K Loden and Leonard Wood, the two are evenly matched, it is difficult to distinguish between them. Behind these two people are Columbia University President Nicholas Butler and former US Food Service Administrator Herbert Hoover, who enjoys a high reputation for his relief work.
No matter who these people push out to run for president on behalf of the Republican Party, they will be very competitive. But it is precisely because of this that these few people have their own behind-the-scenes forces in the party, and no matter who launches them, they cannot obtain unanimous support from the party.
In this embarrassing situation, the main leaders of the Republican Party sat at the negotiating table and tried to come up with another solution:
Either these people are not on board, we find another person in the party-someone who can be recognized by the majority of the party.
The name of Warren Harding was mentioned.
Based on Harding’s ability and performance at the time, he was actually excluded from the “first echelon” of the Republican Party’s list of elections, and probably ranked ninth or tenth. But precisely because of his mediocre, easy-going, uncontested, he became a candidate acceptable to all forces in the Republican Party.
In June 1920, the Republican Party conducted an internal primary election in order to elect a candidate for president. Nine rounds of voting were conducted without results. After that, Warren Harding was called to a room where Republican leaders met. In that room, the leaders asked Harding:
“Have you done anything that would embarrass the Republican Party?”
Harding said he needs to give himself some time to think about it. Ten minutes after leaving the room, Harding came back and said sincerely:
“My history is innocent.”
In fact, Harding still concealed some information from the leaders-we will talk about it later-but this promise is enough to make the leaders determined. At the next nomination meeting, after the tenth vote, the result finally came out:
Warren Harding, 55, was elected by the Republican Party as a candidate for president.
4
Facts have proved that this seemingly “inexplicable” move by the Republican Party is really right.
Despite his mediocre abilities, Harding’s easy-going attitude has become his biggest advantage in the campaign.
In 1920, Europe had just recovered from the trauma of the First World War. The United States, which reaped the benefits of the first world war, seemed to be the world’s number one economic power, but it still needed to consolidate its political position. .
It is also against this background that the American delegation led by the then-U.S. President Wilson put forward the “League of Nations” plan and a new package of proposals at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, showing that the United States is willing to join and Leading the strong desire to re-plan the world structure.
But this was exactly inconsistent with what the American domestic environment expected at the time.
After the end of the First World War, the United States generally hopes to return to the previous era of “isolationism”: stop getting involved in affairs outside the Americas, especially not getting involved in the devastating European disputes. On this basis, the American people became tired of the government led by elite politicians represented by Wilson:
Can’t we come with a president from an ordinary background and bring us some ordinary and easy days?
Thomas Wilson has served as a professor of law and economics, and also served as the president of Princeton University. He is also the first in American history to hold the title of Doctor of Philosophy Of the president.
In this context, Harding has become a popular target.
In terms of origin and ability, Harding is lacking in truth, but this has become his advantage against elite Democratic candidates. What’s more, the campaign platform proposed by the Democratic candidates is to inherit Wilson’s “active foreign policy” policy, which is the opposite of Harding’s campaign platform.
The campaign slogan proposed by Harding is “Return to Normalcy”(Return to Normalcy), it sounds mediocre, but it exactly catered to the needs of most American people at that time: raising tariffs, restricting immigration, revitalizing agriculture, and returning the United States to its pre-World War I state-keeping a certain distance from the outside world and paying attention Based on the Americas, develop its own economy.
In other words, it can also be explained like this:
The United States does not want to take care of you so many things anymore. We will get out of our way. All actions take the interests of the United States as the first priority.
Although this is a well-designed campaign strategy by the Republican campaign team, it must be admitted that Harding is indeed the best image spokesperson. In order to maximize Harding’s advantages and avoid his disadvantages, the campaign team even asked Harding to avoid going to the country to make speeches and canvassing as much as possible, because Harding’s ability and knowledge reserves were not enough for him to cope with the complex and changeable on-site environment. Mispronunciation and logical confusion of words that often appear are also worrying. Republican Senator Boyce once said:
“Don’t let Harding leave his hometown. If he travels to campaign in various places, someone will definitely ask him questions, and Harding is just a wimp who just opens up.”
Harding’s appearance was once described as: he looks like an American president
So, throughout the campaign season, Harding’s campaign lobbying activities were basically held in Marion, where he lives. To be precise, it was at 380 Mount Vernon Avenue, the porch of his own home. before.
This campaign called the “front porch movement” was an unprecedented success: by the eve of the November 1920 general election, about 600,000 people from all over the country went to Marion to participate in this “pilgrimage.” Activities also include famous bands, famous baseball teams, Hollywood star groups represented by Douglas Van Punk, business groups represented by Henry Ford and Edison, etc.
