Bah. President Buchanan was worse; if not for his corruption and graft, the U.S.A. might have been able to buy Cuba.

Buchanan is certainly not very far from Harding, and a strong candidate for the worst. His lethargy was one of the reasons why the USA drifted into Civil War.

I think Harding's father told him if he had been a woman he would have been pregnant all the time because he didn't know how to say "No.". He was corrupt in the old-fashioned sense of plundering the treasury, rewarding his friends and cronies, and engaging in illicit sexual adventures. But he had little ability to cause lasting damage to the Republic, in the way modern free-spending, war-monger presidents have done. Some conspiracy buffs have suggested that Harding had been poisoned by his wife. No one else at the banquet got sick. But Harding had a heart condition and his entourage actually had a casket in one of the vehicles, just in case. Harding was succeeded by Calvin Coolidge, a many of probity, who said little and did less, leaving everyone alone. One of our best presidents.