POLITICS
We Only Like Presidents When They’re Gone
Why do presidents become more popular after they leave the White House?
In 1910, former President Theodore Roosevelt made a grand tour of Europe, visiting capitals like Oslo and Vienna. At the Sorbonne in Paris, he gave one of his most famous speeches, called “Citizenship in a Republic.” It contains Roosevelt’s much-quoted “man in the arena” riff:
The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
Roosevelt is widely regarded as one of the great presidents — he’s on Mount Rushmore, after all — so he should know whereof he speaks. If he’s right, people should appreciate the politicians who are at the center of the action, doing their damnedest to put their agenda into action. We should…
