Rush: Bill Clinton is the Warren G. Harding of Late 20th Century Presidents

Rush Limbaugh ^

[Recovering_Democrat]

Anyone else hear this comparison? I think he (or his friend who told him this) is on the right track. So much Pre-ceded impeached42 (fall of communism, Reagan Economic expansion, Gulf War) and so much will follow i42 (victory over terrorism, Social Security reform, Iraq's fall) that he will be forgotten just like Harding.

What say you, FREEPers?

[Budge]

Bill Who?

[Political Junkie Too]

From the Information Please Almanac: (my comments in [brackets} and bolding is mine)

Harding, Warren Gamaliel , 1865–1923, 29th President of the United States (1921–23), b. Blooming Grove (now Corsica), Ohio.

After study (1879–82) at Ohio Central College, he moved with his family to Marion, Ohio, where he devoted himself to journalism. He bought the Marion Star, built up the newspaper, and became a member of the small group that dominated local affairs.

He entered Ohio Republican politics and was (1899–1903) a member of the state legislature. Harding served as lieutenant governor (1904–5), but he was defeated (1910) as Republican candidate for governor. His talent for public speaking and his affable personality won Harding the support of the political leaders as well as of the people and enabled him to rise into national politics; he was picked to nominate William Howard Taft at the convention of 1912, and he was elected (1914) to the U.S. Senate.

His six-year stay in the Senate was undistinguished, for he followed the party whips [polls?] on domestic legislation and Henry Cabot Lodge on issues concerning the peace. In 1920, Harding was nominated for the presidency, largely through the efforts of a group of Senators, after successive balloting for Gen. Leonard Wood and Frank O. Lowden had deadlocked the Republican convention.[shades of Bush/Perot?] His vague pronouncements on the League of Nations and his noncommittal utterances in the campaign helped him to win the election, defeating the Democratic candidate, James M. Cox, by an impressive majority.

The administration that followed was marked by one achievement, the calling of the Washington Conference (see naval conferences). Harding, conscious of his own limitations, had promised to rely on a cabinet of “best minds,” but unfortunately he chose—along with more capable advisers—men who lacked any sense of public responsibility. At the time of the legislative deadlock of 1923 came rumors of scandals in the Veterans' Bureau [don't ask, don't tell?], in the Office of the Alien Property Custodian [alien or Elian?], and in the departments of the Interior [land grabs?] and Justice [Reno?]. In the midst of these rumors, Harding died suddenly (Aug., 1923) in San Francisco on his return from a journey to Alaska.

Thus he was not troubled by the exposure of the Teapot Dome scandal and was spared the humiliation of seeing his appointees Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall and Attorney General Harry M. Daugherty brought to the bar of justice. Lesser scandals were also exposed, and Harding's administration has been stigmatized as one of the most corrupt in American history.

-PJ

[Patriot]

The only thing next to Clinton's name will be IMPEACHED and the rest of his administration will be forgotten.

[scottiewottie]

Um... Harding while in office was caught "pining for the fjords" during a visit to San Francisco.

[GodBlessRonaldReagan]

Dilute! Dilute! O.K.!

[Soaring Feather]

The only thing next to Clinton's name will be IMPEACHED and the rest of his administration will be forgotten.

Agree 100%. Impeached

[christianswindler]

My point concerns the myopia that often surrounds judgments made by Mr. Limbaugh. His apparent strategy here was to belittle Clinton. That's all well and good, but why in the execution of that strategy does he gratuitously smear the memory of Harding, a conservative? After all, how hard is it to construct criticisms of Clinton? I suspect the reason that Limbaugh needlessly tarnished Harding is that Limbaugh has no idea who Harding was and just figures that no one else does either.

As you have demonstrated, there are similarities between Clinton and Harding. But, of course, there are similarities and differences between any two presidents.

As I suggested earlier, there are some similarities between Limbaugh and Goebbels, but if Limbaugh knew who Goebbels was, I think he might be offended by someone who gratuitously associated his name with Goebbels just to fortify a point.

Isn't that what I have just done? Go tell Limbaugh and tell him who Goebbels was. Maybe he'll learn something from this experience.

