One of our greatest Presidents, or an evil-imperialist.

Did his expanded use of executive authority set a dangerous precedent that has imperiled our very constitutional system???

I don't really have time to launch into a big debate right now . . .
but in the American History lecture i had today, i learned that when he was head of the NYC police board, he used to go out at nights dressed in a black cape to try to catch officers sleeping or drinking on the job
:D

regardless of whether he was good or bad, he was definatley entertaining
:)

It is strange that a lecturer would spend time with such a insignificant segment of the 26th president's life.

An interesting endeavor Ted Roosvelt pusued was his apparent campaign against the financial interests that control the USA. His attorney general made efforts to dissolve the Northern Securities Company. International, monopolistic bankers such JP Morgan, Harriman Brothers, and James Hill were very concerned about this because the Northern Securities Company was a fake, phoney, fraud company like Enron which was designed to avoid the 1890 Sherman antitrust act.

To this Roosevelt's credit, in contrast to his socialist 5th cousin FDR who married Ted's neice, FDR's 6th cousin (keeping it all in the family back then wasn't hta unusual I guess), he seems to have made efforts to restrain the strangle hold of a small group of Wall Streeters had over America's finance. He obviously failed, but at least he seemed to have tried to stop them. US Steel, Standard Oil, and the American Sugar refining Company were some of the evildoers he brought suit against.

His foreign policy decisions did not turn out to be very good. He took the US battleship fleet around the world in 1907 to intimidate other countries. The Panama Canal was built primarily for the purpose of getting battleships through from the Pacific to the Atlantic and back quicker. He left Cuba hanging out to dry.

He only mentioned it in passing; but he did spend alot of time on Roosevelt's character, whcih i found a little irritataing . . . he went through the whole story of how he was indirectly named after Roosevelt . . .

ugh, he tells alot of stories about his life
:rolleyes:

Have you guys read Theodore Rex yet??

Yeah, the great white fleet sent around the world was Teddy's way of letting the European Powers (and Japan) know that our hat was in world "ring" now.

Wouldn't be our first imperialistic move, or first racist policy, but it was definitely done on a larger scale than ever before.

Whaddya guys think of Woodrow Wilson's pursuit of Pancho Villa?