Uneasy Allies: William McKinley, Teddy Roosevelt & A Twist of Fate

Theodore Roosevelt's legacy has largely overshadowed that of President William McKinley, under whom he served as Vice President before ascending to the job himself. But despite his popularity at the time, his inclusion on the GOP ticket in 1900 was not exactly welcomed with open arms. 

 

After the persistent lobbying of Henry Cabot Lodge Sr., who thought TR would strengthen the ticket after the death of then-VP Garrett Hobart, Roosevelt was compelled to publicly decline the offer of the Vice Presidency. Stating to the press, "it is proper for me to state that under no circumstances could I or would I accept the nomination for the vice-presidency," Roosevelt appeared to be firmly against the idea, however he sent Nicholas Butler to speak to McKinley and gauge his support. In his book Across the Busy Years, Butler told the story of his meeting with the President: 

After laughing with me a little about some of T. R.'s characteristics, [McKinley] told me to talk the matter over with Senator Hanna. The Senator was explosive and abundant in expletives. He banged on the table and said that he proposed to control the Philadelphia convention absolutely and that under no circumstances would or could T. R. be nominated for the Vice-Presidency. He, Senator Hanna, would not have it. 

Word that neither President McKinley nor his closest political ally, Mark Hanna, believed that Roosevelt was suitable for the office soon reached TR.  It clearly irked him "to find in how little political esteem he was held by the President and Senator Hanna," and he was soon whistling a different tune: he would reconsider seeking the office. 

 

While it's difficult to say whether he decided to pursue the office in spite of President McKinley and Senator Hanna sentiments, he clearly flip-flopped in a letter to Lodge, "By the way, I did not say on February 12 that I would not under any circumstances accept the Vice Presidency," -- a complete reversal of his unambiguous statement, "under no circumstances could I or would I accept the nomination for the vice-presidency".

 

Roosevelt was easily nominated at the 1900 Republican National Convention, but without an endorsement from McKinley, who had stated through his secretary that, "Any of the distinguished names suggested would be satisfactory. The choice of the convention will be his choice." Despite being uneasy allies, TR helped the campaign tremendously, rode McKinley's reelection coat-tails into the White House.

 

In retrospect, Mark Hanna proved to have been strangely prescient when he exclaimed "Don't any of you realize that there's only one life between this madman and the Presidency?"

Sex Scandals in Politics: Cleveland Comes Clean in 1884

Between Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Former VP Nominee and Presidential Candidate John Edwards and now Rep. Anthony Weiner, sex scandals are breaking like gangbusters. Weiner's misconduct is making more headlines because of his subsequent coverup and the fact that he still holds public office, but another (DSK) involves the charge of rape and two (Arnold & Edwards) involve children out of wedlock -- much more serious in the scheme of things. 

Sex scandals have long been exploited for political purposes, beginning with Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemmings, but none were publicly acknowledged by the culprit until Grover Cleveland did so in the presidential election of 1884. 

While Mayor of Buffalo in 1874, Cleveland had had an out-of-wedlock affair with Maria Crofts Halpin, a widow at the time, who then bore a son. Apparently Cleveland wasn't the only man to have had an slept with Halpin in those days, but she pressed him for financial support and he agreed to provide it -- secretly. The boy was put into an orphan asylum, per Cleveland's wishes and the whole ordeal remained hush-hush until ten years later when Grover Cleveland became the Democratic Nominee for president in 1884. 

While vague rumors of Halpin and the love-child swirled, Republicans conspired to make an issue of the affair, hoping to drive religious votes from the democratic column. Declaring the election about "morals" and not "politics", pamphlets detailing the "seduction" of Halpin were circulated, calling Cleveland a "leper," amongst other things. Cleveland advised his supporters to tell the truth, but his allies moved to defame Halpin anyway, portraying her as a "designing woman," an accusation that only forced Halpin to make a public statement about the affair, deepening the controversy:

My duty to those relatives, who's kind assurances of love and sympathy and confidence have reached me, compels me to make a public statement and denial of many of the statement which have been made public concerning me and my character and actions while in Buffalo... I will not at this time detail my subsequent sufferings, and the birth of our boy on September 14th, 1874, but I will say that the statement published in the Buffalo Telegram in the main is true. There was not and never any doubt as to the paternity of our child...

Cleveland's detractors rallied with the slogan "Ma Ma, where's my Pa?" but Cleveland's order to "tell the truth" was widely publicized and his supporters shifted gears from denouncing Halpin to praising Cleveland's conduct after the "preliminary offense," calling him responsible and even honorable. The controversy subsided and Cleveland won election in November. 

But there was one difference between Cleveland's scandal and those taking place now: Grover Cleveland was a bachelor. 

JFK's "Absenteeism" in the Senate

Senators and Congressmen are usually vulnerable to attacks on their voting records -- and often their lack thereof. Hillary Clinton derided Obama for voting "present" in the Illinois State Senate and George W. Bush went after Kerry for his poor attendance at Senate Intelligence hearings. While it's an effective line of attack that we're bound to see again in 2012, the tactic is hardly new -- check out the below RNC pamphlet from 1960:

The pamphlet criticized JFK's "absenteeism" in the Senate, referring to some 331 roll call votes that the then-Senator missed.

Geraldine Ferraro as "Liberty Leading the People"

Long before John Kerry was criticized for "looking French" the Mondale Ferraro campaign had a unique and most bizarre take on Eugène Delacroix's emblematic painting Liberty Leading the People -- a poster with Vice Presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro in the place of Lady Liberty (and her badly illustrated running mate to the left):

Luckily the artist remembered to sub in an American flag and kindly covered up Ms. Ferraro, unlike the scantily clad figure in the original: