From “The Human Condition: A
User’s Manual,” by Arnold Kunst
1 September
At just the right time –
timing in politics is everything, isn’t it? - Teddy Roosevelt who already had a
political career launched, who had already spent two years in the Badlands of
the Dakota Territory, volunteered for active duty when the Spanish-American War
broke out. He was commisioned a colonel and formed the famous Rough Riders; it
included an odd assortment indeed - his Dakota cowboy friends as well as Irish
cops and his upper-class Eastern-Establishment cronies - and led them on the
famous and well-publicized charge up San Juan Hill. That charge, unlike much of
what took place in that murkey 4-month war, was a [simple] clean American
victory.
Largely because of the good
press he got from the Hearst newspaper chain, Roosevelt caught the attention of
President McKinley who selected him as
his vice-presidential running mate as he sought re-election in1900. A few short
months after that election President McKinley was assassinated, and Theodore
Roosevelt became, at age 42, the youngest president in American history.
He was called, with
considerable justification, “a steam engine in trousers.” He relished his time
in the White House; he even won the Noble Peace Prize for brokering a peace
treaty at the end of the Sino-Russian War in 1905. [One commentator at the time
described him as “the most effective herder of emperors since Napoleon.”]
He easily won the 1904
presidential election in his own right, and almost certainly would have held on
to the job he so much enjoyed in 1908, but he decided to chase off to an
African safari instead, so he bestowed the job that was clearly his to bestow
on his good friend and Secretary of War William Howard Taft.
Then everything changed.
Fate up to this time had, it
seemed, favored him; now, it seemed, Fate turned on him. [Think tides coming
in, tides going out.] Perhaps naturlly, after that short-lived African safari
TR came to disagree with the policies of his White House protégé to the point
of seeking the Republican nomination for president in 1912. In the process his
friendship with Taft soured bitterly - Taft got the nomination for himself, and
TR bolted to form the short-lived Bull Moose Party becoming its candidate for
president. The ensuing bitter struggle hopelessly divided the Republican Party
and gave the election that year to Woodrow Wilson. Despite his heroic efforts,
TR’s unwanted retirement was confirmed.
[By the way, that same Fate
that seemed to curse TR in 1912 seemed to bless Woodrew Wilson, an academic’s
academic with a scant two years of executive experience as New Jersey governor.
One star down, another up.
[Bummer!]
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