1
00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:02,320
Speaker 1: Guess what, mango? What's that? Well? All right, so, I

2
00:00:02,320 --> 00:00:04,000
Speaker 1: know there's a lot of debate over whether to keep

3
00:00:04,040 --> 00:00:07,320
Speaker 1: Andrew Jackson on the twenty dollar bill, But one thing

4
00:00:07,320 --> 00:00:10,400
Speaker 1: there isn't much debate about is what kind of person

5
00:00:10,480 --> 00:00:12,200
Speaker 1: Jackson was. Yeah, I think you can sum it up

6
00:00:12,280 --> 00:00:15,440
Speaker 1: with one word terrible. I think you're probably accurate on that.

7
00:00:15,520 --> 00:00:18,960
Speaker 1: And he was obviously popular, but he was also terrible,

8
00:00:19,079 --> 00:00:22,079
Speaker 1: and especially in his younger day. So let me just

9
00:00:22,120 --> 00:00:25,759
Speaker 1: read you this little passage from Cormac McCarthy's Wonderful Secret

10
00:00:25,840 --> 00:00:28,200
Speaker 1: Lives of Presidents. I know it's always been one of

11
00:00:28,200 --> 00:00:30,640
Speaker 1: our favorites to turn to when reading about the presidents,

12
00:00:30,640 --> 00:00:34,599
Speaker 1: But here's how he puts it. Stories of Jackson's hooliganism abound.

13
00:00:34,920 --> 00:00:38,040
Speaker 1: When asked to organize the local dancing school's Christmas ball,

14
00:00:38,360 --> 00:00:42,239
Speaker 1: he secretly invited two of the town's most experienced prostitutes,

15
00:00:42,640 --> 00:00:45,960
Speaker 1: causing a scandal. On another occasion, he and his fellow

16
00:00:46,000 --> 00:00:50,600
Speaker 1: miscreants demolished a local tavern, beginning with the glassware, advancing

17
00:00:50,600 --> 00:00:53,920
Speaker 1: to the furniture, and concluding their sware by setting the

18
00:00:54,000 --> 00:00:58,600
Speaker 1: buildings ablaze. Bloys will be boys, as Cormack so he

19
00:00:58,640 --> 00:01:01,720
Speaker 1: then continues jack and was also known to complete many

20
00:01:01,760 --> 00:01:04,280
Speaker 1: of his wild nights with a practical joke or two.

21
00:01:04,480 --> 00:01:08,440
Speaker 1: His favorite moving out houses, the places they couldn't be found.

22
00:01:09,160 --> 00:01:12,640
Speaker 1: I mean those are a mix of really awful things

23
00:01:12,680 --> 00:01:15,240
Speaker 1: and like kind of funny thing. They are kind of funny, Yeah,

24
00:01:15,520 --> 00:01:17,679
Speaker 1: I mean burning and building down isn't that funny? Right?

25
00:01:18,400 --> 00:01:20,360
Speaker 1: It is kind of weird that that's who ended up

26
00:01:20,360 --> 00:01:22,640
Speaker 1: on our twenty dollar bill, right it is. I mean,

27
00:01:22,680 --> 00:01:26,240
Speaker 1: you know, we tend to respect and revere our American presidents,

28
00:01:26,280 --> 00:01:28,880
Speaker 1: and when people talk about Andrew Jackson, we talked about

29
00:01:28,959 --> 00:01:31,240
Speaker 1: how he was a man of the people, or I

30
00:01:31,240 --> 00:01:33,760
Speaker 1: don't know how devoted he was to his wife, or

31
00:01:34,040 --> 00:01:36,280
Speaker 1: you know, maybe counter the trail of tears stuff with

32
00:01:36,360 --> 00:01:40,200
Speaker 1: how he adopted a Native American son. But it did

33
00:01:40,280 --> 00:01:42,560
Speaker 1: make us wonder in some of these conversations, like who

34
00:01:42,560 --> 00:01:46,440
Speaker 1: are some of America's worst presidents? Who are the politicians

35
00:01:46,440 --> 00:01:49,280
Speaker 1: who really squandered their opportunities in the Oval office? And

36
00:01:49,640 --> 00:01:52,400
Speaker 1: why aren't they getting any elementary schools named after them?

37
00:01:52,440 --> 00:01:55,080
Speaker 1: I think that's the goal, after all. So that's what

38
00:01:55,160 --> 00:02:18,960
Speaker 1: today's episode is all about. Let's dive in, y Hey,

39
00:02:19,000 --> 00:02:21,600
Speaker 1: their podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will

40
00:02:21,639 --> 00:02:23,679
Speaker 1: Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good friend

41
00:02:23,680 --> 00:02:26,080
Speaker 1: man Guesshot Ticketer and sitting on the other side of

42
00:02:26,080 --> 00:02:29,880
Speaker 1: the soundproof glass pasting tiny portraits, these tiny little portraits.

43
00:02:29,880 --> 00:02:30,919
Speaker 1: I had to go over and look to see who

44
00:02:30,919 --> 00:02:33,560
Speaker 1: it was. It's President Taft Mango and he's putting them

45
00:02:33,560 --> 00:02:37,000
Speaker 1: onto all of these pennies. That's our friend and producer

46
00:02:37,120 --> 00:02:39,760
Speaker 1: Tristan McNeil. Now, of course, this is all part of

47
00:02:39,760 --> 00:02:43,080
Speaker 1: Tristan's bigger effort, this ongoing effort to win a little

48
00:02:43,160 --> 00:02:46,360
Speaker 1: bit more praise for Taft. I don't know exactly why

49
00:02:46,400 --> 00:02:48,760
Speaker 1: he wants to do this or why he's using pennies

50
00:02:48,800 --> 00:02:50,840
Speaker 1: as kind of a mystery at this point. Yeah. I

51
00:02:50,840 --> 00:02:53,320
Speaker 1: mean he explained, if anything, to me earlier, and apparently

52
00:02:53,360 --> 00:02:55,560
Speaker 1: he just always thought it was unfair that Lincoln gets

53
00:02:55,600 --> 00:02:59,240
Speaker 1: the penny and the five dollar bill and while you know,

54
00:02:59,480 --> 00:03:01,280
Speaker 1: Taft seems sort of mediocre to me, and he just

55
00:03:01,320 --> 00:03:03,799
Speaker 1: has that story about the bathtub. Tristan is really in

56
00:03:03,880 --> 00:03:07,600
Speaker 1: awe of him. It is the best presidential bathtub story.

57
00:03:07,720 --> 00:03:09,519
Speaker 1: All right. Well, so today's show is all about trying

58
00:03:09,520 --> 00:03:12,480
Speaker 1: to figure out who was America's worst president. And even

59
00:03:12,480 --> 00:03:15,400
Speaker 1: though the presidency requires all kinds of different skills and

60
00:03:15,440 --> 00:03:19,000
Speaker 1: abilities that are difficult to rank across the board, it's

61
00:03:19,080 --> 00:03:21,520
Speaker 1: easy to spot the ones who led us into like

62
00:03:21,600 --> 00:03:26,040
Speaker 1: economic disaster or maybe fan the flames of civil war. So,

63
00:03:26,080 --> 00:03:30,880
Speaker 1: in honor of President taffs aggressively mediocre legacy, what do

64
00:03:30,880 --> 00:03:33,560
Speaker 1: you say we sling some mud on his behalf and

65
00:03:33,560 --> 00:03:35,680
Speaker 1: and then let's actually talk about some of the real

66
00:03:35,880 --> 00:03:39,160
Speaker 1: worst presidents in American history. Well, I do think we

67
00:03:39,160 --> 00:03:41,040
Speaker 1: should mention at the outset that we're sticking to the

68
00:03:41,080 --> 00:03:44,200
Speaker 1: past year for today's show and focusing only on historical presidents.

69
00:03:44,240 --> 00:03:47,120
Speaker 1: So this is more of a ridiculous armchair exercise rather

70
00:03:47,120 --> 00:03:50,920
Speaker 1: than anything super political. Nobody recently, nobody. We didn't want

71
00:03:50,920 --> 00:03:54,160
Speaker 1: to get any who has been president in the past

72
00:03:54,200 --> 00:03:56,320
Speaker 1: thirty years. We have no idea, so we're only talking

73
00:03:56,320 --> 00:03:58,480
Speaker 1: about the past. Of course, we will be using some

74
00:03:58,600 --> 00:04:01,920
Speaker 1: surveys conducted by his story ends and other presidential authorities

75
00:04:01,920 --> 00:04:04,440
Speaker 1: to guide this, and one we did look at was

76
00:04:04,520 --> 00:04:08,640
Speaker 1: the two thousand eighteen Presidents and Executive Politics Presidential Greatness Survey.

77
00:04:08,720 --> 00:04:11,560
Speaker 1: It was conducted by the American Political Science Association and

78
00:04:11,640 --> 00:04:14,360
Speaker 1: It compiles the rankings of a hundred seventy different social

79
00:04:14,360 --> 00:04:17,440
Speaker 1: science experts and presidential politics. You know, the thing I

80
00:04:17,480 --> 00:04:20,760
Speaker 1: like about these surveys is just how consistent the results

81
00:04:20,760 --> 00:04:23,240
Speaker 1: tend to be, you know, over over previous years when

82
00:04:23,279 --> 00:04:24,480
Speaker 1: you look at them, like if you look at the

83
00:04:24,520 --> 00:04:27,440
Speaker 1: one from I guess it was four years ago. Those

84
00:04:27,520 --> 00:04:30,760
Speaker 1: bottom ten presidents, I mean, they're pretty much the same names.

