AS SEEN ON TV: WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT

Only three days before Inauguration Day, when Barack Obama becomes our 44th President! And to celebrate, each day here at Inner Toob we're supplying the picture of a former president as he looked in Toobworld.

Today we're featuring William Howard Taft, as seen in the mini-series 'Backstairs At The White House'. Taft is another one of those presidents, like Benjamin Harrison, William Henry Harrison, and Franklin Pierce, who wouldn't have much call to be featured in anything but one of those Ken Burnsish documentaries; the kind where a celebrity would read from the subject's letters. And Millard Fillmore hasn't even had that honor bestowed on him! (The way things are going for that "do-nothing" president, the best I'll ever hope for is showing the Millard Fillmore Soap-On-A-Rope from the Kia commercial!)

Oy! Don't get me started!

But William Howard Taft kicks off the line of presidents to parade through the lives of the servants who worked in the White House from the turn of the century up into the 1950s. And that's why out of all the choices in that mini-series, I decided to go with Taft.

Besides, when it comes to roles played by Victor Buono, who doesn't like a nice Vic pic?

BCnU!
Toby O'B