[Johnny_Cipher]

His selfish and egotistical third-party run gave the country the disastrous Woodrow Wilson.

Not knowing when one is beaten can be a benchmark of greatness too. As for "selfish and egotistical," many say it was the Progressives dangling a LaFollette candidacy in front of him that drove him to embark on his ill-advised 1912 run. Of course, Roosevent was bull-headed, a trait I can identify with and, with reservations, admire.

[AnAmericanMother]

The bullheadedness was a necessary part of his character. Without it, he would never have built himself up from a sickly, half-blind asthmatic weakling; he would never have fought the entrenched New York political interests in the state legislature; he would never have survived the simultaneous deaths of his wife and mother . . . his whole life was one long struggle.

He shouldn't have done that Amazon basin expedition; he shouldn't have run as a third party candidate; he shouldn't have feuded with Taft; he shouldn't have continued his very strenuous exercise against doctor's orders . . . but without that stubbornness he would never amounted to anything -- would have just been another young, sickly, effete, layabout scion of an old New York family.