85
00:04:30,800 --> 00:04:33,760
Speaker 1: They tend to move around a little bit, you know,

86
00:04:33,760 --> 00:04:36,240
Speaker 1: So we can't claim to know the definitive ranking of

87
00:04:36,279 --> 00:04:39,000
Speaker 1: all US presidents. We we can say with at least

88
00:04:39,080 --> 00:04:41,760
Speaker 1: some level of certainty that none of these guys are

89
00:04:41,760 --> 00:04:44,520
Speaker 1: going to be appearing on new currency anytime soon. Yeah,

90
00:04:44,600 --> 00:04:46,800
Speaker 1: and like you said earlier, they're not gonna get elementary

91
00:04:46,800 --> 00:04:50,400
Speaker 1: schools or airports. Are probably not too many bubbleheads, uh,

92
00:04:50,480 --> 00:04:52,000
Speaker 1: you know in honor of the mind that you could

93
00:04:52,000 --> 00:04:54,560
Speaker 1: find a tap bobble out there. I mean I did

94
00:04:54,640 --> 00:04:57,880
Speaker 1: find William Henry Harrison trucker hat that everyone I know

95
00:04:57,960 --> 00:05:01,839
Speaker 1: now is actually gonna get for Christmas. Pretty awesome. It's

96
00:05:01,880 --> 00:05:04,479
Speaker 1: weird that you don't see William Henry Harrison's face on

97
00:05:04,600 --> 00:05:07,440
Speaker 1: more like dorm room posters. That seems like something like

98
00:05:08,120 --> 00:05:09,839
Speaker 1: we we might try to change that. We'll see, But

99
00:05:09,880 --> 00:05:11,880
Speaker 1: I guess he does belong on this list since he

100
00:05:12,240 --> 00:05:15,440
Speaker 1: died a pneumonia like thirty days after his inauguration. So

101
00:05:15,520 --> 00:05:18,480
Speaker 1: of course he wasn't a great president at the very last. Yeah,

102
00:05:18,560 --> 00:05:20,160
Speaker 1: he didn't get a chance. But I do want to

103
00:05:20,240 --> 00:05:22,760
Speaker 1: disagree with you on not one, but two of the

104
00:05:22,800 --> 00:05:25,680
Speaker 1: points you just say. So for starters, we are sure

105
00:05:25,760 --> 00:05:28,240
Speaker 1: it was pneumonia that did in the ninth president. So,

106
00:05:28,680 --> 00:05:30,839
Speaker 1: I mean, the story does kind of fit. As we've

107
00:05:30,839 --> 00:05:33,919
Speaker 1: talked before. You know, Harrison insisted on giving this ninety

108
00:05:34,040 --> 00:05:38,360
Speaker 1: minute undred word inauguration speech on what was this very cold,

109
00:05:38,520 --> 00:05:40,920
Speaker 1: very wet winter day. He didn't wear a hat, so

110
00:05:41,080 --> 00:05:43,240
Speaker 1: I mean it tracts that he caught a cold and

111
00:05:43,240 --> 00:05:46,960
Speaker 1: and it eventually worsened into pneumonia. But you know, actually

112
00:05:47,040 --> 00:05:49,640
Speaker 1: this is the side. But the doctor treated him for pneumonia,

113
00:05:49,920 --> 00:05:52,239
Speaker 1: and the treatment at the time was around the clock

114
00:05:52,360 --> 00:05:56,640
Speaker 1: enemas and doses of opium. Oh good god, so awful.

115
00:05:56,960 --> 00:05:59,480
Speaker 1: Sounds horrible. But so if it wasn't pneumonia, what what

116
00:05:59,480 --> 00:06:02,880
Speaker 1: what killed? Yeah? So some modern scholars actually think that

117
00:06:02,920 --> 00:06:06,640
Speaker 1: the real culprit was this deadly bacteria strain, which, uh,

118
00:06:06,720 --> 00:06:08,840
Speaker 1: which probably came from all the night soil that had

119
00:06:08,880 --> 00:06:11,000
Speaker 1: been dumped just a few blocks away from the White House.

120
00:06:11,680 --> 00:06:15,000
Speaker 1: Did you say night soil? Yeah? So, remember we were

121
00:06:15,000 --> 00:06:17,600
Speaker 1: talking about the eighteen forties here, so Washington d C.

122
00:06:17,800 --> 00:06:20,960
Speaker 1: Didn't have a sewer system yet, and instead the city's

123
00:06:21,040 --> 00:06:22,839
Speaker 1: daily dose of experment was hauled the way to this

124
00:06:22,920 --> 00:06:27,320
Speaker 1: nearby marsh every single evening, hence the term night soil. Ah,

125
00:06:27,360 --> 00:06:29,960
Speaker 1: so you're saying this marsh was just down the street

126
00:06:30,040 --> 00:06:31,599
Speaker 1: from the White House. So so maybe it was this

127
00:06:31,680 --> 00:06:34,400
Speaker 1: bacteria from what like all the fecal matter that was

128
00:06:34,440 --> 00:06:36,800
Speaker 1: in the water supply exactly, And the kind of gastro

129
00:06:36,800 --> 00:06:40,520
Speaker 1: intestinal sickness that Harrison went through is commonly linked at

130
00:06:40,560 --> 00:06:42,800
Speaker 1: least two different bacteria that would have been found there,

131
00:06:43,160 --> 00:06:45,080
Speaker 1: And the theory really starts to look convincing once you

132
00:06:45,120 --> 00:06:48,480
Speaker 1: consider that both James Polke and Zachary Taylor also dealt

133
00:06:48,520 --> 00:06:50,480
Speaker 1: with gastro and tritus while living in the White House,

134
00:06:50,720 --> 00:06:53,080
Speaker 1: with Taylor even dying in off as just like Harrison did.

135
00:06:53,960 --> 00:06:56,039
Speaker 1: All right, so I'll stand corrected on that, or at

136
00:06:56,120 --> 00:06:58,920
Speaker 1: least potentially corrected, But I'm curious that what didn't you

137
00:06:58,960 --> 00:07:01,000
Speaker 1: say there was one more thing you to correct me on. Yeah,

138
00:07:01,000 --> 00:07:03,800
Speaker 1: I mean the other thing is that Harrison didn't influence

139
00:07:03,800 --> 00:07:06,520
Speaker 1: politics because he died so soon after taking office. Because

140
00:07:06,560 --> 00:07:08,880
Speaker 1: when you think about it, he actually did some lasting

141
00:07:08,960 --> 00:07:12,240
Speaker 1: damage to American politics. And what makes you say that? So,

142
00:07:12,320 --> 00:07:14,960
Speaker 1: William Henry Harrison's campaign was really the first to use

143
00:07:15,000 --> 00:07:17,160
Speaker 1: food as a way to appeal to social and class

144
00:07:17,160 --> 00:07:20,560
Speaker 1: differences in America. So for background, Harrison tried to portray

145
00:07:20,640 --> 00:07:23,800
Speaker 1: himself as this like frontiersman who was tough as nails.

146
00:07:23,840 --> 00:07:26,640
Speaker 1: And this was despite the fact that he was well educated,

147
00:07:26,720 --> 00:07:30,040
Speaker 1: came from this wealthy, distinguished Virginia family. But you know,

148
00:07:30,120 --> 00:07:33,280
Speaker 1: his campaign took out ads smartly that showed him in

149
00:07:33,280 --> 00:07:35,640
Speaker 1: front of a log cabin. I mean it was supposedly

150
00:07:35,720 --> 00:07:38,400
Speaker 1: his log cabin, and uh he also had this big

151
00:07:38,440 --> 00:07:41,000
Speaker 1: barrel of hard cider right out front. And the plan

152
00:07:41,080 --> 00:07:43,280
Speaker 1: was to convince voters that Harrison was this man of

153
00:07:43,360 --> 00:07:46,000
Speaker 1: the people. You know, he was trying to separate himself

154
00:07:46,000 --> 00:07:48,960
Speaker 1: from the fat catalytist that Martin Van Buren could be

155
00:07:48,960 --> 00:07:53,320
Speaker 1: seen as or Vanny Bee is. So his campaign took

156
00:07:53,360 --> 00:07:55,920
Speaker 1: to calling him the log cabin and hard cider candidate,

157
00:07:56,240 --> 00:07:58,520
Speaker 1: and he was this man who lived and drank just

158
00:07:58,640 --> 00:08:01,400
Speaker 1: like I guess the real Pete. Well, the plan worked,

159
00:08:01,440 --> 00:08:03,920
Speaker 1: I guess right, I mean he got elected. Yeah, it

160
00:08:03,960 --> 00:08:06,880
Speaker 1: wasn't much of a contest. Presidential candidates didn't even campaign

161
00:08:06,960 --> 00:08:09,920
Speaker 1: for themselves prior to Harrison, and Van Buren was no exception,

162
00:08:09,960 --> 00:08:12,480
Speaker 1: so you couldn't really push back on these elitist rumors.

163
00:08:12,520 --> 00:08:16,160
Speaker 1: But Harrison did an incredible job. Like he held these

164
00:08:16,320 --> 00:08:20,320
Speaker 1: massive rallies town after town. Sometimes they had sixty people

165
00:08:20,320 --> 00:08:22,640
Speaker 1: out on them, and he was just like a ridiculous party.

