This Presidential War episode settles the burning question that is on everyone's mind—who would have made a better president: George Washington's brother Lawrence Washington or James A. Garfield's son James R. Garfield? We also discuss Dolley Madison's accomplishments, Frances Cleveland's good looks, and how Abraham Lincoln might have fared if he had served as Attorney General.
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Golf is the unofficial presidential pastime and some presidential practitioners have been particularly passionate about hitting the links. Some have even been good at it, and we count down the best on this Top 5. (Fore!)
From publisher of the Marion Star newspaper to U.S. Senator from Ohio, Warren G. Harding's meteoric rise culminated in 1920 when he became the compromise candidate of a deadlocked Republican convention and trounced his Democratic opponent with a campaign promising a "Return to Normalcy." He inherited a terrible economy, high taxes, exploding debt, and a nation still wracked with tension from the First World War and subsequent Red Scare. When Harding's health gave out and he died after just two-and-a-half years in office, he left behind a humming economy and had turned a new page from the war years. But in the wake of his death, a parade of emerging corruption scandals involving some of his closest friends forever tarnished his legacy--not to mention the tell-all book published by a young woman who claimed he was the father of her child!
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| Marvel Whirling Spray Syringe – Knoxville Sentinel (Knoxville, TN) – November 12, 1922 |
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| Southland Sport brassieres for stout women – Burlington Free Press (Burlington, VT) – March 8, 1921 |
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| Burbank Electric Shop vacuum cleaner – Burbank Review (Burbank, CA) – March 24, 1922 |
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| Georgiana Chapman has left her husband – Burbank Review (Burbank, CA) – November 11, 1921 |
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| Frederick Chapman shoots his wife – Burbank Review (Burbank, CA) – November 25, 1921 |
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| Frederick Chapman escapes – Los Angeles Evening Express (Los Angeles, CA) – November 22, 1921 |
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| Frederick Chapman charged – Los Angeles Evening Express (Los Angeles, CA) – May 2, 1922 |
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| Frederick Chapman seeks reconciliation – Los Angeles Evening Express (Los Angeles, CA) – November 25, 1921 |
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| Georgiana Chapman seeks divorce – Los Angeles Record (Los Angeles, CA) – June 26, 1924 |
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| Russell & Co. manure – Fresno Morning Republican (Fresno, CA) – March 12, 1921 |
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| California Syrup of Figs children’s laxative – Norfolk Daily News (Norfolk, NE) – March 11, 1921 |
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| Mrs. Holmes reaching out to her niece – Boston Globe (Boston, MA) – March 9, 1921 |
This game of Presidential War comes down to the wire! The scintillating discussion topics include: Would we rather have William McKinley or George H.W. Bush dating our daughter? Would we rather have John Adams or Andrew Jackson defending us against murder charges? And an epic clash of titans: Would George Washington or Abraham Lincoln make the better Secretary of State?
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While some presidents' sons have achieved great things (two even becoming president themselves), others have lived tragic lives characterized by depression, scandal, substance abuse, and early death.
Born to Scots-Irish immigrants and raised in the Confederate South, Woodrow Wilson came into his own as a student at Princeton University. Armed with a Ph.D, he launched his career a historian and professor of political science and soon returned to Princeton, where he quickly became its most popular lecturer and was eventually named its president. His ambitious tenure garnered him national attention, and some Democratic party kingmakers saw him as an attractive candidate for national political office. Wilson had long harbored dreams of becoming a statesman, and in 1910 he allowed New Jersey's Democratic political machine to make him New Jersey's governor. Promptly repudiating the machine, he signed into law many progressive reforms and positioned himself to run for president in 1912. Up against a bitterly divided Republican party, Wilson coasted to an electoral college landslide victory. As president, he aggressively lobbied Congress to enact his New Freedom agenda (and turned a blind eye as his cabinet introduced widespread segregation into the federal bureaucracy), but his presidency reached a turning point in the summer of 1914 when the death of his wife coincided with the outbreak of the First World War in Europe. He resisted calls for the U.S. to enter the conflict and was re-elected in 1916 on the slogan "He Kept Us Out Of War," but in 1917 he felt forced to join the war in order to make the world "safe for democracy" (though his war effort was tinged by a sweeping suppression of civil liberties on the home front). Upon the Allied victory, Wilson hoped to shape a new world order with his idealistic Fourteen Points peace plan, but settled for a punitive peace propped up by a League of Nations. He failed to persuade a reluctant America to join the League and--after he suffered a debilitating stroke--his second wife led a conspiracy to hide his condition from the American people for the final year-and-a-half of his presidency. Clinging to fantasies of a third term, Wilson descended into bitterness and died soon after leaving office.
