there's when phil scott, zachary taylor. at one point, he tries replace both of them with a democratic general. really tries to politicize the war. lincoln tries to politicize it in a different way. lincoln's first reappointments are all democrats. so, either an important ethnic group in the country, a lot of them were elected officials, people who had constituencies. because lincoln knows when you lose public support for a war and lose, congress, when you lose congress, the war is over. so, lincoln knew he could defeat the south, he knew he could restore the union but not with his hands tied behind his back. for those reasons, lincoln's mindful of what is happening in the white house will he is a member of congress. he's very successful in avoiding polk's problems. wasou wrote that lincoln very depressed and unhappy about his marriage to mary todd. does that relationship get better? >> you know, it was always a really difficult relationship. at one point, he did attempt to break it off. he felt so bad. it is not like breaki

and while lincoln doesn't claim to have any special knowledge about what zachary taylor believes, he knows that that taylor can win. the choice is not between having a perfect whig party and zachary taylor, but the choice between having a democrat they know disagrees with them and a whig party member who they know agrees with them. and so if nothing else, they will help to build up the whig party. the whigs in the 1840s won their first presidential race. and of course, william henry henderson dies after 40 days. and they had not given it a lot of thought to who his vice president would be. he is basically a democrat, john tyler, who is kicked out of the party. and they are not able to win a presidential race since, so in their existence they have had the presidency for only about 30 days. they are eager for a winner. and while this person is closer to our beliefs, this person can win, so it was something that the political parties were still struggling with even in the 1840's. so what were the other issues? well, shortly before the commencement of the mexican-american war, polk wins t

you know how zachary taylor died?ere he treated himself to too much milk and cherries. he basically o.d.'d on a snack for pre-schoolers. boom! >> stephen: really? can i get a boom on that? >> stephen: really? yes. >> stephen: known philanderer warren g. harding also died in office of a heart condition. really? i didn't realize your heart could get syphilis! >> hey! hey! hey! respect the office! no one even knows who your guy is! 90% of americans think zachary taylor was one of the kids on "home improvement." >> stephen: a fine show! ( cheers and applause ) >> no, it isn't! >> stephen: president harding was an early proponent of commercial aviation because, while harding was president, even he wanted to flee the country. >> hey! ( piano riff ) >> stephen: why did i get a grown? >> i'm not surprised taylor was in the whig party. that hairdo looks like you shaved it off a shih tzu's ass. ( laughter ) >> stephen: harding was so corrupt he lost the white house china in a poker game! and apparently the white house eyebrow t

president was the first president since zachary taylor in 1848.o take office without either house of congress behind him. he had a hostile press corps. supreme court was led by earl warren. that exactly mr. nixon friend from california days. and the bureaucracy and new deal in great society complete with hostiles there, that's the nation mr. nixon inherited but if you take a look back at the presidents inaugural in '69 it is immensely conciliatory in other words he held out his hand to foreign powers, soviet and others, at home he said you know what, you know, let's listen to each other. let's hear each other. let's stop shouting at each other that's what he wanted to do in his first nine monthening were sort of positive he kept a lot of great society which i didn't agree with and on successful early tour to europe, european capitols, apollo 11 the first launch of astronauts into space came in the middle of july. always canaveral with them and watch that go off. i can remember ray saying we're three miles away. my fell low speech writer it was jus

the president was the first since zachary taylor in 48. was a hostile press corps and the new deal and great society replete with hospitals where and mr. nixon inherited a. let's listen to each other and stop shouting at each other and i think that is what he wanted to do and kept a lot of the great society and went on to the successful early tour to europe, european capitals. my fellow speechwriter it was just magnificent in this gigantic market. the speech was far, far ahead of its time and frankly as far as i am concerned then came october and all of the 70s demonstrations were forming up. it was the leading economist of the day for the "washington post." he wrote on the eighth of october and said we were practicing the breaking of the president. it is becoming more obvious with every passing day that the movement that broke the authority in 1968 are out to break richard nixon. with the successe success is thd in 1788 we are in the eye of the hurricane and he would have been a great king that he inherited a revolution and it was about a