166
00:08:22,760 --> 00:08:25,400
Speaker 1: His supporters were rolling logs all over the place and

167
00:08:25,680 --> 00:08:28,920
Speaker 1: handing out hard cider, and he even had these custom

168
00:08:29,040 --> 00:08:32,000
Speaker 1: log cabin shaped bottles made for the events. Like it

169
00:08:32,200 --> 00:08:34,360
Speaker 1: really marked the first time that a politician used food

170
00:08:34,400 --> 00:08:36,760
Speaker 1: as a shorthand for social class. Well, it makes me

171
00:08:36,800 --> 00:08:39,600
Speaker 1: think about that phrase that sometimes people use that we

172
00:08:39,679 --> 00:08:42,199
Speaker 1: often shut her at when somebody just talks about how

173
00:08:42,240 --> 00:08:44,440
Speaker 1: they would vote based on who they'd rather have a

174
00:08:44,480 --> 00:08:48,640
Speaker 1: beer with. Ins Yeah, exactly, And I guess you can

175
00:08:48,679 --> 00:08:52,000
Speaker 1: blame William Henry Harrison for that. We think about it,

176
00:08:52,040 --> 00:08:54,480
Speaker 1: so yes, I will give him a mark against them

177
00:08:54,520 --> 00:08:56,559
Speaker 1: for that and all let's stick to the time like

178
00:08:56,679 --> 00:08:59,040
Speaker 1: for a minute and talk about Harrison's success or, who is,

179
00:08:59,080 --> 00:09:03,040
Speaker 1: of course John Tiler and another less than stellar president.

180
00:09:03,480 --> 00:09:05,720
Speaker 1: And Tyler is an interesting case because he was actually

181
00:09:05,720 --> 00:09:08,280
Speaker 1: the first person to ascend to the presidency from the

182
00:09:08,400 --> 00:09:11,480
Speaker 1: vice presidency. Yeah, and there weren't even rules in place

183
00:09:11,520 --> 00:09:13,960
Speaker 1: for that kind of succession, right, Like the whole vice

184
00:09:13,960 --> 00:09:16,760
Speaker 1: president rule wasn't in place until the nineteen sixties when

185
00:09:16,760 --> 00:09:19,640
Speaker 1: we added the twenty fifth Amendment. Yeah, that's right. So

186
00:09:19,679 --> 00:09:23,199
Speaker 1: Tyler was really in unchartered territory. And this is where

187
00:09:23,240 --> 00:09:26,920
Speaker 1: his questionable legacy starts to crop up, because rather than

188
00:09:26,960 --> 00:09:30,080
Speaker 1: continuing to act as vice president until Congress and the

189
00:09:30,120 --> 00:09:33,439
Speaker 1: Supreme Court could figure out a solution, Tyler said went

190
00:09:33,440 --> 00:09:36,560
Speaker 1: out and quickly found a district judge, just some district

191
00:09:36,640 --> 00:09:40,160
Speaker 1: judge to swear him in. So effectively, John Tyler made

192
00:09:40,240 --> 00:09:42,880
Speaker 1: himself president. Though I mean, I guess you could argue

193
00:09:42,920 --> 00:09:45,560
Speaker 1: that the twenty five Amendment would later vindicate his actions,

194
00:09:45,600 --> 00:09:47,760
Speaker 1: even if that was what a hundred and twenty years

195
00:09:47,800 --> 00:09:51,320
Speaker 1: after the but you know, think about this, putting him

196
00:09:51,320 --> 00:09:53,000
Speaker 1: aside for just a second. I try not to speak

197
00:09:53,000 --> 00:09:56,160
Speaker 1: ill of any first lady, just on principle. But I've

198
00:09:56,160 --> 00:09:58,520
Speaker 1: got to say that Julia Tyler really didn't do her

199
00:09:58,600 --> 00:10:02,120
Speaker 1: husband any favors. Apparently she would hold these receptions at

200
00:10:02,160 --> 00:10:04,400
Speaker 1: the White House where she would sit on a dais

201
00:10:04,400 --> 00:10:07,040
Speaker 1: with a wreath of flowers on her head, and she

202
00:10:07,080 --> 00:10:10,679
Speaker 1: would ask everyone in attendance to call her Mrs presidentists.

203
00:10:11,240 --> 00:10:13,360
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know anything about being a first lady,

204
00:10:13,360 --> 00:10:16,360
Speaker 1: but if the president's legitimacy is in question, maybe don't

205
00:10:16,400 --> 00:10:21,120
Speaker 1: you that? You know, even Tyler's own party didn't give

206
00:10:21,160 --> 00:10:23,520
Speaker 1: him a pass on all his succession stuff Like I

207
00:10:23,520 --> 00:10:27,120
Speaker 1: remember reading how they started calling Tyler his accidency and

208
00:10:27,240 --> 00:10:31,000
Speaker 1: apparently every member of the Harrison appointed cabinet resigned in protest.

209
00:10:31,360 --> 00:10:34,480
Speaker 1: That's impressive. Well, and Tyler really threw the Whig Party

210
00:10:34,559 --> 00:10:36,840
Speaker 1: under the bus when he became president. In fact, he

211
00:10:36,920 --> 00:10:40,439
Speaker 1: pretty much took the opposing position on every issue the

212
00:10:40,480 --> 00:10:43,600
Speaker 1: party had been backing, including the need for a national

213
00:10:43,679 --> 00:10:45,920
Speaker 1: bank and whether or not state should be allowed to

214
00:10:45,960 --> 00:10:49,280
Speaker 1: seceed on account of slavery. Tyler did manage to fight

215
00:10:49,320 --> 00:10:52,160
Speaker 1: off early attempts to impeach him and made it through

216
00:10:52,240 --> 00:10:55,000
Speaker 1: his single term, but by the time he died less

217
00:10:55,040 --> 00:10:57,719
Speaker 1: than two decades later, he was considered a trader by

218
00:10:57,800 --> 00:11:00,439
Speaker 1: most people in Washington. And you know, at that point

219
00:11:00,480 --> 00:11:03,920
Speaker 1: it wasn't even an exaggeration, Like he had helped advocate

220
00:11:03,960 --> 00:11:07,120
Speaker 1: for Virginia's secession and he was all set to join

221
00:11:07,160 --> 00:11:10,280
Speaker 1: the Confederate House of Representatives before his death kind of

222
00:11:10,400 --> 00:11:13,199
Speaker 1: mixed those plans. I mean, you don't want to heat

223
00:11:13,280 --> 00:11:16,000
Speaker 1: more dirt on this guy's legacy. But I was reading

224
00:11:16,040 --> 00:11:18,760
Speaker 1: about Tyler in the Secret Lives of the U S Presidents,

225
00:11:18,880 --> 00:11:22,000
Speaker 1: which you know, I've got to say, I love Cormack O'Brien.

226
00:11:22,040 --> 00:11:24,000
Speaker 1: He was on the show Nicest Guy, and this book

227
00:11:24,080 --> 00:11:26,200
Speaker 1: is so great, but he makes it sound like Tyler

228
00:11:26,280 --> 00:11:28,720
Speaker 1: was kind of cowardly as well on top of everything else.

229
00:11:28,800 --> 00:11:32,320
Speaker 1: Like just listen to this quote. Tyler's estrangement from the

230
00:11:32,320 --> 00:11:35,240
Speaker 1: Whig Party was no joke. Angry mobs made a habit

231
00:11:35,240 --> 00:11:37,080
Speaker 1: of showing up at the White House. Some even burned

232
00:11:37,120 --> 00:11:40,400
Speaker 1: him in effigy. There were also plenty of bomb threats. Once,

233
00:11:40,440 --> 00:11:42,760
Speaker 1: when an unmarked package arrived at the White House, a

234
00:11:42,800 --> 00:11:45,000
Speaker 1: staff member was called to look at it, but Tyler

235
00:11:45,080 --> 00:11:48,120
Speaker 1: hid behind a marble column. The servant proceeded to hack

236
00:11:48,160 --> 00:11:50,720
Speaker 1: the parcel to pieces with a meat cleaver, only to

237
00:11:50,760 --> 00:11:54,240
Speaker 1: reveal a dilapidated toy. In a unique act of pity,

238
00:11:54,400 --> 00:11:58,120
Speaker 1: Congress past Tyler's bill, which provided the first federally funded

239
00:11:58,120 --> 00:12:02,080
Speaker 1: White House security. All right, well, let's leave Tyler over there,

240
00:12:02,120 --> 00:12:05,319
Speaker 1: just kind of cowering behind his favorite marble column and

241
00:12:05,320 --> 00:12:08,079
Speaker 1: and talk about another pair of bad presidents who also

242
00:12:08,120 --> 00:12:11,400
Speaker 1: followed right on each other's heels, And that's Zachary Taylor

243
00:12:11,520 --> 00:12:14,719
Speaker 1: and Millard Fillmore. Absolutely, But before we dive in, let's

244
00:12:14,720 --> 00:12:31,480
Speaker 1: take a quick break. You're listening to part time genius.

245
00:12:31,520 --> 00:12:34,199
Speaker 1: So we're talking about the most terrible, horrible, no good,

246
00:12:34,400 --> 00:12:37,360
Speaker 1: very bad presidents in US history, or at least the

247
00:12:37,400 --> 00:12:40,080
Speaker 1: ones historians like the least I'm speaking of, which the

248
00:12:40,080 --> 00:12:42,400
Speaker 1: next guy on our list is the country's twelfth president.

