Obama's whopper about Rutherford B. Hayes and the telephone ‎

“Of course, we’ve heard this kind of thinking before. If some of these folks were around when Columbus set sail, they must have been founding members of the Flat Earth Society. … There always have been folks who are the naysayers and don't believe in the future, and don't believe in trying to do things differently. One of my predecessors, Rutherford B. Hayes, reportedly said about the telephone, ‘It’s a great invention, but who would ever want to use one?’ That's why he's not on Mount Rushmore because he’s looking backwards. He’s not looking forwards. He’s explaining why we can't do something, instead of why we can do something.”


There is no evidence Hayes ever said this. Not only that, contrary to Obama’s jab, Hayes was interested in new technology.

Hayes, in fact, was such a technology buff that he installed the first telephone in the White House. In fact, he was a little too ahead of his time, because there were so few telephones installed elsewhere in the county.