Why is harding considered one of the worst presidents

And on Thursday, The New York Times broke the news that DNA testing had confirmed that Harding, who was married for 33 years until his death in , had fathered a child with a second paramour, Nan Britton, during the same period in which he was penning love notes to Phillips.

Britton was vilified at the time, but the genetic tests now back her claim, to the satisfaction both of her own descendants and many of those of the former president, according to the Times.

He also credited Harding with putting the federal government on a budget for the first time and setting the conditions for the economic expansion of the Roaring Twenties which culminated rather disastrously with the stock market crash of and the ensuing Great Depression. He suffered a heart attack followed by bronchopneumonia while on his cross-country tour in the summer of He died on Aug. Warren Harding was a handsome, amiable man who looked like a President but hardly acted like one.

He won election by a landslide but did nothing with his mandate. Scandals rocked Harding's Presidency and contributed to his untimely death in office.

He was highly popular during his lifetime. The posthumous exposure of the scandals in Harding's administration - including Fall's conviction for bribery, the attorney general's forced resignation and narrow escape from jail, and prison sentences for the head of two government bureaus - and the charges that Harding had fathered an illegitimate daughter and that he drank excessively all led to his decline in public esteem.

Most historians have regarded Harding as the nation's worst president, not only a man flawed by bad personal habits but one basically unfitted for the office and manipulated by others.

Recent revisionist scholarship, however, has shown that contrary to myth, Harding was hardworking, effective, conscientious, and nobody's puppet.

He might well be credited with facilitating national passage through a painful transitional period. Home Facts Bios Stats. Bush William Clinton George W. Bush Barack H. Obama Donald Trump Joe Biden. George Washington. Very popular as president, he was later regarded as one of the worst presidents in American history.

He pushed a pro-business agenda but made bad choices for his cabinet and presided over one of the most corrupt administrations. Eugene P. More Resources Warren G. Harding Presidency Page. Harding Essays Life in Brief. Life Before the Presidency. Campaigns and Elections. Domestic Affairs. Foreign Affairs. Life After the Presidency.

Family Life. And that takes some doing. In , while Ohio was giving Donald Trump And last month, in the special 12th Congressional District election to fill an unexpired term, the eventual victor, Rep. Districtwide, though, Balderson drew , votes House term.