Taft 2012 - Jason Heller [70]
He read it. And then he sat still for five more minutes.
He rose again and went to tell Rachel what had transpired, and to suggest to her what they should do about it. He knew she would agree. But he had to give her the chance to disagree. She was, after all, her own woman.
But he knew she would agree. She was, after all, a Taft.
From Taft: A Tremendous Man, by Susan Weschler:
When I first set out to study William Howard Taft’s life and presidency, one question presented itself over and over again: how did he ever get to the White House? Taft hated the dirty business of politics. Hated the sorts of people who care about holding power. Hated lies, little white ones or otherwise. And, as far as I could tell, he hated it when people didn’t like him. Because he loved to be able to agree with people, to find common ground with them.
Finally I realized: I, like most of those who’d known him, had underestimated him. Taft was modest and agreeable, but he wasn’t milquetoast. And he wasn’t lacking in ambition, either. The closer I examined the turning points of his résumé, the more certain I was that, often, he let those around him think they were leading him around when, in fact, the opposite was true. That’s not to say he was manipulative—it seemed entirely possible that he didn’t even realize he was doing it—but he became president because he’d always put himself in a place where his decency would get noticed. Noticed, rewarded, and relied upon. That, in and of itself, was a kind of ruthlessness.
Who knows what might have happened if Taft hadn’t vanished in 1913? How might he have turned his reelection defeat around—turned losing the presidency into an eventual triumph for himself and the principles by which he lived?
Tantalizing as the question may be, we can never know the answer to how Taft’s twentieth century might have been different. We can only know what happened in the twenty-first.
Transcript, Raw Talk with Pauline Craig, broadcast June 16, 2012
PAULINE CRAIG: Welcome to a very special edition of Raw Talk with Pauline Craig. Viewers, just a few short months ago, Raw Talk brought you the nation’s first live, one-on-one conversation with former president William Howard Taft. Since then, I’ve made sure you’ve had a front-row seat to what just might be the most important political phenomenon of our generation: the birth of a new party, inspired by the rebirth of a great American. The Taft Party has quickly become a remarkable juggernaut on the campaign trail, though both the Democratic and Republican parties have done their best to ignore it, to pretend everything is just business as usual. Well, I can tell you, everything is not business as usual. Especially not today. Today, anticipation among the Tafties is at an all-time fever pitch, as the thousands assembled in Cincinnati wait for William Howard Taft to deliver his keynote address to the Taft Party National Convention, just two short hours from now. Over the past week, we’ve seen the poll numbers take a remarkable curve, as significant numbers of previously undecided voters now say they’re planning to vote Taft. And if today’s Internet search trends are any indicator, come tomorrow the major party candidates are finally going to have to stand up and admit that the Taft factor is real, it’s massive, and it’s not going away anytime soon.
FROM THE DESK OF REP. RACHEL TAFT (Ind.–OH)
Notes—Sat. 16th
—Well. Fun while it lasted.
—Remember we were never going to win anyway.
—Prepare for the shit to hit the fan.
—Pray to all things holy that Wm Howard can announce this to the Tafties without getting crucified. Without getting us all crucified.
—No whining. No whining. No whining. Back to work on Monday.
“WE DO NOT KNOW what has become of our vanished friend, William Howard Taft. We pray that his soul has found peace. And I, myself, pray for forgiveness. Taft has been the kindest,