Rutherford B. Hayes vs. Barack Obama

[Commentary] President Barack Obama, speaking in Largo (MD), took it on himself to mock former-President Rutherford B. Hayes — all for a statement about telephones that Hayes historians say he never made.

Politico quoted the president as saying: “One of my predecessors, President Rutherford B. Hayes, reportedly said about the telephone: ‘It’s a great invention but who would ever want to use one? That's why he's not on Mt. Rushmore. He's looking backwards, he's not looking forward. He's explaining why we can't do something instead of why we can do something. The point is there will always be cynics and naysayers.” Up with this I will not put. Give the man his credit for technology. He was, reportedly, quite excited by it. And he had so few joys in life. His wife, “Lemonade Lucy” refused to serve alcohol at White House functions. So instead, he amused himself by listening to the telephone and having Thomas Edison come to the White House and demonstrate the phonograph. He even used a typewriter.