In front of his porch, HardingCleverly delivered a prepared and vague speech:
“Today, what the United States needs is not heroic actions, but healing wounds; not revolution, but recovery; not being affected by international affairs, but achieving domestic success…”
The audience thunderous in applause and cheers.
It is worth mentioning that the personable Harding also won the support of many female voters. Of course, this is also related to his hint that the government will set up a female minister and promise to promote “equal pay for equal work” for men and women. At this point, Harding’s wife Florence played a key role. In fact, the wife behind Harding plays the role of “media general manager”: She is responsible for the connection between the campaign team and the media, providing reporters with plenty of photo opportunities and teaching The posture and angle of the husband waving his hand facing the camera, he even personally cooks food and snacks to the reporters who come to interview.
Finally came the day of voting for the presidential election, and an unprecedented historical record was born:
Hading received 16.14 million votes and 404 electoral votes, while his opponent Cox only got 9.13 million votes and 127 electoral votes.
This is the biggest gap between the winners and losers since the United States began to count popular votes in 1824.
Warren Harding, 56, entered the White House in 1921 and became the 29th President of the United States.
5
It should be said that after Harding entered the White House, he still did something.
He fulfilled some of his promises during the campaign: officially announced a truce with Germany, reduced domestic taxes, supported agriculture, established a national budget system, established the Veterans Affairs Administration, and so on. It is particularly worth mentioning that, as a media person, the president pioneered the “White House press conference” of “gathering reporters together to ask the president”, and adjusted it in order to take care of newspaper reporters’ publication the next day. The time of the press conference.
Under Harding’s advocacy, the United States also hosted the “Washington Conference” in 1921. The conference reached the conclusion of the United States, Britain, Japan, France, and Italy. The agreement to limit the tonnage of warships stipulated that the ratio of battleships, cruisers, and aircraft carriers of the five countries was US:UK:Japan:French:Italy=5:5:3:1.75:1.75, which limited the development of the Japanese navy to a certain extent. In addition, he is also the promoter of the “Nine Nations Convention.”
But compared with these measures, people remember more of the president’s randomness.
Hading has a hobby of playing poker, which was a habit he developed in his early years when he was running newspapers because of the pressure of work. After becoming president, Harding brought this “poker wave” into the White House-he played cards with his cabinet members at least twice a week.
Once, Alice, the daughter of former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, came to the White House president’s office and was surprised to find that Harding and a few members of his cabinet unbuttoned their shirts, put their feet on the desk, and each Holding a glass full of whiskey, smoking a cigar, playing cards happily there.
Hading’s cabinet was thus called the “Poker Cabinet”.
Compared with the randomness in work style, Harding has another more troublesome randomness-romanticism.
Hading had at least one lover when she was a federal senator. She was 8 years younger than Harding and was the wife of a department store owner in Marion. In 1915, Phillips asked Harding to divorce himself, but he refused, but the relationship between the two did not seem to be affected.
The night Harding was questioned by Republican leaders in 1920, he concealed this extramarital affair. When the big guys later discovered that Harding had a relationship that could easily be exposed by the media, it was too late to change. In the end, Phillips was secretly sent to Japan, and she received $50,000 and a regular monthly allowance.
The love letters Harding wrote to Phillips were confiscated by relevant authorities at the request of Harding’s descendants. According to the relevant regulations of the Ohio court, these love letters will be declassified in 2023.
After entering the White House, Harding also semi-openly maintained a relationship with another former lover.It’s—the meeting place for the two was chosen in a small room next to the office of the president. This woman was named Nan Briden, the daughter of a doctor friend of Harding. Breeden has always claimed that his daughter Elizabeth’s father is actually Harding, but it has not been recognized until 2015, according to the DNA test results proved that what Breeden said is indeed true.
Harding’s life in the White House
Of course, if the president can really make achievements that benefit the country and the people during his tenure, his casualness in his entertainment and life style is likely to be “turned a blind eye” by the public and the media. “.
However, Harding is doing worse in his own job.
6
Hading was pushed to the fore by a variety of forces, and it was destined that he would need something in return after he became president.
At this time, Harding’s easygoing and indisputable character is no longer his advantage.
Hading has an obvious criteria for employing people in the formation of a cabinet: one is people who have contributed to his presidential campaign-these are basically capitalists; the other is people who have good personal relationships with him-he doesn’t even consider these Human ability and even character.
The Secretary of State Hughes appointed by Harding is an agent of Mobil Oil, Chief of Army Weikes is the manager of Morgan’s Boston Exchange, Secretary of the Treasury Mellon is the owner of Alcoa Trust, Secretary of Commerce Hoover and Morgan Electric There is a close relationship, and the Secretary of the Interior Fair and the Rockefeller family have a close relationship.