==Career==
Harding's undeviating Republicanism and vibrant speaking voice, plus his willingness to let the machine bosses set policies, led him far in Ohio politics. He served in the state Senate and as Lieutenant Governor, and unsuccessfully ran for Governor. He delivered the nominating address for President [[William Howard Taft|Taft]] at the 1912 Republican Convention. In 1914 he was elected to the U.S. Senate. An Ohio admirer, Harry Daugherty, began to promote Harding for the 1920 Republican nomination because, he later explained, "He looked like a President." <ref>http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/wh29.html</ref>==Presidentcy===== Key Accomplishments ===
==1920 Election==
Harding won a sweeping landslide victory over fellow Ohioan James Cox (with [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] as the defeated nominee for Vice President). Harding succeeded by promising to end the highly emotional debates of the Wilson years, and promising realism instead of idealism in foreign policy. Irish Catholics, angry at Wilson for not promoting the independence of Ireland as he had promised, were in control of the Democratic party in most large cities. They sat out the election allowing the GOP sweep all the major cities.
Morello (2001) shows that advertising genius [[Albert Lasker]] sold candidate Harding to the American people by using new advertising strategies and techniques, borrowed from business and from the wartime bond campaigns. Lasker used the three pillars of consumer advertising: "reason why" selling, which compared products directly--aided especially by Harding's photogenic image; testimonial advertising, using endorsements by famous people; and "preemptive advertising," which rushed to claim common characteristics as unique features of the advertised commodity. Lasker used new technology such as movies. He adjusted the front porch campaign style used by [[William McKinley]] in 1896 to shield his weak candidate from uncontrolled public scrutiny. Lasker launched a sharp, relentlessly negative campaign against the policy failures of incumbent Democrat [[Woodrow Wilson]]. The result, Morello concludes, was a triumph of modern advertising technique which propelled the Republicans back into the White House and furthered the commodification of candidates in modern electoral contests.
==Presidency==
=== Key Accomplishments ===
*Eliminated wartime controls
*Slashed taxes