ABSTRACT
Theodore Roosevelt was lucky in the election that paved the way for his emergence: 1896, when a frightened nation chose comforting William McKinley and began to ease back into prosperity and, in time, to lust for fresh adventures. Peaceable McKinley was as unsuited for the combat of 1900 as Roosevelt was for the gentleness of 1896. Thus candidates come and go, their characters sometimes fitting, sometimes at odds with the pulse of politics. Roosevelt's flair for "publicity, publicity, publicity", as a World subhead stressed, owed much to his natural friendship with the men who brought in the news. For more than a decade, Roosevelt had been itching for a war, with Mexico, Chile, Venezuela, Canada, England, whomever. He glorified in "the rugged fighting qualities" a nation needed to "achieve real greatness". Roosevelt's successful rise to the Presidency, confirmed in his election in 1904, was fueled by his remarkable relationship with the reporters of his day.
