Roosevelt would notice that five million people have visited the Grand Canyon last year, something he would heartily approve of. Then he would also notice that about 816 people have visited ANWR in the same year. He might, if transported to the 21st Century, visit the place himself and would know why. ANWR is hardly a picturesque wilderness like the Grand Canyon. It is essentially a frozen desert.

But what about the caribou, one might ask. Roosevelt would take note that caribou seem to be thriving in the Purdue Bay area of northern Alaska, where oil drilling has taken place for decades. He would take note of how modern drilling methods leave a tiny foot print on the land. Teddy Roosevelt was not a friend of big business, all historians know, but he was not a fool either.

The one thing about Roosevelt that would clinch the deal for him stems from another aspect of his character that many people admire, almost as much as his conservation. Roosevelt was, above everything else, an American nationalist.

Teddy Roosevelt, after all, did not let a minor thing like the national sovereignty of the nation of Columbia get in the way of digging the Panama Canal. The Canal was important for American commerce and national security and if that meant fomenting a revolt and detaching part of Columbia and making it the nation of Panama, then so be it.

And who can forget, "Pedicaris alive, or Rasuli dead!" Roosevelt's preference for gun boat diplomacy would have modern liberals in shock. But no one messed with American citizens, no matter where in the world they were, on Teddy Roosevelt's watch.

not so today with the wimp