The Centennial of the Harding Presidency

100 years ago today, Warren Harding was inaugurated as President. Even after a century his reputation is largely that of an incompetent surrounded by crooks, but that is a falsehood historians have been trying to rectify for years.

The "Tea Pot Dome scandal" seems to have been partially a frame up, as in retrospect it turned on the word of a now- known perjurist. And many of the "truths" about the era, from a distance, appear as blatant political attacks. Harding was an adulterer and Prohibition wasn't exactly taken seriously under his Justice Dept, but c'est la vie. 

Here's what is not in dispute: Harding spoke out for Civil Rights and vigorously, if unsuccessfully, pursued a federal anti-lynching law (FDR, for the record, opposed one as President.) He negotiated a successful naval treaty, released political prisoners taken under Wilson, expanded the nation's use of radio, was the first President to visit Canada, established the Budget Office that is still in use today, and got the country out of a Recession through the use of said Budget Office. 

Not a great President. But not a bad one either. 

Happy Anniversary President Harding!