249
00:12:42,440 --> 00:12:45,280
Speaker 1: And then that was Zachary Taylor. And he's an interesting

250
00:12:45,320 --> 00:12:48,320
Speaker 1: case because, unlike John Tyler and other presidents who were

251
00:12:48,360 --> 00:12:51,960
Speaker 1: disliked both in their own time and today, Zachary Taylor

252
00:12:52,040 --> 00:12:54,640
Speaker 1: was actually pretty popular in his day. Yeah, I mean,

253
00:12:54,679 --> 00:12:56,200
Speaker 1: it kind of helps that he was only in office

254
00:12:56,240 --> 00:12:58,320
Speaker 1: for what like a year, and people didn't have that

255
00:12:58,400 --> 00:13:00,800
Speaker 1: much to form bad opinions about him. I guess it's

256
00:13:00,800 --> 00:13:02,840
Speaker 1: true he died pretty quickly. But but you know, it

257
00:13:02,880 --> 00:13:05,400
Speaker 1: wasn't just his brief time in office that gave people

258
00:13:05,520 --> 00:13:08,560
Speaker 1: this rosy view of him. I mean, before becoming president

259
00:13:08,559 --> 00:13:11,640
Speaker 1: in eighteen forty nine, Taylor had already spent some forty

260
00:13:11,679 --> 00:13:14,760
Speaker 1: odd years fighting no less than four different wars for

261
00:13:14,840 --> 00:13:16,760
Speaker 1: the U. S. Army. I mean, the guy was a

262
00:13:16,800 --> 00:13:20,079
Speaker 1: war hero, had this career that stretched from the War

263
00:13:20,120 --> 00:13:23,760
Speaker 1: of eighteen twelve to the Mexican War, had that nickname

264
00:13:23,840 --> 00:13:26,560
Speaker 1: all rough and ready tried to get people to call

265
00:13:26,640 --> 00:13:29,360
Speaker 1: me that, but nobody's nobody's sticking to it, and it

266
00:13:29,400 --> 00:13:31,000
Speaker 1: seems to have been one of those nicknames that was

267
00:13:31,040 --> 00:13:34,000
Speaker 1: actually pretty well earned in his case. So I'm guessing, then, like,

268
00:13:34,040 --> 00:13:36,440
Speaker 1: how does he wind up on this worst President's list?

269
00:13:37,280 --> 00:13:39,520
Speaker 1: It's partly because he spent such a brief time in

270
00:13:39,600 --> 00:13:41,840
Speaker 1: office that he just didn't get much done, much like

271
00:13:41,880 --> 00:13:45,280
Speaker 1: William Henry Harrison before him. But it really makes Taylor

272
00:13:45,360 --> 00:13:47,840
Speaker 1: unpopular now. Is actually all the stuff that made him

273
00:13:47,840 --> 00:13:51,600
Speaker 1: popular in his day. For instance, that that long military

274
00:13:51,679 --> 00:13:54,040
Speaker 1: career of his, the one that helped him get elected,

275
00:13:54,120 --> 00:13:57,440
Speaker 1: it actually includes some really brutal campaigns. When you think

276
00:13:57,480 --> 00:14:01,520
Speaker 1: about the seminoles and the Chippewa tribes effectively got were

277
00:14:01,600 --> 00:14:04,600
Speaker 1: driven from their land. And you know, then there's Taylor's

278
00:14:04,640 --> 00:14:07,360
Speaker 1: muddle stance on slavery. You know, on the one hand,

279
00:14:07,360 --> 00:14:11,040
Speaker 1: Taylor opposed the creation of new slave states and fought

280
00:14:11,080 --> 00:14:14,079
Speaker 1: hard for the western territories to only be admitted as

281
00:14:14,160 --> 00:14:16,680
Speaker 1: free states. But on the other hand, he was a

282
00:14:16,679 --> 00:14:21,680
Speaker 1: slaveholder himself, had multiple plantations and over aden slave persons

283
00:14:21,720 --> 00:14:24,960
Speaker 1: to his name, So I'm curious if you're a slave owner, like,

284
00:14:25,160 --> 00:14:28,880
Speaker 1: why would you engage in all this like anti slavery rhetoric. Well,

285
00:14:28,880 --> 00:14:32,160
Speaker 1: I mean, it turns out Taylor wasn't morally opposed to slavery,

286
00:14:32,200 --> 00:14:34,960
Speaker 1: and I guess that's pretty obvious given his track record there.

287
00:14:34,960 --> 00:14:37,680
Speaker 1: But he just recognized that there was growing opposition to

288
00:14:37,720 --> 00:14:40,480
Speaker 1: the practice. And you know, they used people needed to

289
00:14:40,520 --> 00:14:43,960
Speaker 1: be catered to in order to avoid civil war, and

290
00:14:44,080 --> 00:14:47,160
Speaker 1: Taylor was determined to preserve the Union and this was

291
00:14:47,320 --> 00:14:50,040
Speaker 1: by force if necessary. Like there was one time in

292
00:14:50,080 --> 00:14:53,479
Speaker 1: eighteen fifty when a few Southern leaders started threatening secession

293
00:14:54,000 --> 00:14:56,480
Speaker 1: and Taylor was so angry about this he swore he

294
00:14:56,520 --> 00:14:59,520
Speaker 1: would personally lead the army against them if they went

295
00:14:59,600 --> 00:15:03,320
Speaker 1: through it. Again, this was probably more out of his,

296
00:15:03,600 --> 00:15:06,840
Speaker 1: you know, four decades of military service and wanting to

297
00:15:06,880 --> 00:15:09,080
Speaker 1: be involved in those sorts of conflicts than it was

298
00:15:09,080 --> 00:15:12,840
Speaker 1: any sort of personal conviction against slavery. So I mean,

299
00:15:12,880 --> 00:15:14,640
Speaker 1: I guess he wound up doing the right thing, but

300
00:15:14,720 --> 00:15:17,400
Speaker 1: maybe for the wrong reasons, or at least not for

301
00:15:17,440 --> 00:15:19,920
Speaker 1: all the right reasons. And it's easy to see how

302
00:15:19,920 --> 00:15:21,920
Speaker 1: that kind of a moral thinking would diminish his standing

303
00:15:21,920 --> 00:15:24,760
Speaker 1: in hindsight. Plus, you know, he didn't have a very

304
00:15:24,800 --> 00:15:27,440
Speaker 1: dignified death. All right, Well, we've kind of beaten around

305
00:15:27,480 --> 00:15:28,760
Speaker 1: the bush on this one, so I feel like you

306
00:15:28,760 --> 00:15:30,920
Speaker 1: should go ahead and tell the story. Yeah, I think

307
00:15:30,920 --> 00:15:33,240
Speaker 1: we've probably talked about it a little before, but I

308
00:15:33,280 --> 00:15:35,760
Speaker 1: love the details of this. So it was July four

309
00:15:36,800 --> 00:15:39,160
Speaker 1: and Taylor has been in office for a little over

310
00:15:39,200 --> 00:15:41,640
Speaker 1: a year now, and he's due to appear at this

311
00:15:41,680 --> 00:15:44,000
Speaker 1: big Independence Day party at the side of the future

312
00:15:44,000 --> 00:15:47,440
Speaker 1: Washington Monument. And the problem is DC's in the middle

313
00:15:47,480 --> 00:15:51,040
Speaker 1: of this blistering heat wave. And if that wasn't bad enough,

314
00:15:51,040 --> 00:15:53,840
Speaker 1: there's also a bad outbreak of cholera, and nobody's supposed

315
00:15:53,880 --> 00:15:56,520
Speaker 1: to drink water or eat rough rout without knowing exactly

316
00:15:56,560 --> 00:15:58,680
Speaker 1: where it came from. But you know, this is old

317
00:15:58,760 --> 00:16:01,400
Speaker 1: rough and Ready we're talking about, and he's still going

318
00:16:01,480 --> 00:16:04,320
Speaker 1: to go to the event. So he sits through the speeches,

319
00:16:04,360 --> 00:16:07,040
Speaker 1: he makes one of his own, and meanwhile, the whole time,

320
00:16:07,200 --> 00:16:10,000
Speaker 1: he and everyone else are just getting baked in the sun. Right,

321
00:16:10,120 --> 00:16:12,000
Speaker 1: And so once it's over, he stumbles back to the

322
00:16:12,000 --> 00:16:16,080
Speaker 1: White House, and he is thirsty. He immediately drinks all

323
00:16:16,120 --> 00:16:18,440
Speaker 1: the water in sight. Then he proceeds to drink all

324
00:16:18,480 --> 00:16:21,000
Speaker 1: the iced milk on hand, and then he wolves down

325
00:16:21,000 --> 00:16:23,640
Speaker 1: a whole bowl of cherries that someone left on the kitchen.

326
00:16:23,720 --> 00:16:26,440
Speaker 1: So you know, he is not afraid of anything, and

327
00:16:26,760 --> 00:16:29,880
Speaker 1: this does the trick. He feels satisfied, except that, you know,

328
00:16:29,960 --> 00:16:32,200
Speaker 1: the next day he's doubled over with the stomach cramps

329
00:16:32,240 --> 00:16:35,440
Speaker 1: and then he starts displaying these symptoms of gastro and tritus,

330
00:16:35,520 --> 00:16:39,120
Speaker 1: and four unpleasant days later, Taylor becomes the second president

331
00:16:39,160 --> 00:16:41,560
Speaker 1: to die in office. I mean, it does make you

332
00:16:41,600 --> 00:16:43,680
Speaker 1: feel for the guy a little bit to think about

333
00:16:43,680 --> 00:16:46,280
Speaker 1: the fact that he lived through four separate wars only

334
00:16:46,280 --> 00:16:48,280
Speaker 1: to be taken out by what you said, ice milk

335
00:16:48,280 --> 00:16:50,680
Speaker 1: and a bowl of cherries. Yeah, I mean I honestly

336
00:16:50,720 --> 00:16:52,440
Speaker 1: think about this every summer when I'm looking at like

337
00:16:52,480 --> 00:16:54,880
Speaker 1: a big bowl of cherries in the kitchen, and I'm

338
00:16:54,880 --> 00:16:58,000
Speaker 1: always like, you know, a president died for him drinking

339
00:16:58,000 --> 00:17:00,320
Speaker 1: ice milk and too many cherries. And of course I

340
00:17:00,400 --> 00:17:02,560
Speaker 1: just scarf from down anyway, because Jerry's are so delicious,

341
00:17:02,640 --> 00:17:05,800
Speaker 1: such a risk taker. I mean, it does feel like

342
00:17:05,840 --> 00:17:09,240
Speaker 1: a cruel twist to fight even for this irredeemable racist.

343
00:17:09,280 --> 00:17:11,879
Speaker 1: But because nobody is all bad, I do want to

344
00:17:11,920 --> 00:17:14,439
Speaker 1: mention that President Taylor had a beloved pet. It was

345
00:17:14,480 --> 00:17:18,199
Speaker 1: this old white horse named Old Whitey, creative name, and

346
00:17:18,280 --> 00:17:20,560
Speaker 1: he kept Old Whitey on the White House lawn. And

347
00:17:20,600 --> 00:17:23,040
Speaker 1: when Taylor died, the horse was actually part of the

348
00:17:23,080 --> 00:17:27,080
Speaker 1: funeral procession, marching right there behind his master's coffin. I

349
00:17:27,160 --> 00:17:28,679
Speaker 1: like that. The nicest thing you can say is that

350
00:17:28,720 --> 00:17:31,160
Speaker 1: he had a horse that participated in his future, right

351
00:17:31,320 --> 00:17:36,239
Speaker 1: right willingly. So you know, it's still probably more than

352
00:17:36,280 --> 00:17:38,840
Speaker 1: you could say for his successor, Millard Fillmore, who took

353
00:17:38,840 --> 00:17:41,800
Speaker 1: over after Taylor died, and he became another president who

354
00:17:41,880 --> 00:17:44,760
Speaker 1: no one really wanted. You know, Fillmore did have one

355
00:17:44,800 --> 00:17:48,040
Speaker 1: thing going for him over his predecessor. While Taylor had

356
00:17:48,040 --> 00:17:50,040
Speaker 1: the looks you'd expect from someone who had spent forty

357
00:17:50,080 --> 00:17:53,160
Speaker 1: years in combat. Fillmore was actually the super sharp dressor.

358
00:17:53,280 --> 00:17:56,439
Speaker 1: He was good looking. In fact, Queen Victoria thought so.

359
00:17:56,880 --> 00:17:59,440
Speaker 1: After meeting him at court. She supposedly called him the

360
00:17:59,480 --> 00:18:02,720
Speaker 1: handsomest man she'd ever met. So it sounds like he

361
00:18:02,800 --> 00:18:04,720
Speaker 1: was sort of the opposite of Taylor, at least in

362
00:18:04,800 --> 00:18:07,120
Speaker 1: terms of looks. But but what about his policy where

363
00:18:07,160 --> 00:18:09,640
Speaker 1: the opposites in that regard to Yeah, they kind of were.

364
00:18:09,720 --> 00:18:12,760
Speaker 1: So remember how Taylor had been politically opposed to slavery

365
00:18:12,840 --> 00:18:16,040
Speaker 1: but personally for it. Well, Fillmore was the reverse of that.

366
00:18:16,160 --> 00:18:18,800
Speaker 1: He claimed to be personally against the practice. And this

367
00:18:18,840 --> 00:18:21,040
Speaker 1: actually might have come because his family was so poor

368
00:18:21,040 --> 00:18:22,720
Speaker 1: when he was growing up that he was sold into

369
00:18:22,760 --> 00:18:25,479
Speaker 1: indentured servitude as a kid. I think he learned to

370
00:18:25,520 --> 00:18:28,560
Speaker 1: read by stealing books, and uh, eventually he did buy

371
00:18:28,560 --> 00:18:31,920
Speaker 1: his way out. But it's strange because the main highlight

372
00:18:31,960 --> 00:18:34,600
Speaker 1: of his whole tenure is getting the Compromise of eighteen

373
00:18:34,600 --> 00:18:37,320
Speaker 1: fifty past, and this was something Taylor had opposed because

374
00:18:37,320 --> 00:18:39,040
Speaker 1: he thought it was too big a win for southern

375
00:18:39,040 --> 00:18:42,680
Speaker 1: slavers alright, So so why did fill More than support

376
00:18:42,760 --> 00:18:46,880
Speaker 1: the bills. Well, Taylor had prevented secession during his brief term,

377
00:18:46,960 --> 00:18:49,160
Speaker 1: but the South wasn't happy about his plan to admit

378
00:18:49,240 --> 00:18:52,320
Speaker 1: only free states from then on, and this growing anger

379
00:18:52,440 --> 00:18:55,240
Speaker 1: made feel more nervous that Southerners might move forward with

380
00:18:55,280 --> 00:18:58,199
Speaker 1: secession or even the outright war might break out, so

381
00:18:58,480 --> 00:19:01,480
Speaker 1: filmore back the compromise out fear more than anything else.

382
00:19:01,520 --> 00:19:04,080
Speaker 1: And while the bills did do some good for the nation,

383
00:19:04,240 --> 00:19:07,080
Speaker 1: like adding California to the Union as this free state

384
00:19:07,160 --> 00:19:09,639
Speaker 1: and banged the slave trade in d C, the negative

385
00:19:09,680 --> 00:19:12,480
Speaker 1: outcomes sort of outweighed that. And this was partially through

386
00:19:12,480 --> 00:19:15,399
Speaker 1: the addition of the Fugitive Slave Act, which obligated the

387
00:19:15,400 --> 00:19:18,320
Speaker 1: federal government to return fugitive slaves to their masters. This

388
00:19:18,359 --> 00:19:20,440
Speaker 1: was regardless of whether the states they were found and

389
00:19:20,480 --> 00:19:23,919
Speaker 1: were free or not. And this was a massive, massive

390
00:19:23,960 --> 00:19:27,439
Speaker 1: setback for abolitionists and it actually further the political divide

391
00:19:27,480 --> 00:19:29,639
Speaker 1: that was growing in the country. So it sounds like

392
00:19:29,680 --> 00:19:32,400
Speaker 1: he basically sold out his principles to try and keep

393
00:19:32,440 --> 00:19:35,000
Speaker 1: the peace, which I mean that's a hard line to keep. Yeah,

394
00:19:35,240 --> 00:19:37,600
Speaker 1: he's another president whose reputation is only worse than as

395
00:19:37,600 --> 00:19:40,320
Speaker 1: the years go by, and the cost of his decisions,

396
00:19:40,359 --> 00:19:42,560
Speaker 1: you know, they start to look more and more unconscionable

397
00:19:42,640 --> 00:19:45,520
Speaker 1: with time, and that shifting view on Filmore is actually

398
00:19:45,560 --> 00:19:48,280
Speaker 1: something that started as early as two decades after the compromise.

399
00:19:48,400 --> 00:19:50,959
Speaker 1: So in eighteen seventy, in an addition to the New

400
00:19:51,000 --> 00:19:55,119
Speaker 1: York Times, the paper wrote, quote, it was Fillmore's misfortune

401
00:19:55,160 --> 00:19:58,760
Speaker 1: to see in slavery a political and not a moral question. Well,

402
00:19:58,800 --> 00:20:01,119
Speaker 1: there's one part of Filmore's hanted legacy that I do

403
00:20:01,320 --> 00:20:03,800
Speaker 1: find pretty funny with all of the kind of more

404
00:20:03,880 --> 00:20:05,960
Speaker 1: sad stuff that you just mentioned, and that's the tongue

405
00:20:05,960 --> 00:20:09,160
Speaker 1: in cheek club that was set to lampoon his ineffectiveness

406
00:20:09,200 --> 00:20:11,240
Speaker 1: as president. You may have heard of this before, but

407
00:20:11,280 --> 00:20:14,399
Speaker 1: it's called the Millard Fillmore Society, and it actually wasn't

408
00:20:14,440 --> 00:20:18,040
Speaker 1: formed until nineteen eighty. This, of course, is over a

409
00:20:18,080 --> 00:20:21,040
Speaker 1: century after Fillmore died. So I'm curious what kind of

410
00:20:21,080 --> 00:20:24,040
Speaker 1: stuff did the society to do, I mean, really important stuff.

411
00:20:24,040 --> 00:20:26,159
Speaker 1: But probably what they were most known for was the

412
00:20:26,160 --> 00:20:29,240
Speaker 1: annual award they would give out called the Medal of Mediocrity,

413
00:20:29,400 --> 00:20:32,280
Speaker 1: and it was ended out each January around the time

414
00:20:32,280 --> 00:20:34,479
Speaker 1: of Fillmore's birthday, and it was as a way of

415
00:20:34,520 --> 00:20:38,920
Speaker 1: honoring quote mediocrity to combat the rising tide of overachievers.

416
00:20:39,680 --> 00:20:41,960
Speaker 1: I was laughing at the list of of winners here.

417
00:20:42,000 --> 00:20:46,920
Speaker 1: So notable winners include Ed McMahon, Prince Charles, Princess Diana,

418
00:20:47,040 --> 00:20:51,240
Speaker 1: and boy George. For some reason, Uh, boy George is

419
00:20:51,240 --> 00:20:54,359
Speaker 1: a strange choice. It actually does remind me of that

420
00:20:54,400 --> 00:20:56,879
Speaker 1: time one of our friends brought a boy George c

421
00:20:56,960 --> 00:20:59,520
Speaker 1: d into our room in college and just started lasting

422
00:20:59,520 --> 00:21:02,520
Speaker 1: it and I felt like he's sang it, danced through

423
00:21:02,600 --> 00:21:05,520
Speaker 1: like Karma Chamillion, I'll Tumble for You, and then some

424
00:21:05,680 --> 00:21:08,160
Speaker 1: other song, and eventually he had to tap out because

425
00:21:08,160 --> 00:21:10,200
Speaker 1: he had to technology he couldn't keep up the enthusiasm

426
00:21:10,240 --> 00:21:12,600
Speaker 1: for boyd George song. Do I need to acknowledge that

427
00:21:12,600 --> 00:21:16,120
Speaker 1: that friend was me? I wasn't gonna say it, but

428
00:21:17,600 --> 00:21:20,320
Speaker 1: I did have. But you know, in this meirit of

429
00:21:20,320 --> 00:21:22,440
Speaker 1: that club, I want to dominate another president for the

430
00:21:22,480 --> 00:21:26,240
Speaker 1: Medal of Mediocrity, and that's our fifteenth president, Mr James Buchanan.

