My Third and FINAL Installment Regarding Warren G. Harding

Sometimes it takes more than one post to work through a thought, I guess. This has been the case with President Harding and me. Visit the American Presidents Blog here for part one and here for part two before reading my final thoughts over there.

Here’s a teaser:

During my research I came across some interesting quotes concerning Warren G. Harding. They made me think not so much about Harding’s character but how presidents are elected and how ‘we the people’ buy into myths. Different biographies I reviewed made me think about the state of the nation after the horrors of World War I and a country that was about to undergo huge shifts in society.

In his book The Available Man (1965) by Andrew Sinclair he contends that “Warren G. Harding became the most notorious president in American history because the myths that had formed him were not adequate to meet with the power and responsibility of the president during the First World War.”

Sinclair clarifies his point further:

“These myths, which formed Harding and in which he mostly believed made him the available man [for] the Republican party…. There were myths of the Country Boy, of the Self Made Man, of the Presidential State, of the Political Innocent of the Guardian Senate, of America First, of the Reluctant Candidate, of the Dark Horse, of the Smoke-Filled Room, of the Solemn Referendum, and of the Best Minds."

Go on...you've come this far with me...click on over to American Presidents Blog. :)