William H. Taft, 27th President of the United States

William H. Taft: Our Fattest President With a Wonderful Sense of Self-Effacing Humor​​

William Taft was a "Champion of Self-Effacing Humor."

“All the jokes that have been made about fat men since Shakespeare invented Falstaff were brought from their ancient closets and stretched to fit Taft’s ample form. New ones emanated from Taft himself. …

“He was fat! But he had the frame that carries weight with an effect of majesty, of the sort that primitive men, and even modern men in the average, like to see in their kings and leaders. Arthur Brisbane said at this time, ‘He looks like an American bison … a gentle, kind one.’

“People thought of Taft’s tonnage as they think of the Leviathan, something that makes for substance and dependability and does not interfere with efficiency.

​"Confidence and affection attended him everywhere.

“He was regarded as good medicine; at once a tonic and sedative, good for the national nerves. Old-fashioned people liked to think of him as a man who probably said his prayers. Frederick Palmer, U. S. Navy Rear Admiral, called Taft’s laugh ‘one of our great American institutions’ …
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“The country liked Taft. They made infinite jests about his fatness – and no one heard or repeated the jokes with greater savor than Taft himself. Making a speech he would pause, with an effect of suspense, just long enough to intensify the audience’s attention; then throughout the immense torso and up into the broad features would run little tremors and heavings, rising to a climax in a rumbling chuckle as infectious as only a fat man could achieve.
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“Then Taft would tell a story in which the point was, as he would say in an engaging falsetto, ‘on me.’ ”

​“Our Times: Volume 3,” Mark Sullivan, Journalist/Historian

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