431
00:21:26,840 --> 00:21:29,200
Speaker 1: And believe me, this one's a long time coming. Oh yeah,

432
00:21:29,240 --> 00:21:32,240
Speaker 1: that's definitely a good pick. I mean, he was notoriously awful.

433
00:21:32,280 --> 00:21:34,520
Speaker 1: But before we get into the reasons why, let's take

434
00:21:34,560 --> 00:21:51,600
Speaker 1: one more quick break. Okay, mago, So we have two

435
00:21:51,600 --> 00:21:54,639
Speaker 1: bad presidents left to talk about. We've got James Buchanan

436
00:21:54,840 --> 00:21:58,080
Speaker 1: and Andrew Johnson. And oddly enough, these are two that

437
00:21:58,200 --> 00:22:02,000
Speaker 1: came immediately before and after President Lincoln, who, by the way,

438
00:22:02,040 --> 00:22:05,919
Speaker 1: consistently tops the list of presidential rankings, which is no

439
00:22:06,080 --> 00:22:09,160
Speaker 1: surprise there. They essentially have the best president in US

440
00:22:09,240 --> 00:22:12,280
Speaker 1: history book ended by two of the all time worth

441
00:22:13,080 --> 00:22:16,080
Speaker 1: And you know, Buchanan in particular is widely considered the

442
00:22:16,119 --> 00:22:18,520
Speaker 1: worst of the worst. So in fact, according to the

443
00:22:18,560 --> 00:22:21,320
Speaker 1: Constitution Center, Buchanan has been in the bottom three of

444
00:22:21,480 --> 00:22:26,840
Speaker 1: every major poll ranking US presidents since impressive. I mean,

445
00:22:26,880 --> 00:22:29,760
Speaker 1: he seems to be universally load, which is almost an

446
00:22:29,760 --> 00:22:32,280
Speaker 1: achievement in itself, I guess feel like it. Yeah, I mean,

447
00:22:32,320 --> 00:22:34,480
Speaker 1: not a very good one, but yeah, it's an achievement.

448
00:22:34,480 --> 00:22:36,480
Speaker 1: And in some ways that level of hate is kind

449
00:22:36,520 --> 00:22:39,560
Speaker 1: of surprising. I mean, just looking at Buchanan's pre presidents

450
00:22:39,600 --> 00:22:42,720
Speaker 1: he resume he was a successful lawyer, he served in

451
00:22:42,760 --> 00:22:45,639
Speaker 1: both houses of Congress, he even served as Secretary of

452
00:22:45,680 --> 00:22:47,879
Speaker 1: State for a time. And on the one hand, he

453
00:22:47,920 --> 00:22:51,359
Speaker 1: had this reputation for being really exacting and a fuzzy

454
00:22:51,480 --> 00:22:53,639
Speaker 1: kind of guy, and I might explain why he was

455
00:22:53,680 --> 00:22:56,480
Speaker 1: also a lifelong bachelor and then the only one to

456
00:22:56,520 --> 00:23:00,639
Speaker 1: serve as president. President pol once said Buchanan acted like quote,

457
00:23:01,000 --> 00:23:04,280
Speaker 1: an old maid, and even his own campaign manager described

458
00:23:04,359 --> 00:23:07,359
Speaker 1: him as a sort of masculine miss fibble. And I

459
00:23:07,359 --> 00:23:10,080
Speaker 1: don't really know exactly what that means, but it doesn't

460
00:23:10,080 --> 00:23:12,679
Speaker 1: sound good. I don't think I have no idea what

461
00:23:12,720 --> 00:23:15,160
Speaker 1: a missfibble is, but uh, I mean that there were

462
00:23:15,240 --> 00:23:17,520
Speaker 1: rumors that he was gay, and I know he and

463
00:23:17,560 --> 00:23:19,560
Speaker 1: his vice president share of the house, and people called

464
00:23:19,600 --> 00:23:22,480
Speaker 1: them Aunt Nancy and Miss Fancy, so there might have

465
00:23:22,480 --> 00:23:25,720
Speaker 1: been some prejudices there, especially during that time period. But

466
00:23:26,160 --> 00:23:28,119
Speaker 1: it's also pretty clear how much of a pain he

467
00:23:28,160 --> 00:23:31,679
Speaker 1: could be. Like apparently, Buchanan once rejected a payment for

468
00:23:31,760 --> 00:23:34,280
Speaker 1: more than fifteen thousand dollars because it was off by

469
00:23:34,320 --> 00:23:37,479
Speaker 1: ten cents. And you know, if that wasn't annoying enough,

470
00:23:37,520 --> 00:23:39,960
Speaker 1: he was also this giant snoop um. He made his

471
00:23:40,040 --> 00:23:42,400
Speaker 1: niece act as his first lady and lived with him

472
00:23:42,400 --> 00:23:44,520
Speaker 1: in the White House. But then he'd open all her

473
00:23:44,560 --> 00:23:47,679
Speaker 1: mail and send it along to her, written like opened

474
00:23:47,680 --> 00:23:50,760
Speaker 1: by mistake, just scrawled across the envelope, and I mean,

475
00:23:51,000 --> 00:23:53,480
Speaker 1: maybe you buy that once or twice, but every single

476
00:23:53,640 --> 00:23:56,240
Speaker 1: letter is a lot. I'm guessing at some point his

477
00:23:56,320 --> 00:23:59,240
Speaker 1: knees caught onto us. Yeah, she actually started hiding all

478
00:23:59,240 --> 00:24:02,120
Speaker 1: her corresponding and Cindy's empty butter jugs that our friends

479
00:24:02,160 --> 00:24:03,879
Speaker 1: would carry in and out of the White House kitchen,

480
00:24:04,400 --> 00:24:08,440
Speaker 1: which just sounds so obvious, you know, But amazingly, Buchanan

481
00:24:08,480 --> 00:24:10,960
Speaker 1: never caught onto the scheme because, I mean, he was

482
00:24:11,000 --> 00:24:13,199
Speaker 1: too busy pulling off his own schemes. I mean, his

483
00:24:13,240 --> 00:24:16,760
Speaker 1: administration was one of the most corrupt in history. Just

484
00:24:16,800 --> 00:24:19,720
Speaker 1: as an example, Buchanan pushed hard for the adoption of

485
00:24:19,800 --> 00:24:23,879
Speaker 1: Lacompton Constitution, which was a proposed constitution for Kansas that

486
00:24:23,880 --> 00:24:27,000
Speaker 1: would have allowed only male citizens to vote, well at

487
00:24:27,040 --> 00:24:29,560
Speaker 1: the same time forbidding free blacks from living in the

488
00:24:29,600 --> 00:24:32,320
Speaker 1: state at all. And to try to get this pass,

489
00:24:32,359 --> 00:24:36,080
Speaker 1: Buchanan and his supporters offered cash incentives to anyone willing

490
00:24:36,119 --> 00:24:38,719
Speaker 1: to vote their way. All told, the price of these

491
00:24:38,720 --> 00:24:42,000
Speaker 1: payoffs has estimated it more than thirty thousand dollars, which

492
00:24:42,280 --> 00:24:44,760
Speaker 1: is more like a million dollars when you adjust for inflation.

493
00:24:44,880 --> 00:24:47,680
Speaker 1: That's crazy. And meanwhile, the country was falling apart around

494
00:24:47,760 --> 00:24:50,000
Speaker 1: him while he and his buddies were cashing in the

495
00:24:50,000 --> 00:24:52,520
Speaker 1: Southern threat of secession was growing, and rather than do

496
00:24:52,560 --> 00:24:55,560
Speaker 1: anything to counter it, you can't, just stood by and watched.

