Why was Warren G. Harding 1 of the 10 worst president?

Answer 1

BECAUSE HE WAS STUPID

Wow, what an uneducated comment.

An ok answer would be that he appointed some corrupt friends to cabinet positions who inflicted embarassing scandals on his administration. He was also a womanizer, a quality shared with far more presidents than is well known.

However, the best answer is, was he really so bad? Consider that his adminstration inherited a horrible recession, with unemployment reaching 12% at the start of his administration in 1921, and began one the greatest periods of economic prosperity in US history, with unemployment dropping to under 3% by the time he died in 1923. It was not accident, Harding and the Republican congress cut taxes and government spending in half.

Harding was also a civil rights advocate. He reversed the Wilson era restrictions on African-Americans in Federal jobs and made a speech advocating fair jobs opportunities for blacks in of all places Birmingham Alabama, stating that democracy would always be a sham until they received full equality in education, employment, and political life.

Why is he consistently ranked near the bottom? While the ostensible reason was his scandals, possibly the real reason was the Democratic party's use of his rumored multi-racial ancestry for political reasons, as he may have had some distant black and Native-American forebears. What is certain is that his family fought for the Union in the Civil War and were longtime Ohio abolitionists. That didn't go over well, especially in the Democratic party's core Southern constituency of the time.

Answer 2

He appointed some corrupt friends to cabinet positions who inflicted embarassing scandals on his administration. He was also a womanizer, a quality shared with far more presidents than is well known. That is the given reason by most historians. They also considered him unintelligent.

While the given reason is his scandals, possibly the real reason was the Democratic party's use of his rumored multi-racial ancestry for political reasons, as he may have had some distant black and Native-American forebears. What is certain is that his family fought for the Union in the Civil War and were longtime Ohio abolitionists. That didn't go over well, especially in the Democratic party's core Southern constituency of the time.

But was he really so bad? Consider that his adminstration inherited a horrible recession in the wake of WW1, with unemployment reaching 12% at the start of his administration in 1921, and began one the greatest periods of economic prosperity in US history, with unemployment dropping to under 3% by the time he died in 1923. It was not accident, Harding and the Republican congress cut taxes and government spending in half.

Harding was also a civil rights advocate. He reversed the Wilson era restrictions on African-Americans in Federal jobs and made a speech advocating fair jobs opportunities for blacks in of all places Birmingham Alabama, stating that democracy would always be a sham until they received full equality in education, employment, and political life.