Comments on: William Taft??

By: ehay2k

ehay2k — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 03:06:38 +0000

I think this is just the Chris Christie effect.

By: Mark L

Mark L — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 19:20:08 +0000

John C. brings up a good anecdote. The corpuleant Taft is so far the only President to get stuck in a bathtub. No press on how many people it took to get him unstuck. The imagery.

It has to be for comic effect, as Taft was a pretty mediocre Ppresident and an awful Chief Justice.

By: John C.

John C. — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 02:32:37 +0000

I was hoping that they would wheel him out today in a bathtub. But then again, I am a bad person …

By: bdrube

bdrube — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 19:24:58 +0000

I’m totally with clark17–MLB these days treats potential controversies as if they are nuclear waste. FDR normally only allowed himself to be photographed standing or sitting in such a way that hid his disability. There was a huge controversy when the FDR memorial was dedicated because he is portrayed sitting in a wheelchair. No way the Nats want to ignite that debate again.

Taft will be great as the new lovable loser now that Teddy has won the race. Wonder if they’ll try to get milage out of the legendary incident when he got stuck in the bathtub because of his heft? Nah…even that would likely be too controversial.

By: Todd Boss

Todd Boss — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 18:04:05 +0000

I thought about the FDR disability aspect … but there’s plenty of footage of him from the period standing next to world leaders. But yeah, i see your point. He was wheelchair bound and i’m sure someone would be pretty pissed (as they were with his memorial) if he wasn’t displayed as he lived.

I’d love to have the last 4 presidents racing. I mean, its supposed to be funny right? America needs to find its sense of humor again. But of course you’re right; political bipartisanship seems to be at an all time high, and any perceived slight of any recent figure would be a mess.

By: clark17

clark17 — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 17:22:11 +0000

I was briefly puzzled by the Taft decision, too, but not for long. First, in addition to the reasons you listed (I haven’t read the Steinberg piece yet), Taft was also physically distinct from other presidents because he was obese, which could make for a funny mock-up Taft costume. The race is supposed to get laughs, after all.

Second, FDR was the next president that came to my mind, too, as the obvious fifth choice (as far as all-time great presidents, FDR would probably be second overall anyway, behind only Lincoln), but you obviously can’t use him in a foot-race because he was disabled. I can only imagine the controversy that would start if FDR was running around a baseball diamond. Remember the fight over the FDR memorial, Todd?

And finally, with all the political polarization in our country, no way will the team take the risk of using recent presidents. We don’t need psychotic birthers protesting that President Obama is in the president’s race, or antiwar protesters booing Bush 43. Reagan is such a conservative icon that I doubt you could even use him. Maybe Nixon? (Yeah, that would be pretty awesome.) Certainly they could go a bit further back and use Ike or Truman, and anyone before that (FDR excluded) is fair game.