497
00:24:55,600 --> 00:24:58,080
Speaker 1: And not only was he ineffective, but he was also

498
00:24:58,200 --> 00:25:01,520
Speaker 1: two faced. Like before the election, he'd spoken out against

499
00:25:01,520 --> 00:25:05,639
Speaker 1: slavery as this indefensible evil, but then in his inauguration

500
00:25:05,680 --> 00:25:08,960
Speaker 1: speech he dismissed the practice as quote happily a matter

501
00:25:08,960 --> 00:25:12,399
Speaker 1: of but little practical importance. And you know, once in office,

502
00:25:12,400 --> 00:25:14,560
Speaker 1: he actually further the spread of slavery by allowing it

503
00:25:14,600 --> 00:25:17,320
Speaker 1: in these western territories. He uh, he backed the dread

504
00:25:17,400 --> 00:25:21,400
Speaker 1: Scott decision, that's the one that denied citizenship to black residents,

505
00:25:21,440 --> 00:25:24,960
Speaker 1: and he practically paved the way for the Civil War. Yeah,

506
00:25:25,000 --> 00:25:27,280
Speaker 1: that's definitely true. And you know, it seems like most

507
00:25:27,320 --> 00:25:30,080
Speaker 1: of the country recognized the damage that he was doing,

508
00:25:30,160 --> 00:25:32,440
Speaker 1: because you know, you fast forward to the next election

509
00:25:32,520 --> 00:25:35,159
Speaker 1: and it went to a starkly different candidate, and that,

510
00:25:35,240 --> 00:25:38,880
Speaker 1: of course was Lincoln. But that transition wasn't a smooth

511
00:25:38,880 --> 00:25:42,040
Speaker 1: one at all. You know, got Lincoln's victory and November

512
00:25:42,040 --> 00:25:45,960
Speaker 1: of eighteen sixty that prompted seven southern states to secede

513
00:25:45,960 --> 00:25:48,920
Speaker 1: from the Union and formed the Confederacy. And this all

514
00:25:49,040 --> 00:25:52,159
Speaker 1: happened on Buchanan's watch. Now, you can't claim there was

515
00:25:52,240 --> 00:25:54,919
Speaker 1: nothing he could do to stop this. Here's how he

516
00:25:54,960 --> 00:25:58,080
Speaker 1: puts it. He says, is beyond the power of any president,

517
00:25:58,160 --> 00:26:01,000
Speaker 1: no matter what maybe his own political cool proclivities, to

518
00:26:01,080 --> 00:26:05,520
Speaker 1: restore peace and harmony among the states. Wisely limited and restrained,

519
00:26:05,560 --> 00:26:08,800
Speaker 1: as is his power under our constitution and laws, he

520
00:26:08,880 --> 00:26:11,800
Speaker 1: alone can accomplish, but little for good or for evil

521
00:26:11,920 --> 00:26:15,040
Speaker 1: on such a momentous question. I mean, that's really pathetic,

522
00:26:15,080 --> 00:26:17,560
Speaker 1: and it just sounds like such a cop out. I mean,

523
00:26:17,720 --> 00:26:19,680
Speaker 1: if the Union was falling apart, the president should be

524
00:26:19,760 --> 00:26:23,600
Speaker 1: doing something right. And and Zachary Taylor, if he was

525
00:26:23,640 --> 00:26:25,119
Speaker 1: on the case, he would have hopped on his horse

526
00:26:25,160 --> 00:26:27,920
Speaker 1: and fought off the Cecedars himselves, right, I mean, even

527
00:26:27,920 --> 00:26:30,840
Speaker 1: if you did own eighty something splace well. But Buchanan

528
00:26:30,920 --> 00:26:33,880
Speaker 1: just set on his hands until leaving office the next year,

529
00:26:33,920 --> 00:26:36,280
Speaker 1: and that left Lincoln to deal with the fallout of

530
00:26:36,280 --> 00:26:39,080
Speaker 1: Buchan's in action, And of course, less than a month later,

531
00:26:39,200 --> 00:26:41,800
Speaker 1: the Civil War had begun, which is you know clearly

532
00:26:41,840 --> 00:26:44,880
Speaker 1: why historians don't like Buchanan. Well, in the wildest part

533
00:26:44,920 --> 00:26:47,719
Speaker 1: is that Buchanan maintained until his dying day that he

534
00:26:47,760 --> 00:26:51,600
Speaker 1: was only performing his constitutional duty. He believed that history

535
00:26:51,640 --> 00:26:54,280
Speaker 1: would ultimately remember him fondly for what he had done.

536
00:26:54,320 --> 00:26:56,760
Speaker 1: But of course he was pretty wrong about that. Yeah,

537
00:26:56,800 --> 00:27:00,000
Speaker 1: I'll say, and while Lincoln's turn provided this all too

538
00:27:00,040 --> 00:27:03,560
Speaker 1: brief repre from week leadership, his assassination landed the country

539
00:27:03,680 --> 00:27:05,879
Speaker 1: right back in the hands of the morally bankrupt. And

540
00:27:05,960 --> 00:27:08,320
Speaker 1: I mean this is a bummer to say, because on paper,

541
00:27:08,400 --> 00:27:12,120
Speaker 1: Andrew Johnson sounds pretty impressive, Like more than any other president.

542
00:27:12,200 --> 00:27:15,160
Speaker 1: Johnson really came from nothing. His family didn't know named land.

543
00:27:15,400 --> 00:27:18,159
Speaker 1: His father died when he was only three. Most of

544
00:27:18,160 --> 00:27:21,160
Speaker 1: his childhood was spent doing hard labor as a tailor's apprentice.

545
00:27:21,400 --> 00:27:24,280
Speaker 1: In his teens, Johnson moved from North Carolina to Tennessee.

546
00:27:24,400 --> 00:27:27,000
Speaker 1: He opened his own tailor shop. And you know this

547
00:27:27,040 --> 00:27:30,000
Speaker 1: wasn't easy either, Apparently, um Johnson made the trip with

548
00:27:30,040 --> 00:27:32,719
Speaker 1: his family and everything they owned. It was all stuffed

549
00:27:32,720 --> 00:27:35,480
Speaker 1: into a two wheeled cart and was pulled through the

550
00:27:35,520 --> 00:27:38,440
Speaker 1: mountains by a blind pony. I mean, of course the

551
00:27:38,480 --> 00:27:41,679
Speaker 1: pony had to be blind because you've got this impoverished family,

552
00:27:43,960 --> 00:27:46,800
Speaker 1: two whield car like, none of that's enough in a

553
00:27:46,840 --> 00:27:49,000
Speaker 1: blind pop. But I do know what you mean though

554
00:27:49,040 --> 00:27:52,240
Speaker 1: about Johnson being a pretty endearing character at least prior

555
00:27:52,280 --> 00:27:55,520
Speaker 1: to taking office, and he was the only Southern Senator

556
00:27:55,560 --> 00:27:58,359
Speaker 1: to keep his seat in Congress after secession, and that

557
00:27:58,440 --> 00:28:01,520
Speaker 1: loyalty to the Union is ultimately why Lincoln chose him

558
00:28:01,560 --> 00:28:04,400
Speaker 1: as his running mate when he was up for re election. Yeah,

559
00:28:04,440 --> 00:28:07,359
Speaker 1: but sadly all that loyalty disappeared after Lincoln was shot

560
00:28:07,440 --> 00:28:10,679
Speaker 1: and Johnson assumed the presidency. As soon as he took office,

561
00:28:10,720 --> 00:28:13,359
Speaker 1: he gave amnesty to Confederates and allowed them to elect

562
00:28:13,400 --> 00:28:16,879
Speaker 1: new government officials who quickly passed these Black codes. It was,

563
00:28:17,200 --> 00:28:20,199
Speaker 1: you know, aimed at oppressing these newly freed slaves. He

564
00:28:20,280 --> 00:28:23,320
Speaker 1: also vetoed bills that sought to protect black Americans, including

565
00:28:23,359 --> 00:28:26,280
Speaker 1: the Freedman's Bureau Bill. You know, much the nation was

566
00:28:26,359 --> 00:28:29,600
Speaker 1: really shocked to see Johnson undermining and almost straight up

567
00:28:29,640 --> 00:28:31,520
Speaker 1: on doing so much of what Lincoln had fought and

568
00:28:31,560 --> 00:28:34,400
Speaker 1: died for. In fact, Johnson was often heckled at public

569
00:28:34,440 --> 00:28:37,240
Speaker 1: appearances during his presidency. And he's just the type of

570
00:28:37,280 --> 00:28:39,640
Speaker 1: guy who just could not resist. He just joined and

571
00:28:39,720 --> 00:28:42,400
Speaker 1: shouting back and and this one time things got so

572
00:28:42,560 --> 00:28:45,600
Speaker 1: heated that he actually claimed that God struck down Lincoln

573
00:28:45,640 --> 00:28:48,960
Speaker 1: on purpose so he could be president. I mean, that's insane.

574
00:28:49,000 --> 00:28:51,000
Speaker 1: And of course that went over about as well as

575
00:28:51,040 --> 00:28:53,160
Speaker 1: you'd imagine. All right, So let's see, just looking at

576
00:28:53,160 --> 00:28:56,680
Speaker 1: his resume here, Johnson mocked his dead predecessor, rolled back

577
00:28:56,800 --> 00:29:00,040
Speaker 1: racial progress in America, basically paved the way for a

578
00:29:00,120 --> 00:29:03,800
Speaker 1: gem Crow laws. So it's not a surprise really that

579
00:29:03,840 --> 00:29:06,320
Speaker 1: he was the first president to be impeached and nearly

580
00:29:06,400 --> 00:29:08,959
Speaker 1: convicted to In the end, the proceedings failed by just

581
00:29:09,000 --> 00:29:11,320
Speaker 1: one vote and Johnson was able to complete his term.

