Before deciding to trash one of our dead presidents - who was an American patriot and war hero - President Obama might be well advised to consult more with historians and depend less on the staff stooges writing his political campaign jargon.

In a speech last Thursday in Maryland to push for renewable energy investments, Obama claimed former President Rutherford B. Hayes, our 19th president, wasn't very good at his job and was an example of the Republican's history of "looking backwards." He zeroed in on one quote he said Hayes made about the telephone: "It's a great invention but who would ever want to use one?"After that he mocked Hayes as a non-visionary, stating, "That's why he's not on Mount Rushmore."The hand-picked audience, of course, chuckled at the president's quick wit.Shortly after the president's jabbing remarks, Nan Card, the curator of manuscripts at the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center in Freemont, Ohio, responded that Hayes never made that statement about the telephone and that the former president has wrongly been attached to the quote for years.She cited a Providence Journal newspaper article from June 29, 1877, which proved that Hayes was actually enamored by the telephone. As Hayes listened on the phone, "a gradually increasing smile wreathed his lips and wonder shone in his eyes more and more," the article said, and after taking the phone from his ear, Hayes remarked, 'That is wonderful.'"Contrary to Obama's misinformation about Hayes, the curator said Hayes really embraced the new technology of his day and even blazed the path for future presidents. He was not only the first Commander in Chief to have a telephone in the White House, but was also the first to use the typewriter.He even had Thomas Edison as a guest in the White House to demonstrate the phonograph.As for Obama's ridicule of Hayes not being a candidate for Mount Rushmore, this president should first deal with his own failures before casting stones at his predecessors in the oval office.As president, Hayes earned a steadfast reputation for being moral, honest and a man of integrity throughout his career as a soldier and a statesman.Obama also mocked a true American patriot and decorated military leader. Hayes was nearly 43, the father of three with a fourth on the way, when he chose to serve the North in the Civil War, stating that he would rather die in the conflict than live having done nothing for the Union. He was appointed a major in the 23rd Ohio Volunteers and although he had no military experience, he worked hard and quickly earned the respect of the men under his command.Hayes was wounded five times and by the end of the war, was a breveted major general, recognized for his "gallant and distinguished services."Even in his retirement years and before his death in 1893, Hayes contributed to American society, working for equal educational opportunities for all children, and for prison reform.That's quite a legacy for a president who Obama only knows as a Republican "looking backward."Hayes may not have a place on Mount Rushmore but he certainly doesn't deserve any backhanded ridicule from a president whose "achievements" thus far include soaring gas prices, four straight years of trillion dollar deficits, and a federal health care program which threatens to drown this nation in a black hole of federal debt and red tape for generations.By Jim Zbickjzbick@tnonline.com