Gumption: Relighting the Torch of Freedom with America's Gutsiest Troublemakers

by Nick Offerman

“Think about it,” Conan said. “We couldn’t have a president like this anymore. He was an explorer. He was a naturalist. He read and wrote in several languages. He had served in war and was also a diplomat, and the list goes on and on. “And you know, the big thing we’re always trying to figure out today is ‘Who’s being real?’ Is anyone being real? . . . And, man, you know Teddy Roosevelt was Teddy Roosevelt. He was completely a sincere character, and no one’s ever doubted that. He was curious, and I love curious people. I think some of our more recent leaders have not been curious people, and we’ve suffered for it. I think having leaders today who are curious about other cultures, willing to accept that they don’t know everything, but they want to know—those are qualities that were great about Teddy Roosevelt. “The flip side is that I really believe that he was—he needed to be medicated.” His scholarly knowledge strikes me as another tangible proof that some of our most trusted and relevant televised brains (and their crack teams of writers), like Conan, Jon Stewart, and Stephen Colbert, have a fascination with our nation’s history, particularly in the revisionist way it’s been spun for the public.