Smoke-filled Rooms
On June 11, 1920, the Republicans were trying to nominate a candidate at their convention in Chicago. The convention was deadlocked so a small group of powerful senators met in a suite in the Blackstone Hotel to try and broker a deal and select a candidate that everyone could tolerate. Most of the participants were smoking cigars and the room quickly became filled with cigar smoke. It is this image from which the expression "smoke-filled rooms" in the lexicon of politics is said to have originated.
The candidate they selected was Ohio Senator Warren G. Harding. Harding was the first of only three men elected to the presidency from the senate (John Kennedy and Barack Obama are the other two). Harding defeated Governor James Cox, also from Ohio, whose running mate was none other than Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Harding won 404 electoral college votes (including those of Ohio) while Cox picked up 127.
As President Harding's term was best remembered for all the scandals that occurred including the famous "Teapot Dome" (worthy of its own blog entry.) Harding died in office in 1923 while on a trip from Alaska to San Francisco. The cause of death was reported as a heart attack. A private investigator of questionable repute named Gaston Means surmised that Harding was murdered and he even wrote a book entitled "The Strange Death of President Harding." Means believed that Mrs. Harding may have been behind the plot, partly because she refused to consent to an autopsy. That is definitely the subject of a separate blog.
The candidate they selected was Ohio Senator Warren G. Harding. Harding was the first of only three men elected to the presidency from the senate (John Kennedy and Barack Obama are the other two). Harding defeated Governor James Cox, also from Ohio, whose running mate was none other than Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Harding won 404 electoral college votes (including those of Ohio) while Cox picked up 127.
As President Harding's term was best remembered for all the scandals that occurred including the famous "Teapot Dome" (worthy of its own blog entry.) Harding died in office in 1923 while on a trip from Alaska to San Francisco. The cause of death was reported as a heart attack. A private investigator of questionable repute named Gaston Means surmised that Harding was murdered and he even wrote a book entitled "The Strange Death of President Harding." Means believed that Mrs. Harding may have been behind the plot, partly because she refused to consent to an autopsy. That is definitely the subject of a separate blog.