Oh What A Time... - #150 Short lived Presidents (Part 2)

Episode Date: November 25, 2025

This is Part 2! For Part 1, check the feed!This week we’re discussing US Presidents who, through various interventions of fate, weren’t actually President for any great length of time. We’ve got poor old Zachary Taylor (1784-1850), unlucky James Garfield (1831-1881) and let’s not forget Warren G. Harding (1865-1923).Plus, what on earth did we do before the advent of eBay? Did you basically have to just be very fortunate if you wanted something obscure and niche? If you remember these grand old days, you know what to do: [e-mail] send us any entrepreneurial ideas you had when you were ten!And in huge news, Oh What A Time is now on Patreon! From content you’ve never heard before to the incredible Oh What A Time chat group, there’s so much more OWAT to be enjoyed!On our Patreon you’ll now find:•The full archive of bonus episodes•Brand new bonus episodes each month•OWAT subscriber group chats•Loads of extra perks for supporters of the show•PLUS ad-free episodes earlier than everyone elseJoin us at 👉 patreon.com/ohwhatatimeAnd as a special thank you for joining, use the code CUSTARD for 25% off your first month.You can also follow us on: X (formerly Twitter) at @ohwhatatimepodAnd Instagram at @ohwhatatimepodAaannnd if you like it, why not drop us a review in your podcast app of choice?Thank you to Dan Evans for the artwork (idrawforfood.co.uk).Chris, Elis and Tom x Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

O-Water Time is now on Patreon. You can get main feed episodes before everyone else, ad-free, plus access to our full archive of bonus content, two bonus episodes every month, early access to live show tickets, and access to the O-Watertime group chat. Plus, if you become an O-Water-Time All-Timer, myself, Tom and Ellis, will riff on your name to postulate where else in history you might have popped up.

For all your options, you can go to patreon.com forward slash O-Water Time. Hello and welcome back to part two on our episode on Short-Lived Presidents Okay, pop quiz, who is the shortest-lived Prime Minister in British history? Well, it's going to be Liz Truss, surely. It is Liz Truss. Second is George Canning, 119 days. I remember at one point they were saying, is it going to be a shorter term than George Canning?

She absolutely smashed his record. What would she like 48 days? Some of that? 49 days. 49 days, yeah, and he was 119. And then the Viscount Godrich in her 144. She destroyed his record. So I'm going to discuss now Zachary Taylor.

And whoever knows the longest presidency in American history is Franklin D. Roosevelt in office from the 4th of March. 1933 till his death on the 12th of April 1945, total of 4,423 days. And then they changed the rules, so his nearest rival, change the constitution, all of whom serve as two complete terms

include more contemporary people, George W. Bush did two, Bill Clinton served two terms, Barack Obama, served two terms. What do you think, by the way, will happen with Trump? Do you think Trump will force a third term or do you think he will end?

I think he will fall. I think he will force a third term. Yeah. Interesting. I just think he's got so little respect for the American Constitution that even though, you know, even though he can't, I just think he's written roughshod over so many of the rules already. Yeah. It just makes you wonder, isn't it? Fascinating. We'll see.

Well, the true quiz question focus is not on the longer serving presidents, but those whose term in office was cut short, sometimes very short indeed. Now, given his 31 days in office, a month, you're still on guest Wi-Fi. Many people know about William Henry Harrison, what about the next guy on the list? Your fob isn't working yet. You still can't, you can't beat through to the most convenient toilet. Or your fobs got their last person's key ring still on it.

Everyone thinks I spoke Chelsea. I don't know why that is. I should take this one. Parking space has still got the name of the last guy. You have to explain when you get to the security gate. Yeah, sorry, can I get my own email address? It's just at the moment I'm using my personal one. Zachary Taylor was born in 1784.

and as such was the last person to serve as president was born before the US had its constitution. He was a career army officer rising through the ranks of become a major general during the Mexican-American War of 1846, which broke out after Texas joined the Union the previous year. So victory in that conflict, which propelled Taylor to the front rank

of American popular opinion, which must have been difficult in those days. You know, pre-television, pre-radio, must have been quite hard to become popular across such a massive country. Yeah, that's really interesting. So how would that work? I suppose it's word of mouth.

Newspapers as well. Newspapers, yeah. But that's so true, isn't it? So that led to the acquisition of vast swathes of territory, including what we now know is the state of California, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, Arizona and Texas, as well as bits and pieces of Colorado, Oklahoma, Kansas and Wyoming. So with the 1848 presidential election looming,

Taylor, who was a war hero, of course, was regarded as a possible candidate and he was courted by the Whig Party to be his nominee because his power base lay in the American South saw potential rivals included fellow army commander Winfield Scott and long-serving politicians

senators such as Henry Clay and Daniel Webster Taylor wins the nomination so he won it at the Whig Party's National Convention in Philadelphia in June 1848 so now the next challenge came and this is hilarious I was talking to a friend of mine the other day.

We've both read Citizen Clem, which is the John Boo book about Clement Attlee. Right. And you could never have a Prime Minister like Clement Attley anymore. Because can you imagine him on social media? He was like a sort of quiet, modest man. Just, you know, who was sort of, you know, good at running the party. And it's the same with Taylor. No one had any idea what his politics were.

Yes. Nobody knew what he believed. But there'd be a social media team forcing him to do dances he doesn't understand. Oh, yeah, yeah. Which is what happens now. Absolutely, yeah, yeah. Ed Miliband, whenever he has to do something on Twitter. Yeah, he'd be ed deviing it.

He'd be doing sort of bungee jumps and all sorts of systems. But they always have the face of someone who does not understand what they're being asked to do by a 19-year-old social media expert. Ed Miliband's face on the Instagram page is an absolute picture. Where he's pointing at different parts of the screen and things are appearing. He just doesn't know why he's doing it. Just trust us, Ed, it's going to be worthwhile. And then yet again, the worst Twitter or video. you've ever seen it's put out.

I'd say, Elle, a good 50% of our WhatsApp communications are looking at what Ed Miliband has done today. Like, have you seen this? Who is in charge of his socials? Now, Henry Clay dismissed him as a mere military man. Party grandies were not so concerned. They just wanted to defeat the Democrats

and keep the former president, Martin Van Buren, out of the White House. He was now running with his free soil party on an anti-slavery platform. Martin Van Buren. Yeah. That sounds like a sort of like a deed. It sounds like he plays for BSV.

We saw him when I beat the ones, didn't we? Yeah, Pasha. Did it 2 a.m. or 4 a.m. Martin Van Buren on the decks. I think it's Armand Van Buren, actually I think it might be. Playing a gate crash at tonight is the American politician for the 18th century. Now, the Free Soil Party has got a Duff name, but it was focused on opposing the expansion of slavery into the Western Ter.

territories of the US. It wasn't a kind of like Oprah Winfrey giving cars away, you know, giving soil away to whoever wanted to do. It was a, it was far more serious than that. Like a garden centres closing down. Yeah. So as an owner of cotton plantations in Mississippi and Louisiana, Taylor himself was a slave owner and traded the slave markets in New Orleans and at the time of the 1848 presidential election had as many as 200 slaves working for him on his estate and for whom he paid taxes. So he inherited slaves from his parents and he bequeathed slaves to his children in his will. So, you know, sort of some awful, awful, awful politics. But his political attitudes at the practice of slavery were complex. He opposed efforts to expand the practice to new states in the Union, regarding

it as an unnecessary political nuisance and intended to veto the Compromise Act of 1850, which allowed California into the Union as a free state, so long as the other states formed out of the territories gained from Mexico during the 1846 conflict were allowed to make their own choices on the extension of slavery. Since 1812, they've been a pairing between slave and free states to avoid tipping the balance either way and increasing the possibility of civil war. So I think if you're being charitable, according to the time, he probably would have been seen as quite pragmatic. Well, I'm looking at a picture of Martin Van Buren now. He has one of the most astonishing haircuts I've ever seen

from someone in history. Okay. Have a look at a picture of Martin Van Buren. He has sideburns that begin at the back of his head. Okay. He's got male pattern baldness, but like those lamb chop sideburns. I love it. That you get,

it's a little bit like Oliver Reed playing Bill in Oliver. But those lamb chops have been grown out and connected to the back of the head. I don't mind it, and I see it as my future. It looks like his toupee has slipped off the top of his head and has gone down the back of his head. That's what it looks like. It doesn't look like their hair's meant to be there.