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| Clifford Titus’s wife has left – Brooklyn Times Union – Brooklyn, NY – April 11, 1913 |
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| Mrs. Titus responds – Brooklyn Times Union – Brooklyn, NY – April 14, 1913 |
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| Clifford Titus arrested – Brooklyn Daily Eagle – Brooklyn, NY – April 18, 1913 |
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| Clifford Titus acquitted – Brooklyn Daily Eagle – Brooklyn, NY – April 26, 1913 |
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| Debt collector Harry W. Worsham – Bixby Bulletin – Bixby, OK – March 28, 1913 |
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| Ewing Hotel wants chambermaids – Sioux City Journal – Sioux City, IA – September 2, 1914 |
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| Ewing Hotel is a house of prostitution? – Sioux City Journal – Sioux City, IA – May 23, 1915 |
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| Barnes Circus – The Brainerd Daily Dispatch – Brainerd, MN – July 3, 1919 |
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| Barnes Circus – The Bellingham Herald – Bellingham, WA – June 3, 1919 |
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| Barnes Circus – Star Tribune – Minneapolis, MN – July 6, 1919 |
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| Barnes Circus charged w/ staging lewd performance – Bismarck Tribune – Bismarck, ND – July 3, 1919 |
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| Barnes Circus “men only” sideshow – Jamestown Weekly Alert – Jamestown, ND – July 10, 1919 |
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| Lusitania + German warning – New York Tribune – New York, NY – May 1, 1915 |
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| Lusitania sunk – New York Times – New York, NY – May 8, 1915 |
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| Dr. O.A. Young cures strokes – The Gazette – Cedar Rapids, IA – June 15, 1915 |
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| Scranton Life Insurance Company – The Tribune-Republican – Scranton, PA – March 6, 1913 |
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The U.S. has never been forced to call upon presidential line of succession beyond the vice president, but it has been close many times. This episode delves into some of the craziest near-miss scenarios and considers some the wildest What Ifs in American history.
William Howard Taft is perhaps best known as the fattest president who allegedly got stuck in a bathtub, but this episode will show that he was much, much more than that. Taft followed in his eminent father's footsteps to become a Yale graduate, lawyer, and judge. His highest ambition was to join the U.S. Supreme Court, and President McKinley promised to appoint him--if he first agreed to serve as civil governor of the Philippines. After his friend Theodore Roosevelt became president upon McKinley's assassination, Taft would turn down multiple offers to join the Supreme Court so he could finish his work in the Philippines. As Secretary of War, his masterful administrative skills and lovable personality made him Roosevelt's closest advisor and chosen successor for the presidency in 1908. Though Taft still yearned for the Supreme Court, he found himself as our nation's 27th President. He quietly built an impressive record of tariff reform, fiscal responsibility, conservation, antitrust enforcement, and international economic expansion via "Dollar Diplomacy." But his judicial temperament lacked finely-tuned political instincts, and he lost the confidence of the growing progressive wing of the Republican party--which turned to the increasingly radical Roosevelt to challenge Taft in the 1912 election, splitting the party and handing the presidency to the Democrats. Taft went on to serve as a law professor at Yale until 1921, when President Harding floored him with an offer to become Chief Justice of the United States. Finally ensconced in his dream job, Taft would transform the federal judiciary like no Chief Justice since John Marshall.
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| Viola Miner funeral – La Crosse Tribune (La Crosse, WI) – March 5, 1909 |
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| Edmund J. Neuman funeral – La Crosse Tribune (La Crosse, WI) – July 2, 1910 |
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| Louise Dierkop funeral – La Crosse Tribune (La Crosse, WI) – August 12, 1910 |
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| William Horne dead – La Crosse Tribune (La Crosse, WI) – November 27, 1909 |
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| William Horne’s XXL coffin – La Crosse Tribune (La Crosse, WI) – November 30, 1909 |
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| Frank Graf dies using toe knife – La Crosse Tribune (La Crosse, WI) – April 1, 1910 |
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| Head crushed by train cars – La Crosse Tribune (La Crosse, WI) – March 25, 1909 |
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| Charles Zettel unclaimed – La Crosse Tribune (La Crosse, WI) – March 26, 1909 |
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| Charles Zettel buried as pauper – La Crosse Tribune (La Crosse, WI) – March 27, 1909 |
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| “The Old Reliable” First National Bank of Comanche – The American (Comanche, OK) – March 4, 1909 |
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| $500 Reward for John B. Campbell – The North Star (Britton, OK) – March 18, 1909 |
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| Campbell’s drunken note – El Reno Daily American (El Reno, OK) – March 17, 1909 |
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| Campbell says he’s sorry – Chickasha Daily Express (Chickasha, OK) – March 20, 1909 |
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| Eat and get thin with Marmola Prescription Tablets – La Crosse Tribune (La Crosse, WI) – March 5, 1909 |
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| Marmola fixes shiny skin – Leavenworth Times (Leavenworth, KS) – April 18, 1909 |
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| $5 reward for purse containing $90 – Cawker City Ledger (Cawker City, KS) – March 4, 1909 |
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| $500 if J.B. Brisbois can’t cure your alcoholism – Seattle Star (Seattle, WA) – March 9, 1909 |
