Despite this, Harding was honored like all the influential and great people who died, even Abraham Lincoln. Before his death, Harding had had a presidency marked by scandal, corruption and incompetence. Harding's knowledge of the world and his work was sorely lacking and was appalling for someone who embodied an iconic figure in American culture. According to Samuel Hopkins Adams, author of “The Timely Death of President Harding,” Harding often openly complained about his lack of knowledge. Adams noted, “To every interviewer he said with disarming humility, 'I don't know anything about this European stuff...' As for finances, 'I can't get a damn thing out of this fiscal problem.'” (Adams 474 ) Harding was of no benefit to the United States, and his scandals marked him as a man "weary of war, impatient with problems too burdensome for the mind of the street, cynically intolerant of the problems of a half-destroyed world" (Adams 473). Clearly, Harding served little purpose for the betterment of the United States and one would think that his eventual death would be treated with the same apathy as all famous people who die, Harding was greeted with compliments and statements that would equate him with American hero. Harding was recognized after his death as “the idol of the man in the street, the apotheosis of the average American, the exemplar of the triumphant commonplace” (Adams 469). , was friends with America's biggest crooks, most of whom ended up in prison, and had no idea how to do his job. This suggests that it is a taboo in society to speak ill of the dead and people are willing to say anything to glorify the former life of the deceased, regardless of whether or not.