the Memorial. Valetude (talk) 14:56, 5 May 2014 (UTC)

PS - 'Until the completion of the Harding Tomb, her body lay with that of her husband in the common receiving vault at Marion's city cemetery.' Valetude (talk) 23:57, 6 May 2014 (UTC)

Hurray for Allan Nevins

I am delighted that Cmguy777 added Allan Nevins / Dictionary of American Biography. Nevins for 50 years has been my #1 favorite historian. Rjensen (talk) 06:57, 27 May 2014 (UTC)

Your welcome Rjensen! Malone put in charge Nevins of Harding's biography! A bold move! In reading the article Nevins is actually fair to Harding and gives allot of insight into his adminstration. Cmguy777 (talk) 14:04, 27 May 2014 (UTC)

Here are some brief biographies of Malone and Nevins Cmguy777 (talk) 14:18, 27 May 2014 (UTC)

• 175 Makers of History: Dumas Malone
• Allan Nevins