Professor Cherny Comments on U.S. President Warren G. Harding

EAST BAY TIMES -- “He was one of the very few complete failures as president,” said San Francisco State History Professor Robert Cherny. “He may not be the absolute worst. He’s probably tied with Ulysses S. Grant.”

But there’s one thing about Harding that remains as fascinating and probably unanswerable nearly a century later: Was he murdered?

Conventional history says no. A 1930 book that created a brief national sensation claiming First Lady Florence Harding offed the president has been dismissed and forgotten. “I don’t think anyone believes that anymore,” said Cherny.