Teddy Roosevelt was a sickly rich kid who grew into a little man with a high voice, and spent the rest of his life in the relentless pursuit of bad-assery. While in public office in Washington, he decided it was time to kill some people. So he went to San Antonio—at the time, a middle-of-nowhere cowboy town—and posted up in the Menger Hotel. He recruited the toughest-looking dudes who walked through the door, then took them to Cuba to start a war. He compared firing a gun to having an orgasm in terms of pleasure and necessity. Even his signature policy accomplishment as President, the “trust-busting” of monopolies, has a tough-guy name. He would scoff at Obama for issuing a “kill order” instead of personally going to Pakistan to carry it out himself. For his sheer mythic ruggedness alone, Teddy Roosevelt is the sort of President to whom candidates in both parties routinely compare themselves. But when it comes to a simple foot race, the 26th President of the United States just can’t win. … Read More

(via The Classical)