The Pardon Power Has Become Synonymous with Corruption

I’m mildly amused by the “autopen” controversy. Not by the details of it, of course. In substance, it is one of the worst scandals in the history of the presidency. It’s on a par with Woodrow Wilson’s final two years in office, when a series of strokes, including a major one in October 1919, left him so incapacitated that he could not function. His wife and doctor managed his administration for the last year-and-a-half of his second term (including the crucial aftermath of World War I, which laid the pathway to World War II).

I say “par” because these things are hard to quantify. Joe Biden was diminished mentally and physically, and deteriorating rapidly, but he was not as incapacitated as Wilson. On the other hand, a century after Wilson, the presidency is more domestically and globally consequential, and more physically and mentally exhausting, than it was in 1920 — even factoring in staff, resources, courtiers, and monarchal comforts that Wilson couldn’t have dreamt of (and coming soon: a Qatari “palace in the sky” and a ballroom that would have greened Louis XIV with envy).

About the Author

Andrew C. McCarthy

Andrew C. McCarthy is a senior fellow at National Review Institute, an NR contributing editor, and author of Ball of Collusion: The Plot to Rig an Election and Destroy a Presidency.

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I’m mildly amused by the “autopen” controversy. Not by the details of it, of course. In substance, it is one of the worst scandals in the history of the presidency. It’s on a par with Woodrow Wilson’s final two years in office, when a series of strokes, including a major one in October 1919, left him so incapacitated that he could not function. His wife and doctor managed his administration for the last year-and-a-half of his second term (including the crucial aftermath of World War I, which laid the pathway to World War II).

I say “par” because these things are hard to quantify. Joe Biden was diminished mentally and physically, and deteriorating rapidly, but he was not as incapacitated as Wilson. On the other hand, a century after Wilson, the presidency is more domestically and globally consequential, and more physically and mentally exhausting, than it was in 1920 — even factoring in staff, resources, courtiers, and monarchal comforts that Wilson couldn’t have dreamt of (and coming soon: a Qatari “palace in the sky” and a ballroom that would have greened Louis XIV with envy).

About the Author

Andrew C. McCarthy

Andrew C. McCarthy is a senior fellow at National Review Institute, an NR contributing editor, and author of Ball of Collusion: The Plot to Rig an Election and Destroy a Presidency.