WaPo Columnist: Nats Should Replace Taft Mascot with FDR in Wheelchair for 'Inclusiveness'

A former Washington Post editor who is now a columnist for the publication wrote that the Washington Nationals should have chosen Franklin Delano Roosevelt as one of its mascots instead of William Howard Taft, suggesting FDR’s selection would have been a gesture of “inclusiveness” for those with disabilities. 

Robert McCartney wrote last Friday the Nationals erred in picking Taft to be one of the presidents in the seventh-inning race.

“Admittedly, a mascot portraying the polio-stricken FDR would have had to race in a wheelchair,” McCartney wrote. “It could have been a gutsy gesture toward inclusiveness.”  

As Newsbusters noted, McCartney wrote the column 65 days after the Nationals announced Taft would be its next mascot.

“What a lame decision,” he concluded. “I hope Taft trips on that goofy mustache.”

McCartney suggested other presidents–like Madison–would have been more appropriate than Taft.