Teddy Roosevelt was the 29th President, serving from 1901 to 1909.  A Republican, he is widely regarded as one of the five best presidents in our history.  He was a war hero, as leader of the “Rough Riders” during the Spanish-American war in 1898,  He began construction of the Panama Canal.  He was a nature-lover and a conservative conservationist.  He was the first real “trust-buster” to end certain abusive corporate practices.  I think he was indeed one of our best presidents!

But, I think he was the only Republican president that my late mother didn’t like.  To her, style and grace and manners actually mattered, but President Theodore Roosevelt was an egocentric egomaniac instead.  Indeed, his daughter wrote of him that “My father always wanted to be the corpse at every funeral, the bride at every wedding, and the baby at every christening.”  (Ivanka could not have said it better.)  Some people think egocentric egomaniacs are funny.  My mother found them in bad taste, which was worse than illegal.

If an egocentric egomaniac like Teddy Roosevelt can be a great president, then there is hope for Donald Trump to be great also.  But, my beloved mother was wrong:  style and grace and manners actually don’t matter!  Apparently!