# Scandal! Presidential Love Child **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [August 13, 2015, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scandal-presidential-love-child/727743 "2015-08-13T14:59:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2015, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scandal-presidential-love-child/727743/1 "2015-08-13T14:59:16Z")
Breaking news folks! [Warren G. Harding had an affair and a daughter outside of wedlock.](http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/dna-is-said-to-solve-a-mystery-of-warren-harding%e2%80%99s-love-life/ar-BBlHfW7) Well maybe, DNA testing is finally going to resolve this matter. Is it too late for impeachment? ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2015, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scandal-presidential-love-child/727743/2 "2015-08-13T15:14:11Z")
Not sure. Was there a blowjob involved? ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2015, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scandal-presidential-love-child/727743/3 "2015-08-13T15:41:32Z")
This is just the break the[Cox](http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/w/James_M._Cox)campaign has been waiting for! ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2015, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scandal-presidential-love-child/727743/4 "2015-08-13T15:42:04Z")
My GOD, I enjoyed that story in my morning paper. But I’m upset that the Harding DNA testing didn’t show any evidence of Negro blood…or “a touch of th’ tar-brush,” to use 1920s lingo. I really, really wanted him to be Our First African-American President. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2015, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scandal-presidential-love-child/727743/5 "2015-08-13T16:25:21Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > My GOD, I enjoyed that story in my morning paper. > > But I’m upset that the Harding DNA testing didn’t show any evidence of Negro blood…or “a touch of th’ tar-brush,” to use 1920s lingo. I really, really wanted him to be Our First African-American President. But he COULDN’T be black- he joined the Klan in a secret White House ceremony, remember??? ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2015, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scandal-presidential-love-child/727743/6 "2015-08-13T16:35:02Z")
Oh, I’m sure the 1920s Klan would have been willing to overlook a little thing like a drop of black blood in exchange for the prestige of having the Prez as a member. That particular manifestation of the KKK weren’t known for having a lot of scruples. They also signed up Cal Coolidge a couple of years later, and he was possibly the whitest dude ever to live in the White House. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2015, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scandal-presidential-love-child/727743/7 "2015-08-13T16:51:56Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > I really, really wanted him to be Our First African-American President. And our first Jewish President. What? You think goyim would give their kid a name like Gamaliel? ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2015, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scandal-presidential-love-child/727743/8 "2015-08-13T19:17:07Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > Oh, I’m sure the 1920s Klan would have been willing to overlook a little thing like a drop of black blood in exchange for the prestige of having the Prez as a member. That particular manifestation of the KKK weren’t known for having a lot of scruples. But what prestige would the Klan get if the swearing-in ceremony was secret? ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2015, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scandal-presidential-love-child/727743/9 "2015-08-13T22:59:04Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > …Well maybe, DNA testing is finally going to resolve this matter. Is it too late for impeachment? Nope; just dig up his corpse and prop it up in a chair in the Senate chamber; it’s been over a thousand years since we’ve seen anything like that. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2015, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scandal-presidential-love-child/727743/10 "2015-08-13T23:11:54Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > But what prestige would the Klan get if the swearing-in ceremony was secret? Good point. Well, it’s certainly possible that Harding and Coolidge were just a pair of racist assholes. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2015, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scandal-presidential-love-child/727743/11 "2015-08-13T23:14:36Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Not sure. Was there a blowjob involved? Nah. Blow jobs were invented in 1968, by Bob Guccione. True fact! ---
**Author:** ![syncrolecyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f08c70/32.png) [@syncrolecyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/syncrolecyne)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2015, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scandal-presidential-love-child/727743/12 "2015-08-14T00:49:23Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > Nah. Blow jobs were invented in 1968, by Bob Guccione. True fact! I once had a boss who was a retired Army colonel who worked in Washington in the early 1960s. During the Clinton impeachment, he repeatedly claimed that President Kennedy “couldn’t have normal sex” due to his bad back and could only get a “blow job after a swim in hot water.” (This guy could be full of shit, but the level of detail was astounding. What was “normal sex” in 1962? - I never learned). I think Kennedy wisely foresaw the rise of [Ancestry.com](http://Ancestry.com) DNA tests, and issued a secret executive order that all White House nookie had to go oral. ---
**Author:** ![syncrolecyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f08c70/32.png) [@syncrolecyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/syncrolecyne)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2015, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scandal-presidential-love-child/727743/13 "2015-08-14T00:59:50Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > Good point. Well, it’s certainly possible that Harding and Coolidge were just a pair of racist assholes. I think it is a safe assumption, but Coolidge at least gave lip service