With hindsight Cox is obviously the right choice. Backing out of the League of Nations was a disastrous choice, and of course Harding ran one of the most corrupt, ineffectual administrations in history. Without hindsight though I probably would have gone Harding as a reaction to Wilson's crackdown on civil liberties
Yeah, think I may have felt similarly without hindsight. Even aside from civil liberties and Wilson's much-maligned handling of race relations, the last two years of Wilson's presidency were disastrous.
Though without the deregulation and subsequent massive speculation of the 1920s, as well as the high tariffs and growing income inequality, we might not have had the Great Depression (at least to the same extent), and then might not have had the New Deal (again, to the same extent), and then we might be living in some kind of corporate-run dystopia (...to a greater extent).