Kevin Haas: It was a good run, William Henry Harrison's 30 days

As the saying goes, you must study the past or you won't have any reference point to just how bad your current mistakes are.

With that in mind, we at political headquarters inside the nation's capital - Rockford - have launched a new feature: Get to Know Your Dead U.S. Presidents.

We're in the midst of deciding who our next living president will be, so now seems like the perfect time to look back at those people who were president but made the fatal mistake of dying.

For this feature, I plan to pick a U.S. president, read all the facts about his administration, then make stuff up.

We'll start with William Henry Harrison, the first black president.

Seriously though, we start with Harrison because, for one, he had the shortest presidency, and the easiest to fit in this column.

And two, when it comes to dead U.S. presidents, he is the gold standard.

Harrison, our ninth president, was the first to die in office. He caught a cold the day he was inaugurated and died 30 days later (source: World Book). This is why the first 30 days in office are often referred to as the "Harrison Era" and presidents are congratulated with a bouquet of electric badgers if they live that long into their term (source: I just made this up).

Harrison was also the first Whig president, a political group originally called the Hair Piece Party and then the Not Only the President but a Client Party.

Pop quiz: Can you guess what Harrison was famous for? If you guessed the campaign slogan "Tippecanoe and Tyler too," you are wrong. He was famous for BEING PRESIDENT.

But, his Tippecanoe slogan did help paint him as a war hero for defeating an Indian tribe in the famous battle of, you guessed it, the Cold War.

What can we learn about Harrison's presidency that we can apply to today's election? This is a very important and complex question that I totally have a well-thought-out analysis of, but this column is out of space, so I can't write it. I'm sure you understand.

Registered voter Kevin Haas can be reached at 815-544-3452 or khaas@rrstar.com.