The Teapot Dome Scandal

In US history, one of the most widely used ways different eras are split up are by president, making these political figures more widely known than most other Americans throughout time. While this is true, most presidents (with the exception of Franklin Roosevelt) have only between two and eight years to make an impression for the rest of history. Thanks to this fact, some presidents will forever be idolized by Americans, and others will merely be the butt of all jokes for historians. Of all the ways a president can be remembered as a failure, however, one of the most common is to have a scandal. While a single scandal may not ruin a president, if the US public reacts in a negative way, regardless of the accomplishments of the president,

While Harding himself may not have come into the presidency planning to abuse the office, his cabinet did. In the Teapot Dome Scandal, the Harding administration caught flak for both giving out free handouts to political allies and for guaranteeing government contracts to businesses and corporations that supported Harding’s candidacy. Of all the illegal handouts however, the most notorious was that of Tea Pot Dome, a government-owned oil reserve that was leased to donors by Harding’s Secretary of the Interior, Albert Fall (Foner781) . This scandal, combined with Harding’s apathetic approach to social issues, left many Americans distrustful of the government and shameful of the true end to progressivism. This also caused many people to start to feel that the government was too friendly with big businesses, especially after these groups had grown back to power due to the industrial need during World War I. While there is no direct correlation, this may also have been the origin of the distrust people had with big businesses in the late 1900s, particularly that of the hippie movement. In total, while returning to normalcy, may have meant calmer times separate from war and progressivism, it also ended up meaning a return to the corruption of government from the gilded

In this scandal, Bill Clinton, during his presidency, cheated on his wife with a young White House intern. After this was leaked to the public, Bill Clinton claimed innocence, and even went as far to broadcast his pledge on national television. Thanks to Linda Tripp, a friend of Lewinski, however, it was proved that Clinton had indeed committed sexual acts with Lewinski, and this revelation led to an impeachment trial for Clinton under the charges of perjury. While Clinton was never convicted and removed from office, the scandal did leave a new generation frustrated with the government based on the actions of one individual, as well as reminded another generation of the debacle Nixon from only 25 years prior (Foner 1095). For Clinton, this public embarrassment would go on to haunt him for years to come, and would hurt his party as the 42nd president would become the second president (the other of which was also a democrat) to go through the impeachment