He looks like he's got curtains, but like the parting is his whole head. Yeah, he certainly doesn't look like he's a sort of hard house DJ. Although they are getting older. That's the thing. I mean, it's as a, as a music genre. as go. It's probably 40 years old now. There must be some teachers out there

look like Martin Van Buren. He looks like a character, doesn't he? He looks like, yeah, if you went to Walter pub, like everyone would know him. Oh yeah, absolutely. And his house would fucking stink. Such a good character note.

You'd open the fridge. Milk had gone off a year previous. Weeks, weeks ago. And you ask him for anything and he hasn't got it. Can I have a slice of toast, Martin? No, no. All right, can have a cup of tea?

If you can find out of itself a cup. Well, you haven't got a cup. So just before Taylor came into office, Florida and Texas had been admitted as slave states while Iowa and Wisconsin entered as free ones. So California tipped the balance in three more free states, Minnesota, Oregon and Kansas were admitted to the Union in the years before the outbreak of the American Civil War.

So Taylor had wanted to avoid such a situation, but it was inevitable. Inevitable in part because Taylor's presidency he proved short-lived. He entered office on the 4th of March 1849, although since this was a Sunday, he refused to be inaugurated until the following Monday. Imagine that. That's a ball of move, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do it tomorrow, mate. Yeah, I'm a sabbatarian, so do it tomorrow. It's your first day in the job.

Yeah, I've got to sort of chill on Sundays and read the Bible. His vice president, Millard Fillmore, sounds like a Simpsons character, followed the same sabbatarian reverence, similarly refused a Sunday inaugural. So, presumably, There was a day where the U.S. didn't have a president or a vice president. Yeah, that's amazing. Taylor's term nevertheless began officially on the 4th of March. No matter what he did, it lasted until his death on the 9th of July, 1850, the age of 65.

Now, what killed Taylor was a gastrointestinal complaint, possibly a form of cholera or an infectious diarrhea. Imagine dying of infectious diarrhea, bloody hell. Yeah. Oh, mate. Although he's a slave owner, so good. but the rumour mill soon got hold of the truth and turned it into something far more outlandish Taylor attended the annual 4th of July celebrations in Washington

and to cool down in the summer heat he'd drunk a lot of iced milk and eaten lots of cherries as a snack or walking along the river as part of the event but in the evening he fell ill complaining of stomach cramps and he died five days later so ever since historians have argued as to what had really happened was the milk contaminated were the cherries laced with something

pesticides or worse poison such as arsenic And so was Zachary Taylor the victim, not of unfortunate death, but of a deliberate assassination? Subsequent tests, even on his exhumed remains, have yielded no obvious answers. For my point of view, any discussion that's taking people's focus away from the word diarrhea, I'm all right with. So if people are focusing on the words, poison, cherries and milk, what got Tom Crane and the end? He shot himself to death. Wasn't he poisoned? Yeah, something like that.

But the detail is he shot himself to death. Journalistically, that's where I want the press casting their eye on the poison cherries, not the fact that I die from diarrhea. Yeah, poison brackets general. Exactly, yeah. Although Taylor had suffered gastrointestinal problems or at his presidency. So an indication maybe of something more serious, maybe it was cancer, they're not sure, which was the real cause of his demise.

So one of those convinced that Taylor had been done away with by nefarious forces was Abraham Lincoln's Judge Advocate General, John Bingham, who claimed in the early 1880s that the assassin was none other than Jefferson Davis, the Southern Senator, who had become the greatest trick to the Civil War because he was to be the president of the breakaway Confederate States of America. Bingham's case, which appeared in the New York Times, was published just as Davis's first book on the Civil War was released,

a book which minimized slavery as a cause for the conflict and which vindicated his actions. And Bingham just was having none of that. Now, in many respects, Zachary Taylor is a very forgettable president because his term lasted 16 months, just 4991 days, and in that time, he managed only one signature piece of legislation, the Clayton Bulwer Treaty, signed by the US and the UK, and designed to resolve tensions of each country's respective sphere of influence

in Central and South America. The treaty, which remained active to 1901, ultimately maintained the peace and avoided a war over the possible construction of an Atlantic Pacific Canal running through Nicaragua. But beyond that, what did Zachary Taylor ever do for us? Well, well, well. Very little. So how long was he in for?

