I find much to admire in Roosevelt, so might be allowed some criticism. What I mean is, TR fans — my fellow TR fans, I should say — might indulge me. Some of the things he said about Wilson were absolutely nutty, and nasty. (Will the Corner forgive me for saying that attacks on Wilson can be wrong?) When Wilson did not get America into the world war as fast as TR wanted, the ex-president said that the current president was like the priest and the Levite on the Jericho road, passing by the needy man, desperate and broken. (It was the Good Samaritan who stopped and helped.) In our secular age, words like that would mean nothing. In the 1910s, they meant a lot.

He mocked Wilson for marrying again, after the death of his first wife. But had not TR done exactly the same? (Wilson waited one year, TR waited two. Big whoop.) (By the way, both second wives were named Edith.)

Because I admire TR so much — goodness, read his Nobel lecture! — it pains me to contemplate some of the words he spoke and wrote. I think of the title of an Ed Koch book (about Rudy): “Nasty Man.”

(I realize what I have said, above, does not relate to philosophy or politics. It relates to temperament, however.)

(Rick, in his post below, mentioned Louis Auchincloss. The late Auchincloss wrote an excellent pocket bio of Wilson, which relates some of the scalding, or unhinged, TR rhetoric.)