On Sat, 17 Dec 2005, John Mage wrote:
> <http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/classics/story/0,6000,1669276,00.html>
>
> but he says that Walt Whitman "opposed the Mexican War" - my
> recollection is that he enthusiastically supported it
Having been to several Whitman exhibits lately (mounted in honor of the 150th anniversary of Leaves of Grass) I'm almost positive you're right and Bloom's wrong. The key seems to be Bloom's statement that "A Free-Soiler, he [Whitman] opposed the Mexican war" as if one position necessitated the other. But it didn't. Whitman was a free soiler who supported expansion and wanted to keep the new territory free of slavery. He was a strong supporter of the Wilmot proviso which aimed to do just that.
According to David Reynold's "cultural biography" _Walt Whitman's America_ (a very good book, IMHO), Whitman put Polk in his presidential pantheon along with Jefferson and Jackson.
Michael