William Howard Taft: Biggest Presidential Butt

This blogging would seem to combine all my favorite subjects, those being the search for the biggest butts in the world, its companion subject, that being obesity. And history. I guess this blogging would also have to have something to do with Texas if it truly combined all my favorite subjects.

I have no idea if our 27th President, William Howard Taft, ever visited Texas. But I do know he had the biggest butt of any of our Presidents.

Taft was also the heaviest of our Presidents. He was a fairly tall guy, 6' 2". Who weighed in at around 325 pounds. That number could go up at times.

William Howard Taft was our first president to take up the golf habit. And he did not start the habit until he became president. Taft did not like being president. He was not very good at it. So, he often escaped the White House to go golfing, which worried a lot of people that he was not taking his job seriously. During the signing of one of his administration's few important achievements, that being the signing of the General Arbitration Treaty with Great Britain, Taft escaped the signing when the weather suddenly improved, to go golfing.

Taft was known for falling asleep at any time. It was one of Taft's aide's jobs to nudge Taft awake if he saw him falling asleep. Taft fell asleep at meetings, funerals and even while actively campaigning, passing out in an open car during a motorcade in New York City, to the amusement of the throngs of onlookers.

When Taft was the Governor of the Philippines he sent a telegram to Secretary of War Elihu Root saying, "Took long horseback ride today. Feeling fine." Root wired back, "How's the horse?"

Taft went to visit the Russian Czar. He was getting out of his carriage when his pants split open. He then slowly backed away from the Czar so as not to expose his ample backside.

Taft was so fat, in the gut zone, that he could not tie his own shoes. A valet had to perform that task for him.

President Taft got stuck so many times in the White House bathtub, with aides having to get him unstuck, that Taft had a new tub installed. It was 7 feet long, weighed a ton and was big enough to hold 4 regular sized men.

I don't know if the Taft Tub is still in the White House. I do know Taft lost his bid to be re-elected. Taft got the lowest percentage of the vote, at 23%, of any President trying to get re-elected. Teddy Roosevelt, who had picked Taft as his successor, got more votes than the President, as did the winner of that election, Woodrow Wilson.

In 1921 the next Republican President, he being Warren G. Harding, appointed Taft to be a Justice on the Supreme Court. A job Taft liked much better than being President.