Smoke-filled room

In U.S. political jargon, a smoke-filled room (sometimes called a smoke-filled back room) is an exclusive, sometimes secret political gathering or round-table-style decision-making process.

"[2] The origin of the term was in a report by Raymond Clapper of United Press, describing rumors of the process by which Warren G. Harding was nominated at the 1920 Republican National Convention as the party's candidate for the presidential election.

After many indecisive votes, Harding, a relatively minor candidate who was the junior senator from Ohio was, legend has it, chosen as a compromise candidate by Republican power-brokers in a private meeting at the Blackstone Hotel in Chicago after the convention had deadlocked,[3][4]thought not as a complacent bystander as has often been claimed.

[5] In doing so, he surpassed the three Republican front runners, General Leonard Wood, Governor Frank O. Lowden, and Senator Hiram W. Johnson.

The fact that before the convention Harding's potential was considered negligible yet he was able to emerge victorious gave birth to the murky and suspicious nature of this term.

A late 19th-century view of the smoking room in a gentlemen's club. The three men at lower right are engaged in earnest discussion.