Lessons from a Larger-than-Life President

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6. There can be great joy in politics. At the age of 28 and on the verge of losing the New York City mayor's race, he still wrote a friend, "I have had first class fun ..." He relished the thrust and parry of politics, its give and take, the highs and lows. And he knew politics was a noble profession. "Aggressive fighting for the right is the noblest sport the world affords," he famously said. No man loved being President more than T.R.--or missed being President as much.

7. Character matters. Roosevelt was a man of extraordinary self-will. Encouraged by his father, he turned himself from a sickly child to a powerful, hardy young man. He overcame common human fears and became a man of great courage. He chose "the strenuous life" over comfort and ease. He was a loyal friend and faithful husband--and reveled in the company of his children. He encountered heartbreaking losses-- the sudden passing of his beloved first wife and his mother on the same day in the same house and, later, the death in combat of his son Quentin--yet his life was characterized by passion and zest and a drive to achieve great things.

Roosevelt's fellow citizens loved him, in large measure because they knew how deeply he loved his country. At the start of "a new century big with the fate of many nations," he said America was the "young giant of the West." He strived with all his considerable power to conserve, strengthen, direct and ennoble it. He did all that and more, which is why Theodore Roosevelt holds a special place in the American imagination. •

•Karl Rove, a history buff, is assistant to the President, deputy chief of staff and senior adviser