If you thought the Republican penchant for choosing unqualified candidates was a modern thing, take a look at what the New York World had to say about its choice of Warren Harding in 1920: a “weak and mediocre” man who “never had an original idea.” Even the New York Times claimed he was “second class”.
He died of a heart attack after a little over two years in office, and although he was popular while in office, he didn’t accomplish much of anything, and the scandals that were revealed after his death (does Teapot Dome ring a bell?) quickly erased his standing, though he was not criminally culpable himself.
He was just mediocre.
