I love FDR, too. He was inspirational in his own right as well, and I should definitely include him in a list of inspirational presidents as well. He helped with the Great Depression as best as he could (but it was WW2, really and sadly, that jumpstarted the world's problems with the entirety of the Depression, for the most part).
Teddy wasn't perfect in a lot of ways, but he wasn't always a hawk. He did expand our navy tremendously (and had it been there at the time, would've done the same with the Air Force; he believed in having every advantage we could), but he also believed in speaking softly and carrying a big stick, to make all attempts at diplomacy before fighting, but always being prepared to fight. Again, he did win the Nobel Peace Prize by stopping the Russo-Japanese War before the fighting could get worse, and you don't do that with being a pure hawk.
And leading by example is something that Teddy firmly believed in. Yes, he believed his sons should follow his footsteps as men, but he believed in all of them and led by example with all of them, led by example throughout his entire life, and that's why people gravitated towards him.
Sorry for geeking out on this; I'm a huge history nerd of all kinds (yes, Greek mythology included amongst a lot of wars and periods of the U.S.). All of that, all of the history of the world, can be fair or ill. The main thing is to not repeat the history of the past because it's safer, but to move forward from the present to a brighter future by learning from that past.
