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Imagine it's July 1896 in Oyster Bay, New York.

Your brother, Theodore Roosevelt, is rowing you in the waters of a cove near his home, Sagamore Hill.

You tilt your parasol to block the morning sun as his oars sliced through the shimmering water.

His brow is furrowed and his jaw is clenched,

but you can tell it's not just the strain of rowing.

Oh, Theodore, you better tell me what's on your mind.

He slows his stroke and breathes a heavy sign.

That's this job.

I work from dawn till dusk at the police board,

but every reform I attempt is thwarted.

Then I'm forced to endure the

hostility of Tammany Hall, and the Republican bosses are hardly any better, let me tell you. If only I were

the city's sole police commissioner, I could clean up the whole cursed place within a few years,

but instead there's four of us. It's like trying to steer a rudderless ship, rather a ship with four rudders.

"'Well, it sounds to me like you're an executive trapped in a bureaucratic role.'

"'Your brother snorts in agreement, and as you study his weary face, you're struck with an idea.

"'You know, there may be a way out now that the presidential election is in full swing.

...