TR hated to walk away from a fight and would be more likely to “stay the course” in Iraq. He’d want to be sure that the troops were adequately supplied and led, though, and would be furious at the stories of returning vets getting short shrift from the DVA. He would be very concerned about Russia’s aggression against Georgia, as he foresaw that the U.S. might have problems in the future with Russia. He would be eager to make common cause with other democracies against the rogue states and terrorists of the world.
A strong fiscal conservative, he would be appalled by the Federal budget deficit - mostly caused by his own (former) party! - and would do all he could to stem the tide of red ink.
He would be far to the left of most Republicans today in his support of environmental protection, conservation and public parklands. A skilled naturalist and scientist in his own right, I think he’d accept the evidence on global climate change and act accordingly.
A Neocon, in some ways, yes, but without their clumsiness or hubris. He was also pragmatic enough to look around and see how badly they’d gone astray, and learn from their mistakes.
We could do much worse than Theodore Roosevelt in the White House, then and now, and I say that as a proud Democrat.
Teddy mentions abortion here. He probably wouldn’t be pro-choice.
On the other hand, there were certain crimes where requests for leniency merely made me angry. Such crimes were, for instance, rape, or the circulation of indecent literature, or anything connected with what would now be called the “white slave” traffic, or wife murder, or gross cruelty to women or children, or seduction and abandonment, or the action of some man in getting a girl whom he seduced to commit abortion. In an astonishing number of these cases men of high standing signed petitions or wrote letters asking me to show leniency to the criminal. In two or three of the cases — one where some young roughs had committed rape on a helpless immigrant girl, and another in which a physician of wealth and high standing had seduced a girl and then induced her to commit abortion — I rather lost my temper, and wrote to the individuals who had asked for the pardon, saying that I extremely regretted that it was not in my power to increase the sentence. I then let the facts be made public, for I thought that my petitioners deserved public censure. Whether they received this public censure or not I did not know, but that my action made them very angry I do know, and their anger gave me real satisfaction.
Ch. VIII : The New York Governorship
He would not be Pro-Choice but he would probably not appoint justices based on a litmus test on this issue. That was the compromise I spoke of above.
I have spent a lot of time studying our greatest President. He was a fascinating man, one of the smartest and bravest men to ever serve as the leader of a powerful country.
I don’t think Arnold can match TR’s intelligence and learning. TR was especially studied in Naval tactics and History and a brilliant Naturalist. Check his bibliography. Here is a summary:
His The Naval War of 1812 (1882) was used in the US and UK to teach at War Colleges and the Naval Academy for an extended period and is still in print.
I think Theodore is fairly unique. There may be no one like him today and few like him ever.
On Policy, Arnold is a fair choice. Arnold seems fairly Green and a smart hawk as opposed to a Neo-Con. He has surprised me with his ability to be diplomatic with the California legislature. I don’t know enough about his national policy thoughts, but if he strongly believes in a strong Navy, it would be a big help.