[ijcr]

Then, in 1923, with scandals breaking out all around him, the president fled Washington for a tour of the West and Alaska. On the return trip he became ill, and on August 2, he died in his San Francisco hotel room.

He was 58. The cause of death was reported as a stroke, but Harding had suffered food poisoning earlier in the trip. Later an agent for the Bureau of Investigation published a report claiming that Florence had poisoned the president.

But no one could ever prove it. Mrs. Harding had refused to have an autopsy done on her husband.

Bill is going to have watch his meals when Hillary is in town.

[Political Junkie Too]

Do you really think that he's gratuitiously smearing Harding? Are you implying that the comments regarding Harding are untrue? If not, then what is the smear that Limbaugh is saying?

I think of smears as the kind of commentary that was directed at Jefferson in an attempt to divert attention away from Clinton's womanizing. Harding's legacy is centered around his political scandals, and it isn't a smear to recount them.

-PJ

[christianswindler]

Do you really think that he's gratuitiously smearing Harding? Are you implying that the comments regarding Harding are untrue? If not, then what is the smear that Limbaugh is saying?

Limbaugh may be ignorant of history, but like Goebbels, he is a skilled propagandist. He knows that all political attacks at their root involve creating an association between the target and a person, place or thing that is unflattering to be associated with. In this case, Mr. Limbaugh's target is Bill Clinton.

I ask then, given that there exists a nearly infinite supply of persons, places and things in the present and past that it might be unflattering for Bill Clinton to be associated with, why did Limbaugh choose to associate Clinton with a conservative? It is this kind of myopia that I am protesting.

[arcane]

I didn't click on your source, but it sounds like an introduction to the book, The Shadow of Blooming Grove, the definitive biography of Harding. The "Shadow" referred to in the title is the suspicion that Harding was partly black. Harding, indeed, may have been our "first black president."

[Political Junkie Too]

The entry at www.biography.com for Harding mentions that he adhered to conservative Republican policies (as the reason for his nomination for President). Other than that, I don't what definition of conservative applied back then (I thought modern conservatism was defined by William Buckley in the 1960s).

Anyway, I think that it's more of a coincidence that Limbaugh was comparing Clinton to a (old-style) conservative; Limbaugh was comparing Clinton to another president with a widely agreed-upon scandal-ridden administration. The conservative link, to me, is incidental.

-PJ

[mountaineer]

I just did a google search and found that snippet, so I wasn't familiar with the source, but had remembered from other sources Harding's womanizing and out-of-wedlock child (very Clintonian!)

[PISANO]

I have already FORGOTTEN him. However, I doubt he will be forgotten by history. He is loved by 92+ % of blacks and about the same percentage of history professors, as well as 80% of the gimmiecraps and their liberal mates in the alternate lifestyles community.......... No way they will forget him. He is their TORCH, their beacon for the way this country "SHOULD BE".

[JDGreen123]

Great book on the 1920's and Harding: Only Yesterday

I read it a couple of years ago and was amazed at how much the 20's and 90's were alike:

A crooked President (had a bag man, mistress, secret closet in the White House to be with mistress, domineering wife, but came across as a "man of the people.")

The 20's also saw a sharp drop in morality. (Much like the 90's)

Radio was invented and people stayed up late (3 AM) listening to radio and staggering in to work the next day. (sounds like some of my nights on the internet)

The US was coming out of the Great War to end all wars. Everyone was happy and wanted to party. (like post-Gulf War America).

The stock market craze consumed America before the great bust. (once again like the 90's).

Automobiles became available to the masses. Young people would take off to towns where no one knew them and behave badly. (90's spring breaks)

The scary part is, if history is repeating itself, then we are in the early 1930's again and we have 10-15 years of heck in front of us.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

Bill who??

[Remole]

I am aware that I cannot prove this anecdote, but I assure you all that I raised this comparison THE VERY NIGHT OF CLINTON'S FIRST ELECTION TO OFFICE. As the first couple danced with the second couple, I turned to my wife and said, "what fresh hell have we elected now? Some day our children will throw it up into our faces that we elected this man. He will go down in history as the most inconsequential and corrupt president since Harding."

I said that. I really did.