Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Warren G. Harding's Love Letters (NSFW?)

[DeSwiss]

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver * Published on Jul 13, 2014

Warren G. Harding was a nasty, nasty president. John Oliver reads some of his recently released love letters.

- It's always the quiet ones you have to keep your eye on.....

[Manifestor_of_Light]

1. Politicians chasing women is nothing new.

I knew about Nan Britton, the teenaged girl Harding had sex with in a White House closet. She wrote a book in the 1920s called "The President's Daughter" after she had his child & it was a big scandal.

Nobody knew about this prior affair while Harding was in the Senate until the woman's descendants revealed these letters.

[DeSwiss]

2. The G. stands for GreatHugeAssScandalMonger.....

- When I think of Warren G. Harding, I think, Ponerology.

[2banon]

4. Wow. Not covered in my High School Civics class, or U.S. History class. Interesting

[maddiemom]

7. But a teacher I had did refer to Ben Franklin's illegitmate kids, and Sally Hemmings

is pretty much acknowledged in history classes these days.

[maddiemom]

8. Of course, no racy love letters in any case. I must admit the Harding letters aren't likely to

appear in history texts. Full disclosure: Harding is the only U.S. president, that I know of, who shows up well back in my Mom's family tree. Any time I was told that, by older relatives, it was with the admonition, "We don't brag about it."

[2banon]

10. Yeah, my time was late and post McCarthy period. Lots of stuff not learned in my Civics and History

classes.. It was after i left High School when I learned a lot about our real history.

[2banon]

3. Hilarious.. thanks for posting I needed a good belly laugh..

[DeSwiss]

12. De nada.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

5. You can read the book "The President's Daughter" online.

My dad was in high school in Ohio in the 1920s (Harding was from Ohio) and Dad said the gym teacher carried a copy of The President's Daughter around under his arm in a brown paper wrapper because it was a big scandal.

"Pink lips and pillowy breasts" sound romantic, anyway.

[DeSwiss]

6. The Gutenberg Press

- Clotel; Or, The President's Daughter by William Wells Brown




Of course Warren was thought to be Black himself......

[maddiemom]

14. I remember hearing my grandmother (related distantly to Harding) telling me there

used to be a popular "rhyme" at the time: "Ma, Ma, where's my Pa? Gone
to the White House, ha, ha ha"!

[Manifestor_of_Light]

15. They also said that about Grover Cleveland.

[Jack Rabbit]

9. It's nice to know Harding was good at something

As President, he was good-for-nothing.

[Archae]

11. He was the product of a corrupt system...

The GOP in the 1920's and further were so corrupt they stunk on ice.

[2banon]

13. this ^