A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

Today’s Question:   In today's political climate, would maverick presidents like Teddy Roosevelt be treated much like Trump by the media? Dear Quora Member : Theodore Roosevelt was not, as you say, a “maverick” President, at least not in the same “inexperienced tyro with lots of money (supposedly, anyway)” maverick persona as that of “The Donald.” TR was already a well-known Republican politician by the time that the GOP grandees convinced incumbent President William McKinley to choose him as his running mate for the 1900 Presidential election. Even by today’s standards, Roosevelt was experienced; by 1899, he’d already been a member of New York’s state assembly, police commissioner of New York City, governor of New York, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, war hero in the Spanish-American War, and, perhaps, a possible candidate for the Presidency in the near future. Roosevelt believed that he was living on borrowed time, and that he was born to be President of the United...

This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory. I am convinced that you will again give that support to leadership in these critical days.- Franklin D. Roosevelt, first Inaugural address, March 4, 1933 On September 14, 2014, producer-director Ken Burns' The Roosevelts: An Intimate History premiered on PBS. Written by Burns' frequent collaborator Geoffrey C. Ward ( Baseball, The Civil War, The War, and Jazz ), thi...