Even in the Republican household of my childhood, I had a hard time deciding if I liked FDR more than I liked Harry Truman. Since Truman lived into my late teens, Harry had an edge since FDR had been dead 10 years when I was born. Must everything be a contest? I've finally decided it's OK to like them both the same.

Because I liked Harry so much I paid attention to his only child, Margaret Truman Daniels, the Chelsea Clinton of 63 winters ago. Margaret Truman Daniels died this morning at the age of 83.  I'm sorry Margaret won't be here to celebrate this next November 4th when the voters put a wooden stake through the heart of the Republican Party.

Reading the following, which I lifted off the pages of the New York Times, made me think maybe I wasn't the only little boy in Arkansas who had a thing for Harry Truman. I think the words below give us a little idea of what Harry Truman would make of the media BS that's been following Bill Clinton around the last few weeks. Rest in peace Mrs. Daniels.

Truman’s Daughter Dies at 83

Margaret Truman Daniel, the president’s daughter whose achievements as a concert singer, radio and television host, and author of best-selling biographies and mysteries won her renown in her own right, died on Tuesday in Chicago. Mrs. Daniel, who had long lived on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, was 83.

Her death was announced by her son Clifton T. Daniel.

Mrs. Daniel died after a brief illness, according to a statement from the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum in Independence, Mo. She had been living in an assisted living facility for the past several weeks and was on a respirator, the library said.

Most Americans first knew Margaret Truman as the young woman with blue-green eyes, ash-blond hair, flawless complexion and dimpled cheeks who was the only child of Harry S. Truman, the somewhat obscure vice president from Missouri who ascended to the presidency on the death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in April 1945, as World War II neared its end.

Before long, they were following her career as the aspiring singer whose doting father sprang to her defense with a memorably scorching letter to a Washington music critic who had the temerity to belittle her talent.

In time there was her headline-making marriage to a dashing newspaperman, Clifton Daniel Jr., who eventually became the managing editor of The New York Times, and the birth of their four sons.

As the decades passed, Americans by the hundreds of thousands knew Mrs. Daniel, too, as Margaret Truman, the author of 32 books, including biographies of both her parents and 23 mystery novels in her popular “Capital Crime Series,” all set in and around Washington.

The memorable confrontation that in retrospect became the climax of Mrs. Daniel’s singing career took place in December 1950. By then, she had been singing professionally since March 16, 1947, when she made her debut as a coloratura with the Detroit Symphony in a radio broadcast that attracted an audience estimated at 15 million and prompted mixed reviews from the critics.

After that, in her first appearance on a concert stage, she sang before 15,000 people with the 90-piece Hollywood Bowl Symphony, led by her favorite conductor, Eugene Ormandy. And during the next few years, she sang in more than 30 cities and signed an exclusive contract with RCA-Victor Red Seal Records.

And so she came to Constitution Hall in Washington.

In her 1981 book “Letters from Father: The Truman Family’s Personal Correspondence” (Arbor House), she recalled: “Because of my father, I was more easily able to obtain important engagements. But I also received more attention by first-string critics and more demanding audiences, who felt that because my father was the president, I had to be not better than average, but better than the best in order to justify my appearing on the stage.”

Mrs. Daniel thought her performance at Constitution Hall to be one of her better ones. But Paul Hume, the music critic of The Washington Post, while praising her personality, said that “she cannot sing very well,” added that “she is flat a good deal of the time” and concluded that she had no “professional finish.”

Incensed, President Truman dispatched a combative note to Mr. Hume, who released it to the press.. It said, in part, “I have just read your lousy review . . . I have never met you, but if I do, you’ll need a new nose.”

In the ensuing uproar, reporters pressed Mrs. Daniel for her reaction to her father’s letter. “I’m glad to see that chivalry is not dead,” she told them.

In “Harry S. Truman,” she wrote: “Dad discussed the letter with his aides and was annoyed to find that they all thought it was a mistake. They felt that it damaged his image as president and would only add to his political difficulties. ‘Wait till the mail comes in,’ Dad said. ‘I’ll make you a bet that 80 percent of it is on my side of the argument.’

“A week later, after a staff meeting, Dad ordered everybody to follow him, and they marched to the mail room. The clerks had stacked up thousands of ‘Hume’ letters received in piles and made up a chart showing the percentages for and against the President. Slightly over 80 percent favored Dad’s defense of me. Most of the letter writers were mothers who said they understood exactly how Dad felt and would have expected their husbands to defend their daughters the same way. ‘The trouble with you guys is,’ Dad said to the staff as he strode back to work, ‘you just don’t understand human nature.’ ”***

*** The New York Times fudged on exactly what Harry wrote in that infamous letter that no doubt some claimed to be undignified and would be harmful to his legacy. Here is what Harry actually wrote:

"Mr. Hume:

"I have just read your lousy review of Margaret's concert. I've come to the conclusion that you are an 'eight ulcer man on four ulcer pay.'

"It seems to me that you are a frustrated old man who wishes he could have been successful. When you write such poppycock as was in the back section of the paper you work for it shows conclusively that you're off the beam and at least four of your ulcers are at work. Some day I hope to meet you. When that happens you'll need a new nose, a lot of beefsteak for black eyes, and perhaps a supporter below.

"Pegler, a guttersnipe, is a gentleman alongside you. I hope you'll accept that statement as a worse insult than a reflection on your ancestry."  H.S.T.