Poker Nights at the White House
President Warren G Harding is hardly a household name on this side of the Atlantic, but he is famous across the pond for being deemed the worst president in American history.
I am not sure if that level of disrepute is warranted or not. Given the number of corrupt or ineffective presidents that have presided over American life, it feels a little unfair.
He was certainly an unorthodox occupant of the White House, but was undeniably charismatic and extremely affable. A self-made newspaper mogul, he supposedly coined the term ‘the founding fathers’, dreamt up the useful verb ‘to bloviate’ and won the first ever election in which women participated. A serial philanderer, he fathered at least one child out of wedlock. Despite outwardly supporting the prohibition bill, he privately enjoyed a good drink and he delivered a very brave open-air speech on civil rights in Alabama to an irate audience.
Rumour has it that Harding was murdered by his wife for his many romantic indiscretions. It is highly doubtful that he was actually bumped off by the first lady. She doted on him over the course of their twenty-nine year marriage and was distraught after he died. His premature death at the age of fifty-seven might explain why is so often overlooked by presidential historians.
Harding was an Ohio man through and through. He famously never left his front porch during the presidential election of 1920, addressing over 600,000 voters while leaning urbanely against the balustrade of his veranda.
He was an excellent speaker and effective manager of the press pack who were always eager to get a witty printable quote out of him. During his days as a local grandee in Ohio, he befriended a number of up and coming political allies and affluent industrialists.
When he entered the White House he brought many of his old chums with him and appointed more than a few to his cabinet. They earned the nickname ‘the Ohio gang’ from their enemies in Washington. They were often accused of taking advantage of the convivial, kind-hearted Harding; of pulling the wool over his eyes when it came to obvious corruption and extraordinary malfeasance in their respective departments.
One particular scandal spiralled completely out of control and resulted in a tragic suicide just before Harding’s own death. Harding’s abstemious and devout Vice President, Herbert Hoover, was not a member of the Ohio clique. He decried their conduct and was suspicious of their true motives for serving the highest office in the land.
In his memoirs, Hoover wrote of Harding's favourite relaxation while President. He would host poker nights at the White House. The guest list mainly consisted of Harding's fellow Ohioans, but the odd outsider like Hoover occasionally received invitations.
Hoover found Harding’s favoured method of unwinding more than a little perturbing, writing of those games: ‘The stakes were not large, but the play lasted most of the night. I had lived too long on the frontiers of the world to have strong emotions against people playing poker for money if they liked it, but it irked me to see it in the White House.’. In Hoover’s eyes, casual games of poker were the wrong sort of thrill to enjoy in the near-sacred confines of the President’s official residence.
Harding’s sudden death in San Francisco only twenty-seven months into his presidency precipitated the disclosure of several scandals that have mired his legacy ever since. Harding might have been too trusting or too laid back but he certainly wasn’t sinister or personally corrupt. But as we saw with Boris, naivety can be a fatal quality for a political leader.
