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I’m often reminded of Kipling and Teddy Roosevelt when I read your writing. Little did I think that you would make the connection explicit. Unfortunately I don’t consider the connection in any way desirable or noble. The phrases “Splendid Little War” and “White Man’s Burden” pretty much sum up everything appalling about what Jay Ackroyd like to refer to as the Great American Hegimony Project.

Whenever I tempted by my agreement with a particular point you may be making, I need to remind myself that our worldviews diverge in this very important fundemental way.

Joe not your finest effort. The prose was nice; I disagree with Rice…there’s more she could have stood up against since she became Secretary of State. she doesn’t even deserve “Honorable Mention.”

What Paul Dirks said about Kipling’s and Roosevelt’s colonial, empire building mentality.
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But I always did like TR’s chutzpah. And he was on the right side of a lot of issues. Not everyone could take on Standard Oil and live to tell about it…

Maybe it’s time to jettison the Teddy awards. There’s a very simple reason why TR would not have liked Obama: he was racist. Not just a little racist, not just willing to compromise on race for political reasons like FDR. Racism was central to his political thinking.
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That doesn’t mean we have to forget all of his accomplishments. But maybe this year we could think of a better model of candor and honesty.

We need to remind ourselves that even our greatest heroes often had very human flaws. While TR’s impact was profound and far-reaching, regrettably, he was the author of this quotation:
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“I suppose I should be ashamed to say that I take the
Western view of the Indian. I don’t go so far as to
think that the only good Indians are the dead Indians,
but I believe nine out of ten are, and I shouldn’t like
to inquire too closely into the case of the tenth. The
most vicious cowboy has more moral principle than the
average Indian.”
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Ya takes the good with the bad.

TR coined the term “muckraker,” not to be confused with the modern “buckraker.”

There’s a very simple reason why TR would not have liked Obama: he was racist….

I have in my possession a book that was passed down from my Father’s family. It is a Rand-McNalley grade school geography text book circa 1903. It actually has a chapter delineating the ‘races’ of man and placing them in a heirarchy. Needless to say the ‘Caucasian’ race is placed at the the pinnacle and the various others are placed in decending order based on their degree of ‘savagery’ Oddly enough, the very bottom of the pyramid was occupied by the Chinese. Their lack of a phonetic alphabet is cited as the justification for their apparent lack of civilization.

Seeing it provides assurance over how far we’ve come in a short time but it also serves as a stark reminder. This is what we were teaching our childeren in public schools less than 4 generations ago!

Did anyone else find the rah rah troop stuff at the end a little stale?

And, yet, TR invited Booker T. Washington to visit at the White House. And outraged the country.
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Racism was coin of the realm in the Americas and in Europe. Involved scientific theories were developed to ‘prove’ the inherent inferiority of dark-skinned people and foreigners. Theories of international expansion preached that ‘advanced’ nations had an right to take land peopled by ‘inferior’ people.
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But racial attitudes in the early 20th Century were a bit more complex than a simplistic charges of racism. ‘The White Man’s Burden’ was considered enlightened because it required lighter-colored nations to take on the responsibility of ‘civilizing’ others, rather than simply butchering or enslaving them.
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And a man like TR could recognize the intellect and dignity of a man like Booker T. Washington despite his racism.
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My point is not that racism of the early 20th Century was misunderstood but that is was the accepted norm. We have come a long way, and thank God for it, but racism sits in the human heart in all ages. We can’t pat our backs too forcefully.

Obama knows the pundits will never accept him unless we hate him, so, we’re cynically doing our part to prop him up.

Grrr…. Pffft!

The problem is, he’s not nearly as good at it. In actual fact, most of what got us PO’d is not what Rush Limbaugh said, but what his enablers did to catapult Limbaugh’s bile into the mainstream and legitimize it. Without the MSM, Limbaugh’s just a blowhard preaching to the masses. Katie Couric always gives him a seat at the table.

What is frustrating, and a miscalculation on Obama’s part, is a huge part of the anger that propelled him to office was a result of being mocked, marginalized and ridiculed for years, and being proven to be the least wrong of all the millionaire pundits who can never seem to lose credibility or be held accountable, no matter how wrong they prove to be.

So, Presidents come, and President’s go, power switches from one party to the other, but the one constant is that DC caters to right wing wack-os and mocks anyone left of center with an actual track record of prescience.

I had hoped Obama would usher in a new era of non-conservative politics by restoring pride in his party, as Reagan did, and by demanding real, good-faith offers of friendship, rather than a Lieberman like catering to people who want anyone who’s not them eradicated from the Earth.

Like with Iran, you can sit down with the leaders, but don’t let yourself get played for a fool. “Tough” diplomacy, that demands verification and collateral for offers made, and doesn’t give away the store, but is willing to cut a deal if they move our way, too.

Joel Osteen is an evangelist whom liberals can embrace because he emphasizes who to love rather than who to hate. Obama, instead, has decided to give a great honor and platform to someone who wants him wiped from the Earth. What is Warren willing to do to demonstrate his good faith? Does Warren even WANT to be friends? Or after his prayer, is he going to just use his burst of popularity to undermine everything Obama does?

Negotiation and compromise is fine as long as both sides give something, and I’ll take the first earnest hand of friendship offered. The GOP hasn’t made a good faith effort to reach across the aisle since 1992.

We’re just hoping Obama isn’t another fool. I’m not sure I can take four years of Obama kowtowing to people who seek only his failure and humiliation, as the MSM demands Obama give more to get along.

“The Annual Teddy Awards”? Is that the world famous “Annual Teddy Awards”? Never heard of them. If Klein is the one doing the so-called “awarding”, I’m certain that the “winners” are followers of the Klein school of kook fringe fundamentalist leftism. Given how prestigious the “Annual Teddy Awards” are, expect the execrable Associated (with terrorists) Press to dutifully announce the declarations made by Klein.