Hmmm…
I remember inflation, the misery index, long lines at gas stations, and the Iranian hostage crisis.
There’s a reason Reagan trounced his butt.
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Harding’s biggest weakness is that rather than surrounding himself with the most able Cabinet available, he appointed a lot of his buddies from Ohio, the so called “Ohio Gang.”
These guys were corrupt as all get out, especially Albert Fall.
To be completely fair:
Quote: There is no information that proves that Harding knew of the scandals that were going on during his time in office. He may not have learned much of it until the eve of his death. Fall was mainly responsible for the Teapot Dome scandal and was eventually jailed for taking bribes. Later President Coolidge forced the resignation of Daugherty for the same crimes.
But remember. A President is ultimately responsible for everything that happens in his administration, even if he wasn’t personally involved. Good Presidents have the judgment to surround themselves with the best Cabinet possible.
Harding’s mistress was also a bad look. It is well known that Harding’s marriage was not a happy one. He often referred to his domineering wife as “the Duchess.”
I remember well that summer. I had to go with my grandpa to get in line at the gas station on the odd or even days, while my parents had to car pool with the other car. Lucky for us, our cars had an odd and even plate. It was f’n hot waiting in the line.
Extramarital affairs? Pfft. Clinton, JFK, LBJ, FDR - I feel certain I left out several more - made him look like a Mormon. The Teapot Dome scandal is more serious matter, to be sure. On a par with . . . well, I’ll just say “Clinton” and call it a day. A number of members of Harding’s cabinet was competent, even stellar: Herbert Hoover (Commerce), Charles Evans Hughes (State), Andrew Mellon (Treasury).
I don’t know if you read my post, Carter inherited inflationary pressures from the refusal of the government to raise taxes to pay for the Viet Nam war, Johnson and Nixon and Ford, they just turned on the printing presses to pay for it. Wasn’t Reagan it was Volger the Fed Chairman who cured inflation, by raising interest rates to all time historical highs which produced massive unemployment the highest since the great depression. I don’t see Reagan help create a peace treaty like Cater between 2 bitter enemies. He was to busy selling arms to the Iranians same government who kidnapped our embassy personnel
Let’s see, under his watch we had runaway inflation, “malaise,” and the Iranian hostage crisis. Can you explain what was great about his presidency?
If you don’t understand the peace he brokered between Israel and Egypt not much I can tell you, if you can’t understand his resistance in going to war with Iran when others were pushing for us to do so, I can’t help you.
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It’s a little worse in Harding’s case, because he also happened to KNOCK UP his liaison.
See here:
That’s the product of his extramarital affair while in office. DNA tests ultimately confirmed Harding’s paternity.
That, AND the fact that she was more than THIRTY years younger than Harding, and wasn’t his first extra-marital affair, is a pretty bad look.
That said, his Cabinet was VERY corrupt. Consider the following:
Albert Fall, Secretary of the Interior and architect of the Teapot Dome scandal. Convicted of accepting bribes; became the first Cabinet Member ever to do time in prison for crimes committed while in office. Ohio Gang Member.
Harry Daugherty, Attorney General. Harding’s appointed Alien Property Custodian, COL Thomas Miller, was indicted, together with Daugherty, for defrauding the government. Miller was convicted. Daugherty had a hung jury, but it is acknowledged that $50K was deposited in a joint account he had with Miller, and his reputation was forever destroyed. Ohio Gang Member.
Charles Forbes, Veteran’s Bureau Chief. Defrauded the government on Veteran hospital construction costs though graft. Harding allowed him to resign and flee to Europe to escape any backlash, but he was later tried and convicted of conspiracy and did two years in prison.
That’s a lot of corruption within such a short-lived administration.
That said, Harding did have some noteworthy accomplishments on arms reduction, etc.
That is indeed often overlooked.
One interesting tidbit about Harding. Al Jolson wrote a campaign song for him. See here:
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As great as that ONE accomplishment may be, it does NOT outweigh Carter’s many other FAILURES, that we have all described here.
Not to mention that failed rescue attempt in Iran that got a lot of people killed, and which Carter carried out over the SCREAMING objections of his SECDEF.
His SECDEF ended up resigning in protest after that. See here, lest you have forgotten.
Simply not the place or time.
Vance was a dove he thought Carter was being aggressive towards Iran which would lead to conflict. Somebody you would criticize today as being a softy, but you’ll use him to make your point even though I believe you are no fan of Vance based on your hyper aggressive views about using the military to solve all matters. Between us and our potential adversaries. At least Carter tried , it wasn’t Cater failure it was the militaries, without causing a war, no shame in failure, after the failure of that mission, the Pentagon did an assessment of the failure of that special ops, and what went wrong. . Which lead to the successful raid and killing of Osama Bin laden decades later. Sometimes from failure comes success.
Uhhhhh…
Come on now.
The OBL raid was more than THIRTY YEARS after that.
The two were NOT connected. They had nothing to do with each other, and anything related to one did NOT contribute to the success of the other.
Carter sucked.
Just remember inflation, the misery index, the energy crisis, the long lines at gas stations and alternate fuel up days…the Iranian hostage crisis, and the failed rescue attempt.
It all adds up to one thing: FAILURE in office.
Law need to go to do your homework on how the Iran hostage rescue mission, affected the Pentagon and how it conducted special ops missions and how the Pentagon was determined to make sure such missions did not fail in the future. Your sure you was a colonel in the army?
That failure did indeed lead to some changes in our joint staffing functions and other improvements.
But to attribute a raid’s success 30 years later to that?
Come on now.
As a former professional Soldier, I call BS.
So you admit the truth reluctantly. To say it’s BS shows your full of BS, which why some people question your credibility
I didn’t “admit” anything.
I acknowledged that we did make some positive changes as a result of Carter’s FAILURES.
But that had NOTHING to do with the success of the OBL raid.
As I said, as a MILITARY PROFESSIONAL…I call BS.
Double, triple quadriple down, doesn’t matter too me. People can read and see for themselves that you allow your ego satisfaction to be the driving force for yourself, and not getting to the truth of matters
As someone who took “History of Joint Forces Command” while in graduate school at the US Army Command and General Staff College, I’ve FORGOTTEN more about this topic than YOU will ever know.
Trust me. NOTHING Carter did led to the success of the OBL mission.
That’s really sad revisionist history on your part.
Had NOTHING to do with Carter.
OTOH, the failed rescue attempt had EVERYTHING to do with Carter, as Commander in Chief going against the advice of the SECDEF.
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He had that right to go against the whatever. That’s what Commander in Chief do. As I recall there was another President who went against the advice of his military Commanders, he did quite well in preserving the Union, oh Kennedy did to as well where his military Commanders wanted to bomb the Soviet missiles in Cuba, thank God l, he didn’t listen to them. Like to entertain you more Law, but I got blinds to hang in my home. Ta ta!
Sometimes it’s good to go against the recommendations of your staff.
And other times it isn’t.
That time…it WASN’T!!!
That FAILURE, like the others we’ve listed, was ALL on Carter.
And is good example of the overall FAILURE of his administration.