Apr 25, 2016
The search for the funniest president continues! Today, most people just know Taft as the heaviest president -- but in his day the big guy was one of the most lovable public figures in America.
Our guest is Jon Lurie, a professor emeritus of legal history at Rutgers University who published a Taft biography in 2012. We talk about Taft's famous full-body laugh and his sardonic sense of humor. We review the most famous fat jokes at Taft's expense -- and the ways Taft responded to them. And most important, we try to figure out why a famously fun guy seemed so miserable while serving in the White House.
- William Howard Taft: Travails of a Progressive Conservative
- The Dynamic Value of Sunshine
- The bathtub story
MUSIC: Hail Columbia, "Super Chief" by Count Basie and His Orchestra, "My Ohio Home" by Jean Goldkette and His Orchestra