This review was mildly entertaining until he wrote, "To say nothing of the shenanigans of the second Bush administration." I'm no fan of President Bush because his "shenanigans" started when he invited Ted Kennedy into the White House within days of his first inauguration. I made a lot of money selling stock in early 2000 at the height of the stock market - while Clinton was still in the White House. I held the cash and rode the market down. By the time of Bush's inauguration, the market had fallen and we were clinging to 2% growth and hoping that we didn't fall into a recession. Of course, that couldn't have been caused by President Clinton. Heavens no! Speak of inconvenient truths that aren't discussed! My beef with Bush was merely Democrat-lite. Obama was correct when he blamed Bush for spending too much money, but obviously that's not a problem since he's the one deciding how the money is spent. Say what you want about Harding, the average American fared very well during his administration, but the average European, not just the Germans, suffered terribly under the punitive terms of the Treaty of Paris - thanks to Democrat Woodrow Wilson. Even John Maynard Keynes blamed Wilson for the economic disaster that slowly strangled the European economy throughout the 20s - while the US economy roared ahead - another inconvenient truth about Harding's administration.

Just so we're clear, "shenanigans" means - this is merely from the context of the review - lawbreaking and a generally cavalier disdain for the law. It does not refer to economic policy. Presidents wear many hats, and law-enforcement officer is one of them. Harding definitely didn't do this part of his job very well.

As for Wilson, the one biography of him I've read indicated that he was deeply opposed to the punitive clauses of the Treaty of Versailles and only supported the treaty because it included provisions for a League of Nations. Moreover, Wilson cannot receive either blame or credit for implementing the Treaty because the U.S. Senate refused to approve it - in fact, the United States technically remained at war with the Central Powers until 1921. As the Senate showed only the other week, presidents aren't the only ones who make American foreign policy.

Finally, Harding's presidency wasn't accompanied by prosperity for all Americans; there was a deep recession at the start of it (1921), caused by postwar demobilization, and a national agricultural depression that lasted through the 1920s and '30s. Hence our modern reference to "Coolidge Prosperity," not "Harding Prosperity."