Slander of a dead president? Assuming arguendo the tale is true – which it apparently is not – the point presumably is that we need visionary presidents who can recognize and finance with treasury dollars and debt valuable new technology. We do not. Politicians are by definition poor venture capitalists – it is not their money at risk after all. Also, the apparently untrue tale demonstrates the opposite: despite a contemporary president’s supposed failure to recognize its value the telephone and tech spawned by it are today ubiquitous.
http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/03/rutherford-b-hayes-obama-telephone.html