I’ve always seen a some of Theodore Roosevelt in Dubya. If you know little about Teddy, or simply want to know more, you should read The manliness of Theodore Roosevelt at the New Criterion. Then, if you want to learn even more, check my reading list in the left column and go to Amazon for Theodore Rex for the full story on his presidency.
It was a good one.
The American Museum of Natural History in NYC has some outstanding quotes that make you wonder “What ever happened to New York. The following quotations are inscribed inside the Roosevelt Memorial rotunda at the Museum. They cover “Nature,” “Manhood,” “Youth,” and “The State.”
You can find them in detail here:
http://www.amnh.org/common/faq/quotes.html
Mmmmm, might have to make an entry….
Comment by CDR Salamander — March 8, 2005 @ 10:19 pm
My only – not insignificant – problem with TR is his progressivism. Like Lincoln before him, and like those who imitated him later (Wilson and FDR), TDR believed in expanding the power of the Federal Government to act as a social force in and of itself, rather than in limited government. Progressivism set an extremely bad precedent that we have been unsuccessfully battling these past hundred years.
However, Roosevelt walked the quack, for sure.
(Conflating “walks like a duck, quacks like a duck….”)
Comment by Paulie at The Commons — March 9, 2005 @ 7:36 am
I think some progressivism was necessary in his time. Coal strikes and monolithic business interests created issues which had to be addressed. I believe he handled them, for the most part, quite well.
Comment by Bunker — March 9, 2005 @ 2:23 pm