With few exceptions, Warren G Harding is always referred to as America's "worst president" and this book goes to great depths to find out just exactly why.

It's no secret now that Warren G. Harding was the William Jefferson Clinton of his day when it came to an eye for the opposite sex. The difference between the two in this regard (which in no way compares their presidencies) is that in Harding's day, no one talked about it, and if they did, absolutely no one wrote about it.

Harding was one of the most notorious (and last) of America's "selected" Presidents, where party bosses met in "smokey back rooms" and arrived at reasonable compromises. In fact, the author is sympathetic to the reasoning that Harding never had any aspirations on being President and probably could have cared less if he had lost. (It's hard to say he showed any passion in campaigning for the job)

Harding was faced with many obstacles besides an inability to keep his zipper up. He doesn't seem to have made the wisest choice in his choosing of a mate, in fact, according to the author, she appears to be the one who had true aspirations for the presidency.

Harding was dogged throughout the campaign by rumors that he was of African-American descent, something that his relatives still seem intent on fighting to this day. What does appear to be true is the fact that the family were devout abolitionists and served on the Underground Railroad.

Harding's most prominent flaw seems to be his affability, something that many had assumed at the time to be his dominant strength. His inability to call his friends to task, allowed them to run free with the power of the Federal government.

His death will be controversial for years to come, and the author does little to truly answer the question of murder vs. food poisioning, but his presidency remains notorious. If simply for the fact that is considered "the worst."

Harding often makes the list of the worst presidents in US history and this book explores the reasons behind this judgement. Never a statesman, deeply flawed and ultimately tragic, shows what happens when a person whose only qualifications for the job was that he was good natured back slapper abovc controversy is elected to the presidency. He was from an important state which helped as well, but these should never be considered as qualifcations for the highest office in the land.

Harding was scandal prone from his early days. There was a rather nasty rumor that, given the circumstances of the time significant. This was that his family was part African American. In some ways this was the transformation of the old Democratic civil war "bloody shirt" strategy that dated back to Reconstruction. The Republicans were accused even after they had abandoned Civil Rights (in 1876) of somehow attempting to promote African American interests at the expense of white Americans. This issue continued to pop up throughout Harding's career.

Then there are the women. Harding was married to a woman who appears to have been a bit of a shrew. He sought comfort elsewhere and from a variety of sources. His primary misstress was a political liabilty for more than obvious reasons. Carrie Phillips was pro-German and after the end of their affair was a thorn in Harding's flesh. Unfortunately, the letters between the two are surpressed in this book due to the legal efforts of Harding's nephew, George T. Harding. Given Harding's reputation, it is unclear what he was trying to protect by doing so. There is also Nan Britton, who was kind of the Monica Lewinsky of her day. Fortunately for Harding, this story of their affair and daughter did not come to public notice until after he died.

Sex scandals were only part of Harding's presidency. The people he selected for high office were the worst kind of cronies, who say public service as the means to make a raid on the treasury and public property. The worst of these was the Teapot Dome scandal in which national oil reserves were sold to private companies below what would be considered fair market price (in exchange for bribes). This was not Harding's finest hour, but luckily he was dead when most of these revelations became public. By then stories of bootlegged liquor in the White House, Little Houses on K Street and stock market tips (which proved to be bad ones) had destroyed Harding's reputation forever.

Harding's presidency was not quite the disaster it might have been, due to the lack of any great national crisis during his presidency. It is fortunate that this mediocre figure was not in power during a war or economic recession. His role could only have been negative as Russell frequently demonstrates.

Though the subject of Russell's book is not an important figute, it does serve as a cautionary tale of what can go wrong in the selection of presidents. In 1920, the Republicans would have been better served by nominating Leonard Wood (an associate of Theodore Roosevelt). Russell is a fan of Wood's who is far a more compelling figure. If anything this proves that the reputation of Harding is beyond all hope.

This book is interesting to students of racial classification because of the racist smear campaign conducted during Harding's presidential race in 1920. Racists claimed that Harding was part Negro. Russell provides fascinating detail on this campaign, an issue that the Harding family is still sensitive about. Harding won anyway.