How was he in long he was in office for? 491 days, 16 months. Okay, so he beats your candidate skull, who did a mere six months. Let's find out if mine can do any better. Right, to wrap up today's show, I'm going to tell you about a man called Warren Gamaliel Harding, who is the closest, the 20th century, comes to delivering a figure in the style of Donald J. Trump. And he is from, any guesses where this guy is from? Ohio.

Florida. Oh. Ohio. Ding, ding, ding, ding. Now, Harding, he's born near Blooming Grove in the northeastern part of the state of Ohio, about 100 miles southwest of Cleveland in November 1865. He grows up in rural Ohio and he lives there for most of his life. His father is a man by the name of Tyron Harding.

He's a doctor. He's a businessman. And crucially, he's the part owner of a newspaper. Which I think sounds a bit like someone lying on a date that. I'm a doctor. I'm a businessman and I own a newspaper. What's that song that's the lyrics from? I'm my favorite

I'm a midnight toke I'm a tear down on the road It's one of the later verses No one knows the lyrics Yeah yeah I own a paper Yeah Do you know what it reminds me though of Elle

You know when you said You always one of your catchphrases is Are you lying? Yeah yeah Is that a lie Is that a lie? Is that a lie? Just somebody saying that at a bar

I'm a doctor of a businessman And I own a newspaper Yeah yeah And I own a newspaper Don't lie to me mate just I get it you're attractive I fancy you I agree to come on the day in the first place just lean in yeah so and it was on this paper that the young the younger harding learned the trade which to be his for the rest of his life that trade being the media and this background meant

that he knew the press and knew how to manipulate media images how to use a newspaper to spin stories, which I find really interesting, how long these skills have been vital. Obviously, they morph, they change. It's now social media, all these sort of things, but the use of the press, the use of your image has just forever been important. Do you not find that fascinating? Yeah. And what I find amazing as well, in terms of doctoring images and manipulating images, they were so bad at it. Yeah. And people would fall for it. You see doctored images from from a hundred years ago. And you're like, come on, my daughter could do better than that on the iPad, on the family iPad.

It's interesting, Crayne, when you talk about there, like the importance of, if you're trying to grow a cult of personality, the importance of image and the way you present yourself, when you are a man who frequently podcasts with pants hung on a dryer, a good two foot behind your head. In my immense defence, I will always move those before we start filming. so Ellis and Chris have to sit through a good two minutes that I try and fit the dryer out of the room and put it on the landing outside and then when I leave what you don't know like this you'd ever see this is after the podcast record I forget I put it there

I open the door and I walk straight into the dryer I never remember that I put it there The pants block your vision you fall down the stairs As your brand manager Tom Yeah Depending on how I want you to earn a living It's either excellent or very very very very bad. Because if you want to be like a slapstick idiot, a sort of Mr. Bean for the

WhatsApp generation, it's fantastic. But ultimately, you're never going to take office with pants in the background of these uncles. So I need to choose which road I want to go now. You're never going to hold one of the great offices of state. And I'm comfortable with that. If it was the newspaper business that gave Harding his wealth and his influence, it was politics which would give him power and lasting fame. He got involved in politics early, partly because Ohio at the time was so important to national politics. Chris has mentioned so many of these presidents have come from here. At that time, back-to-back presidents Rutherford Hayes and James Garfield, you've just talked about Chris, were Ohio men. Well, future president William McKinley would also be elected the state's

governor in 1891. Ohio is like, it's like a president factory. Do you know what it reminds me of? It's Like, you know that small Ethiopian town that produces incredible runners? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Constantly churns out these amazing runners. Or Jamaica? Jamaica was sprinters or... But it's more particularly than that. It's like a small area.

There's an area of Manchester, isn't it? That gets loads of good football. Well, there's... And also there's the Boys Club in Newcastle. Waller's End. Michael Carrick. Wallsend. Yeah, yeah.

The Walls End Boys Club. Exactly. Which just keeps producing England players. It's absolutely incredible. And my question would be on that, growing up there in Ohio at that time, does it change your faith in your ability to make it as president? If you grow up there and people say, what do you want to do when you're older and you say president, people are going, all right, yeah, yeah, fair enough. Because it's actually, it's something you've seen lots of people achieve from your local area. But do you know what, though?

I think it does. Because if you've gone to Wall's End Boys Club, which is a fairly normal boys club but Peter Beardsley went there and Michael Carrick went there and Steve Bruce went there then eventually you're going to be like yeah actually I probably could be a footballer

it's absolutely incredible those sort of weird hotspots of talent I wonder what was the local team that Simon Davies played for when you were younger he played in Pembrokeshire yeah oh is it Pembrokeshire oh is it okay for example the effect of like one particularly successful footballer coming from a small youth side

whether that has a legacy which affects the chances afterwards. I'd be generally interested. There is a street in Swansea called Alice Street in Cumbdy. Right. And it's got, I think, 32 houses in it. And it's still there. It's a little terraced street. Oh, Alan Shiro went to Balls at Walsam Boys Club

as well, mad. And between 1949 and 1960, it produced five Welsh internationals. Wow. So John Charles and his brother, who played for Arsenal, were two of the five. But yeah, it's just like... That's amazing. Yeah, yeah.

So maybe there is an effect. So maybe, I mean, I slightly joke, but if you are from Ohio and you are interested in politics, it probably does give you that belief that it's achievable if so many people have achieved it before. Oh, absolutely. Certainly would have done then, yeah. And indeed, this is a large part of why Harding was interested. All eyes were on Ohio at that time. And by 1890, he was elected to the state senate, serving four years there,

gaining statewide recognition and popularity. And then from there, he runs for the Republic nomination as governor of Ohio in 1903, losing out in the primaries to Cleveland banker Myron Herrick. Instead, Harding is elected as Herrick's lieutenant and they serve together for one term, although the relationship proves tempestuous. I always find that fascinating when people run against each other, someone wins. It happens in American politics constantly. It happens to hear.

And then suddenly you're under the person who, a month earlier, you were calling into disrepute and questioning everything they've ever done. I find that bizarre. And it always works so well, isn't it? As a system. Exactly. There's no bad blood. I know you slagged me off on the campaign trail for two years, but this is going to be fine. Don't worry about it, mate.

Exactly. So it wasn't until 1914 that Harding's electoral career finally takes off. By which time the Democrat Woodrow Wilson is in the White House, Harding sought election to the US Senate as the junior senator for Ohio, winning both the Republican nomination and the general election with ease. and he comes to be regarded as a safe pair of hands. But it was in the aftermath of the First World War that this safe pair of hands struck out towards the presidency.

I find this interesting. If you're an aspiring president, is that when you're going for it? Are you trying to rule America in the aftermath of a world war when everything is just as messed up as complicated as it can be? Or are you thinking, I might leave it a few years until things have settled a little bit. Well, that's what happens to Boris, isn't it? Yes, it is exactly.

You know, he wanted to be Prime Minister. And then when he was Prime Minister, he had to deal with Brexit and COVID. And that is, but often in these tricky periods, that's when the opportunity presents itself. Yeah. But also at the same time, it's impossibly complicated. You're putting yourself into the most difficult situation. And you never have an uneventful time as a Prime Minister. No, that's true.

You've always got to do with something. Yeah. Every time a president is inaugurated, I find myself watching the inauguration, and I think, I wonder what this guy's going to have to deal with. You think, what's going to happen next? Is Tom Crane going to finally put away his pants? And will Trump hear about it? And will he care?

Why would he care? George W. Bush at the... He was like in a kindergarten. Yeah, reading a book. When he was told about 9-11 and his face just freezes. So yeah, that's... Imagine the buck stopping with you.

And it's for that reason I'm out, I'm afraid. It's for that reason I retract. And it's for that reason that I'm actually running away. I'm actually running away. I'm actually running. from the responsibility. If there are any American listeners who were tempted to email us

and push us to run for the presidency, don't bother. We've decided it's not for us, okay? I get why you'd think of us, but I think it's probably not for us. I'm interested in the people from history who wanted to be a leader and then realised they couldn't do it.

