William Howard Taft Quotes
I cannot be more aggressive than my nature makes me,.
Many supporters urged him to be more aggressive on the Campaign Trail, See {640689}.
William Howard Taft, 1857-1930, 27th President of the United States (Republican, OH), Letter to E. N. Huggens, August 11, 1908
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Taft was a jurist whose tendency was to respond to each point his opponent made and argue it logically and then to on to the next point much as in a formal debate. However, Bryan was a very dynamic speaker who was a populist and demagogue. Roosevelt who could debate logically or thunder like a demagogue was of the opinion that you should not let a demagogue control the agenda in a campaign. Trying to answer was futile. Instead attack the demagogue where he is weak and stay on the attack. This was hard for Taft to do as he was not the skilled speaker or politician that TR was. Taft won, but Roosevelt was actively campaigning for him and attacking Bryan. The notion of attack, as Theodore Roosevelt used it was NOT negative campaigning. Roosevelt did not attack Bryan personally or make ad hominum arguments. What he advocated was that when Bryan made a speech and criticized a policy that Taft supported, instead of answering him point by point, as one would do in a debating society (at which Taft excelled) attack some of the worst policies that Bryan was advocating or had advocated. Control the agenda so that Bryan would have to answer Taft’s criticism, not the other way around.
- Born: September 15, 1857
- Died: March 8, 1930
- Nationality: American
- Profession: President
William Howard Taft was the 27th president of the United States (1909–1913) and the tenth Chief Justice of the United States (1921–1930), the only person to have held both offices. Taft was elected president in 1908, the chosen successor of Theodore Roosevelt, but was defeated for reelection by Woodrow Wilson in 1912 after Roosevelt split the Republican vote by running as a third-party candidate. In 1921, President Warren G. Harding appointed Taft to be chief justice, a position he held until a month before his death.