to a degree of racial equality. I am not sure a KKK member would say this (admittedly condescending and sugar-coated) passage in the State of the Union. Or maybe the 1920s Klan was more paternalistic than later KKK incarnations? [http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=29566THE](http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=29566THE) NEGRO "Nearly one-tenth of our population consists of the Negro race. The progress which they have made in all the arts of civilization in the last 60 years is almost beyond belief. Our country has no more loyal citizens. But they do still need sympathy, kindness, and helpfulness. They need reassurance that the requirements of the Government and society to deal out to them even-handed justice will be met. They should be protected from all violence and supported in the peaceable enjoyment of the fruits of their labor. Those who do violence to them should be punished for their crimes. No other course of action is worthy of the American people. … Bigotry is only another name for slavery. It reduces to serfdom not only those against whom it is directed, but also those who seek to apply it. An enlarged freedom can only be secured by the application of the golden rule. No other utterance ever presented such a practical rule of life." ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2015, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scandal-presidential-love-child/727743/14 "2015-08-14T01:25:09Z")
Coolidge wasn’t a member of the Klan, and like **syncrolecyne** said, was hostile to the Klan. When the Klan, after Harding’s death, claimed Harding had been a member, Coolidge’s White House released a statement saying that that was “too ridiculous to discuss”. This is from Cooldge’s 1925 speech to the American Legion > [@](#): > > Whether one traces his Americanism back three centuries to the Mayflower, or three years to the steerage, is not half so important as whether his Americanism of to-day is real and genuine. No matter by what various crafts we came here, we are all now in the same boat… . . > > If we are to have that harmony and tranquility, that union of spirit which is the foundation of real national genius and national progress, we must all realize that there are true Americans who did not happen to be born in our section of the country, who do not attend our place of religious worship, who are not of our racial stock, or who are not proficient in our language. If we are to create on this continent a free Republic and an enlightened civilization that will be capable of reflecting the true greatness and glory of mankind, it will be necessary to regard these differences as accidental and unessential. We shall have to look beyond the outward manifestations of race and creed. . . . > > Divine Providence has not bestowed upon any race a monopoly of patriotism and character. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2015, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scandal-presidential-love-child/727743/15 "2015-08-14T02:08:05Z")
> [@syncrolecyne](#): > > I think it is a safe assumption, but Coolidge at least gave lip service to a degree of racial equality. I am not sure a KKK member would say this (admittedly condescending and sugar-coated) passage in the State of the Union. Or maybe the 1920s Klan was more paternalistic than later KKK incarnations? The Klan in the 20s was different in nature from the post-Civil War version and the 50s version. It was primarily a multi-level marketing scheme. You’d join and the dues would go to the local leaders, who took their cut then passed it on to the people above them. They also got a cut of any Klan regalia (which you’d buy from the Klan). It was also a fraternal organization like the Rotary or Lions Club. You joined it to make business connections (that was why Harry Truman joined, though he left after only a few weeks when a Klan member started making demands on who to when elected). There was racism, but it was just as likely to be aimed at Catholics as it was aimed at Blacks. And many of the membership eschewed violence, preferring to win their battles at the ballot box… ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2015, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scandal-presidential-love-child/727743/16 "2015-08-14T02:23:28Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > It was also a fraternal organization like the Rotary or Lions Club. You joined it to make business connections ( **that was why Harry Truman joined, though he left after only a few weeks when a Klan member started making demands on who to when elected** ). COPY BOY! Take this back down to editorial for a re-write. ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2015, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scandal-presidential-love-child/727743/17 "2015-08-14T02:46:53Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > Good point. Well, it’s certainly possible that Harding and Coolidge were just a pair of racist assholes. I think you have them confused with Woodrow Wilson. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2015, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scandal-presidential-love-child/727743/18 "2015-08-14T02:57:36Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Is it too late for impeachment? Death in office tends to trump impeachment. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2015, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scandal-presidential-love-child/727743/19 "2015-08-14T03:58:22Z")
> [@tomndebb](#): > > Death in office tends to trump impeachment. Not if you’re Pope Formosus or Oliver Cromwell. ---
**Author:** ![FuriousGeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecae2f/32.png) [@FuriousGeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FuriousGeorge)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2015, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scandal-presidential-love-child/727743/20 "2015-08-14T04:29:01Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Breaking news folks! [Warren G. Harding had an affair and a daughter outside of wedlock.](http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/dna-is-said-to-solve-a-mystery-of-warren-harding%e2%80%99s-love-life/ar-BBlHfW7) Well maybe, DNA testing is finally going to resolve this matter. Is it too late for impeachment? Breaking news? I thought this was sorted in season 1 of Boardwalk Empire? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scandal-presidential-love-child/727743.md?page=2)