And I can only think of one example, Kevin Kiegan at half-time, England versus Germany, at the old Wembley. Yeah, last scheme at Wembley, yeah. When they're 1-0-0. out of the Germans in a half time he goes I've got no ideas yeah I did you say that he said I've run out of ideas

I've run out of ideas like are you kidding there must be other examples from history they're there to persuade him not to resign at half time and then he after the game he came into the toilet and had a meeting in the in the actual bog and was like I just got to go I can't do this

what was the final score we lost 1-0 was the final game of the old Wembley lost to the Germans 1-0 but there must be I mean that's only one I'm aware of from football, there must be anecdotes a story of generals, war leaders, or just national leaders. We have to do this.

We have to tell Daryl this. Our historian, Dr. Darlie in the moment, a crisis is surrounding them and he goes, Botlers. I don't know what to do. Yeah. It's a very human thing, isn't it? I've run out of ideas.

Half time in a war. I'm out of my I tell you what it reminds me of, Al, it's when you're comparing a really tricky weekend gig and you've done the first section and it's just been basically unplayable and you've got to go back on again. Oh, yeah, yeah. And you're backstage thinking, I can't pull this round.

You've bought the first act onto utter chaos, so they're angry with you already. And you're looking at the second and third act saying, I've got nothing. I still remember doing a gig with the brilliant Alastair Green who many of our listeners will be familiar with comparing a gig and him turning to me and saying, just to let you know,

if this goes south, I don't have the skills to turn it around. Just as I was going on to stay. It was like the beginning of the gig. I don't have the skills to turn it right. I remember there would have been a comic in Europe having a worse gig than me, and I was comparing a show in Coventry and I had to bring on Lucy Porter,

Duncan Oakley and Sol Bernstein. And I just had to say to the three of them, they hate me. Yes. But unfortunately, I am your compare. and so they're going to keep seeing me and it was bad one of the worst ones you could do was the comedy cafe which is now closed down

club in London used to do a Tuesday night New Act night where they would have 15 acts but they would have a professional compare so I would have compared it when we first went professional as stand-ups and you would have to go on 16 times in the night and if it was a tricky room

after your first one you're thinking I've still got to go on another 15 time I sit there thinking to myself I don't have 16 opinions. Let alone 16 bits of stand-up. If it's a new act night, I presumably, I would guess most of the acts are bad. Oh yeah, a lot of them are shit.

Yeah, so they're not even helping you out. Are you going on as a combatant? You've got to address it, haven't you? Some would. I think I was probably on the warmer side, I'd say. I was always too nice. Yeah, yeah. It wasn't my vibe, but some people would, yeah, definitely.

I'd like you to walk out after a really bad act. Just grab the back and go, I don't know what to do now. I've run out of ideas. The Kevin Kegan now. Okay, on with this story. So he launches his bid in the aftermath of World War I. And to be fair to him, it is a perfect time to launch his bid.

And Ailey Woodrow Wilson, triumphant on the international stage, the mastermind of the post-war transformation of Europe, faced tremendous difficulty selling his vision of peace to the home market. with the Versailles Treaty and the League Nations, both bitterly opposed by many in Congress. And so Harding seizes his chance. He stands up as an opponent of both the Treaty and the League and becomes closely identified with a campaign to keep America out of both. Interestingly, had Teddy Roosevelt lived, he died in January 1919, a matter of months before the Republican National Convention, Harding might never have become president

because Roosevelt was by far the most popular Republican available at the time. attractive to plenty of Democrats and progressives as well. So there's an argument that death is really what allowed Hardy to get in. And in the end, Harding won the Republican nomination on the 10th ballot, but only after mysterious meetings held in, I love this, the fabled smoked-filled room, which makes it sound like a hot box a room in the White House, a disgust stuff. And eat chocolate eclares.

