Mark Hanna - Public Image Today

Public Image Today

New Jersey Senator Bill Bradley published a volume of memoirs, Time Present, Time Past in 1996. In it, the Democrat mentioned having written a high-school report on Hanna—his history teacher, Bradley related, told him that the lesson of the 1896 campaign is that money is power. Bradley, a former basketball player, mentioned that when he was being interviewed in high school, he stated that Hanna was one of his heroes. By the time he wrote the book, however, Bradley had come to believe in limits on campaign spending and blamed Hanna for a sharp escalation in campaign costs. Bradley also stated what Horner terms mischaracterizations of Hanna: that he was the Republican boss of Ohio, and that he did his best to disrupt Roosevelt's presidency. Bradley alleged that since 1896, Republicans have raised money easily from the rich. Despite his condemnation of Hanna, Bradley wrote that he regretted that he could not find a Hanna-like figure who could play an analogous role in advancing his political career.

In 2000, Texas Governor George W. Bush successfully ran for the presidency. As the campaign progressed, the media compared Hanna and Bush adviser Karl Rove, who was believed by some to hold a Svengali-like influence over the Texas governor. During the campaign, and until his departure from the White House in 2007, media members often suggested that Rove was able to manipulate Bush, and that Rove exerted considerable control over the government. Bush's advisor was deemed a present-day incarnation of Hanna, who was almost invariably presented negatively and at variance with historical fact. For example, writer Jack Kelly in a 2000 column incorrectly stated that McKinley's front porch campaign was at the direction of Hanna to ensure the candidate did not vary from campaign themes, rather than McKinley deciding that it was his best response to Bryan's national tour. These comparisons were fueled by Rove's interest in, and by some reports, liking for Hanna. Rove studied the McKinley administration at the University of Texas under McKinley biographer Lewis L. Gould, and believes that Hanna's influence has been overrated.

According to Horner, Davenport's depiction of Hanna still lingers as the modern image of the former senator:

The portrait of Hanna that has stood the test of time is of a man who was grossly obese; a cutthroat attack dog for the "Trusts"; a cigar-smoking man clad in a suit covered with dollar signs who stood side by side with a gigantic figure representing the trusts, and a tiny, childlike William McKinley. He will forever be known as "Dollar Mark".