This classic post is from October 27, 2011, It was one of the first posts on this blog, and with over 4,0000 views, it still pulls from search engines every week. Hilarious!
Yes, today is the 153rd birthday of our 26th president.
It’s also true that our 26th president was one of our more colorful characters!
He came to public prominence during the Spanish-American War in 1898 as Colonel Roosevelt of the “Rough Riders”; you know, the dude who conquered San Juan Hill down in Cuba. How important this victory actually was is the subject of a lot of conjecture, but one things is definite… Roosevelt became a star as a result.
In 1900, he became William McKinley‘s running mate and ended up as president upon Mr. McKinley’s assassination in 1901, much to the chagrin of those who made him VP to get him out ofNew York!
Roosevelt was famous for clicking his teeth (usually three or more times in loud succession when he was happy about something… a habit that tended to unnerve people.
He was the kind of guy who couldn’t sit still, pacing furiously across rooms where ever he went. He was an ardent advocate of the “strenuous life” in which he was always active and on the go… something that made the cartoonists of his day pretty happy.
He was also a serious president, enacting many reforms and taking credit for even more…
…and was quite busy in foreign affairs walking softly and carrying big sticks with him; he even won the Nobel Peace Prize for brokering peace in the Russo-Japanese war.
He is very famous for splitting with his party in 1912 to oppose his own hand-picked successor,William Howard Taft in the general election leading to the victory of Woodrow Wilson that year. (thanks a lot, Ted)
Here’s something Mr. Roosevelt did that most people don’t know about: he completely remodeled the White House, making it the building we are familiar with today. He moved the president’s office and working space to a new West Wing…
And, as you will see in the remaining photos, he transformed the White House from a threadbare old Victorian to a more modern look… Here’s his new entrance hall
His new look Blue Room…
The new look Red Room…
and the Green Room…
…and of course the East Room…
…and finally the all new State Dining Room (note the dead animal heads overlooking your dinner!)
(White House pictures source: White House Museum)
And so there you go; an all new reference for you!
Life Project Blog 
He is also the father of progressivism the modern day liberalism. Not good!
FBF
I’m not sure about being the father of it, but he was the first progressive to reach the White House… yes, and not good
Is it true that, after initially being part of the slaughter of bison, he later put legislation in place to protect them?
Yes sir it is; he established our National Parks System, and ended up being our first “conservationist” well ahead of his time.
The Roosevelt Family was historic in every advent of political honor and respect by the American people. Tally Ho! 🙂 ~Yolanda
They were at that!
Roosevelt, like all great men, had his flaws. He abused power: It’s clear that he used his position as Secretary of the Navy to help incite the Spanish American War. He then used it as an arena to promote himself. TR commissioned himself as colonel, recrfuited his private army, and through heroic exploits, made himself famous. He was also very lucky not to have been killed. Did Providence protect him? He believed so.
He was also supremely ambitious, which is not always a bad thing. His pesonal ambition caused him to lose his perspective and prove disloyal, when he formed his own personal party. He did this to run for president, which split the vote. As mentioned, this caused the defeat of his appointed president and his party. To his merit however, TR repented of this action.
He was also a terrific, prolific writer. I think he wrote over a dozen books,and was very quotable. On of his quotes: “An uneducated man can steal from a freight car. An educated man can steal the whole railroad.”
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He was certainly quotable!