I love the myth of the smoke-filled room. Yeah. I love it. Everyone's on the cigarettes. smoking pipes just deciding stuff I like the I love the idea

when you're reading old books around like set in 1900s like they Sherlock Holmes and they talk about smoke filled rooms like and the whiskey the gentleman and smoking jackets going through

I love the idea of that but I've never smoked and I hate smoking and I'm so glad we have a smoking ban yeah that's one of those images that they're really evocative

I'd like to find myself in there. It'd also be a real giveaway that you've been having a secret meeting in the room where you come out and you stink of smoke. And everyone's like, where have you been? Nowhere. Why do you smell like you've been to a nightclub? You've clearly been meeting the president. I am 45 and I have decided to try smoking today and there we go. Don't like it. Because I read an interview with the world's oldest woman and she smoked until she was 100. So his running mate is a man by the name of Calvin Coolidge,

while on a Democratic ticket were fellow Ohioan and newspaper man James M. Cox and won Franklin Delano Roosevelt. But after two terms of Democratic presidency, Cox Roosevelt, they face an uphill struggle to win. And so it was with the Electoral College standing at 404 votes for Harding and only 127 for Cox. He gets into power under a major landslide

and Harding becomes president. And indeed, as a media mogul, his father ran this paper, and these skills kick in, okay, he's able to recognise that America is a new America and he needs to sell it as such. In 1922, he declared the age of the motor car. It's a great statement, isn't it? A symbol of knife now lived at speed. So he was the one that built it as such. He also invested heavily in the laying out of highways, encouraged radio broadcasting and commercial aviation. And this is quite forward thinking in this. that front, and kind of really seeing America as a place of the future, forward momentum. But the thing that held him back was his health. Back in the 1880s, when he was just 20, he was already receiving treatment for burnout, stress, and exhaustion. And now in 1919, heart troubles chucked into the mix. And yet he continues to drink. These people are just completely, they're so made of different stuff, aren't they? Absolutely. He continues to drink. He continues to smoke. And so through the first two years of his presidency,

his health continues to decline rapidly. And I would also say, probably, if you suffer from stress, I'd say dealing with America in the aftermath of World War I probably isn't ideal. And then on the 2nd of August, 1923, he dies of a heart attack. So we've got smoke, alcohol, and also trying to steer a country after the First World War. That's funny because that's almost the exact same story as Lyndon Johnson. He does that, doesn't he?

He basically has to leave office because he's health suffering and then he carries on smoking and drinking. I think he has a heart attack. Absolutely. So he dies, let's say, second of August, 1923, of a heart attack at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco. He's just 57 years old. At his death, Harding is one of the most popular presidents of recent times regarded as an upstanding first citizen. And nine, this blew my mind this.

Nine million Americans lined the route which carried his body from California back to Washington. Is that incredible? Nine million people. That's how you do it. You go out when you're still hot, obviously. However, as a final point, the adulation would not last as Harding was anything but whiter than white. His media control, when he was alive, had allowed him to manipulate his image, all those skills he'd learnt as a newspaper man during his life. But in the years after his death, his reputation was destroyed by sex scandals, accusations of corruption.

The key one, there was a long-running extramarital affair and an illegitimate daughter, who was the subject of a tell-all-exposé by the mother who added that she, the mother, and Harding, I think it's one of the least sexy things I've ever heard, had had sex in a cupboard near the Oval Office while secret service agents stood outside on guard. Wow. In a cupboard.

We've all done it. Boris Becker's style. Exactly. So they're outside with their guns, keeping guard at a cupboard. If the cupboards are rocking, don't come a knocking. And in fact, by the end, his legacy was just in ruins. and in fact few presidents now have as bad a reputation as Harding

despite the fact he only served two years, five and a half months of a presidency so actually the most out of the three people we've talked about that re-established Republican control over the White House control which lasted until FDR was elected in 1932. So there we go, another short-lived president, more cigarettes, more alcohol, more stress. And that's the end of it? Well, there we go. That was short-lived presidents. Hope you enjoyed that. If you want even more O-Watertime content, loads of bonus stuff to be had over at patreon.com

forward slash O-Water Time, where we have subscriber episodes that you can't hear anywhere else. That include Vikings. Exciting. Plus, as we mentioned earlier in the episode, we're doing our first ever live show. Underbelly Boulevard, Soho, Thursday the 15th of January, 26, Central London. You don't want to miss it. Tickets are on general sale on Thursday, the 27th of November. But if you are a Patreon subscriber, you get the pre-sale access right now. Go on there, click it, get yourself his ticket. I think it is going to sell out.

I think we're confident enough. If you want to get those tickets, head over to patreon.com forward slash, oh, what a time. Otherwise, from Thursday the 27th of November, they are on general sale. On that note, we'll see you next week. Bye. Goodbye. Bye. I don't know.

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