582
00:29:11,400 --> 00:29:13,720
Speaker 1: But you know, it was crystal clear by then that

583
00:29:13,760 --> 00:29:16,080
Speaker 1: he wouldn't be getting a second term. And of course,

584
00:29:16,120 --> 00:29:18,840
Speaker 1: the thing I always remember about Johnson was that he

585
00:29:18,880 --> 00:29:20,920
Speaker 1: was so ostracized at the end of his term that

586
00:29:20,960 --> 00:29:23,720
Speaker 1: he just sit in his bedroom where he'd befriended the

587
00:29:23,760 --> 00:29:26,400
Speaker 1: mice there, like he'd feed them and watched them like

588
00:29:26,440 --> 00:29:29,240
Speaker 1: they were, you know, his own reality TV program. But

589
00:29:29,520 --> 00:29:31,920
Speaker 1: I do think he was a little lonely. I mean,

590
00:29:32,000 --> 00:29:34,960
Speaker 1: it is nice to see that most of these bad

591
00:29:34,960 --> 00:29:37,680
Speaker 1: presidents we've talked about come from the first half of

592
00:29:37,720 --> 00:29:40,400
Speaker 1: America's history. I mean, there are a few obvious exceptions

593
00:29:40,440 --> 00:29:42,840
Speaker 1: from the last hundred years or so. Yeah, I mean,

594
00:29:42,840 --> 00:29:44,800
Speaker 1: there's bound to be a few hiccups here and there,

595
00:29:44,840 --> 00:29:47,560
Speaker 1: But examining the failings of past leaders should make us

596
00:29:47,560 --> 00:29:49,840
Speaker 1: more adept at choosing new ones, or you know, at

597
00:29:49,920 --> 00:29:52,160
Speaker 1: least that's the hope. Yeah, but I'm not ready to

598
00:29:52,240 --> 00:29:54,040
Speaker 1: let these guys off the hook just yet. So why

599
00:29:54,040 --> 00:29:56,840
Speaker 1: don't we dedicate today's fact off to the blunders of

600
00:29:56,880 --> 00:30:06,560
Speaker 1: a few more presidents from that worst of list? Yeah. So,

601
00:30:06,680 --> 00:30:09,240
Speaker 1: one of the things on William Henry Harrison's platform was

602
00:30:09,280 --> 00:30:12,520
Speaker 1: that if he was elected president, he'd only serve one term.

603
00:30:12,560 --> 00:30:15,800
Speaker 1: And it's the only campaign promise he actually carried out.

604
00:30:17,200 --> 00:30:20,440
Speaker 1: That's pretty bad. One of Andrew Jackson's favorite ways to

605
00:30:20,640 --> 00:30:23,720
Speaker 1: unwine was apparently dueling, which I guess makes sense for

606
00:30:23,760 --> 00:30:26,480
Speaker 1: someone who enjoyed drinking and brawl as much as he did.

607
00:30:26,880 --> 00:30:30,120
Speaker 1: He apparently fought in over one hundred duels in his life.

608
00:30:31,000 --> 00:30:34,400
Speaker 1: I think that's over one more duels than you've competed.

609
00:30:34,960 --> 00:30:39,120
Speaker 1: That's absolutely true. So, you know, Warren Harding loved poker

610
00:30:39,240 --> 00:30:41,600
Speaker 1: so much that he assembled a poker cabinet to drink

611
00:30:41,600 --> 00:30:43,640
Speaker 1: whiskey and play with him, you know, which, of course

612
00:30:43,720 --> 00:30:46,520
Speaker 1: is a little weird since he claimed to be tremendously

613
00:30:46,520 --> 00:30:49,400
Speaker 1: in supportive prohibition on the campaign trail. But you know,

614
00:30:49,600 --> 00:30:51,959
Speaker 1: he did have this cabinet, and and once he actually

615
00:30:51,960 --> 00:30:54,760
Speaker 1: bet this entire box of priceless white House China in

616
00:30:54,800 --> 00:30:58,240
Speaker 1: a poker game and he lost it. That's pretty rough.

617
00:30:58,560 --> 00:31:01,120
Speaker 1: And there are plenty of other reason to dislike Harding too.

618
00:31:01,160 --> 00:31:04,200
Speaker 1: I mean, he was anti immigrant, anti working with other nations.

619
00:31:04,320 --> 00:31:06,200
Speaker 1: And of course the knock on him was that his

620
00:31:06,240 --> 00:31:09,560
Speaker 1: administration was so corrupt that while he was playing poker,

621
00:31:09,960 --> 00:31:12,800
Speaker 1: all his friends were there plundering the U. S. Treasury. Yeah.

622
00:31:12,800 --> 00:31:14,000
Speaker 1: I feel like it's one of those things where they

623
00:31:14,000 --> 00:31:16,520
Speaker 1: couldn't trace it completely up to him, but they could

624
00:31:16,520 --> 00:31:19,000
Speaker 1: trace it right around him, you know, a teapot dome

625
00:31:19,040 --> 00:31:21,360
Speaker 1: and all that. I mean. He was also a ridiculous

626
00:31:21,400 --> 00:31:24,120
Speaker 1: and in blatant philanderer, So he had plenty of problems

627
00:31:24,200 --> 00:31:27,400
Speaker 1: and and he eventually declared, quote, I'm not fit for

628
00:31:27,440 --> 00:31:31,920
Speaker 1: this office and should never have been here. All right,

629
00:31:31,960 --> 00:31:34,280
Speaker 1: Well here's one that you might like then. So Nixon

630
00:31:34,360 --> 00:31:37,080
Speaker 1: was so enamored with making the White House this more

631
00:31:37,240 --> 00:31:41,000
Speaker 1: grand place, and he actually commissioned these pompous uniforms for

632
00:31:41,040 --> 00:31:43,400
Speaker 1: the White House Police force to wear. It was just

633
00:31:43,480 --> 00:31:45,080
Speaker 1: to make it, I guess a little bit more like

634
00:31:45,160 --> 00:31:48,960
Speaker 1: bucking and Palace. And the uniform included gold embroidery and

635
00:31:49,000 --> 00:31:53,240
Speaker 1: these ridiculously tall military caps. But it was so ridiculous

636
00:31:53,280 --> 00:31:55,040
Speaker 1: that he just got made fun of in the press.

637
00:31:55,480 --> 00:31:57,520
Speaker 1: What's funny about this is that instead of just like

638
00:31:57,600 --> 00:32:00,400
Speaker 1: burning or throwing away the uniforms, he so them. And

639
00:32:00,440 --> 00:32:04,520
Speaker 1: this was to a high school band in Iowa, so

640
00:32:04,680 --> 00:32:06,680
Speaker 1: you know who seemed like terrible people to work for.

641
00:32:07,080 --> 00:32:10,240
Speaker 1: The Hoovers like Herbert and his wife devised the system

642
00:32:10,280 --> 00:32:11,920
Speaker 1: so they never had to see the White House staff

643
00:32:12,160 --> 00:32:13,760
Speaker 1: when they rang a bell three times and met the

644
00:32:13,760 --> 00:32:15,800
Speaker 1: President or his wife were walking down the hall, and

645
00:32:16,120 --> 00:32:18,640
Speaker 1: the staff was just required to jump into the nearest

646
00:32:18,680 --> 00:32:21,400
Speaker 1: closet to be out of sight. And if the staff

647
00:32:21,480 --> 00:32:24,520
Speaker 1: was outside, they were actually supposed to hide behind a shrub,

648
00:32:24,640 --> 00:32:27,320
Speaker 1: like behind the shrub. I like that they were given

649
00:32:27,320 --> 00:32:29,560
Speaker 1: this instruct and I feel like my nix in fact,

650
00:32:29,640 --> 00:32:32,240
Speaker 1: might have been funnier, but having to jump in a

651
00:32:32,320 --> 00:32:35,200
Speaker 1: closet or over a hedge because your boss is coming

652
00:32:35,240 --> 00:32:38,800
Speaker 1: and that sounds pretty terrible, so I feel like maybe

653
00:32:38,800 --> 00:32:42,200
Speaker 1: you should win today's prize. That sounds great. All right, Well,

654
00:32:42,240 --> 00:32:43,960
Speaker 1: this has been a fun one. Now. I'm sure that

655
00:32:44,000 --> 00:32:46,000
Speaker 1: we forgot a lot of great facts and we always

656
00:32:46,040 --> 00:32:47,640
Speaker 1: love hearing facts from you. So if you have some

657
00:32:47,680 --> 00:32:50,720
Speaker 1: fun facts about some of history's worst presidents, or maybe

658
00:32:50,720 --> 00:32:53,080
Speaker 1: you need to even inform us who's been president in

659
00:32:53,080 --> 00:32:55,880
Speaker 1: the past thirty years, because we have no idea so

660
00:32:55,960 --> 00:32:57,960
Speaker 1: we've only been focusing on the past, but we love

661
00:32:58,000 --> 00:33:00,440
Speaker 1: hearing those from you. You can always email as Part

662
00:33:00,440 --> 00:33:03,000
Speaker 1: Time Genius at how stuff Works dot com or hit

663
00:33:03,040 --> 00:33:05,160
Speaker 1: us up on Facebook or Twitter. But thanks so much

664
00:33:05,160 --> 00:33:22,240
Speaker 1: for listening. Thanks again for listening. Part Time Genius is

665
00:33:22,240 --> 00:33:24,479
Speaker 1: a production of How Stuff Works and wouldn't be possible

666
00:33:24,520 --> 00:33:27,160
Speaker 1: without several brilliant people who do the important things we

667
00:33:27,200 --> 00:33:30,640
Speaker 1: couldn't even begin to understand. CHRISTA McNeil does the editing thing.

668
00:33:30,880 --> 00:33:32,800
Speaker 1: Noel Brown made the theme song and does the mixy

669
00:33:32,880 --> 00:33:36,280
Speaker 1: MIXI sound thing. Jerry Rowland does the exact producer thing.

670
00:33:36,520 --> 00:33:38,840
Speaker 1: Gay blues Yer is our lead researcher, with support from

671
00:33:38,840 --> 00:33:41,959
Speaker 1: the Research Army, including Austin Thompson, Nolan Brown and Lucas

672
00:33:42,000 --> 00:33:44,280
Speaker 1: Adams and Eve Jeff Cook gets the show to your ears.

673
00:33:44,360 --> 00:33:46,320
Speaker 1: Good job, Eves. If you like what you heard, we

674
00:33:46,360 --> 00:33:48,480
Speaker 1: hope you'll subscribe, And if you really really like what

675
00:33:48,520 --> 00:33:50,560
Speaker 1: you've heard, maybe you could leave a good review for us.

676
00:33:50,800 --> 00:34:03,320
Speaker 1: Do we do we forget Jason? Jason who