Commander in Chief

• He didn't really have a war crisis during his time in office.
• He didn't really know his own power; when a chance remark of his affected the stock market, he was always extremely surprised.
• He created the Department of Labor, and created the first ever executive budget.

Chief Executive

• He was woefully inadequate for the job, not believing, unlike Roosevelt, in stretching the President's powers.
• He pursued the antitrust suits that Roosevelt had started; however, in one case, he filed a suit against US Steel, which had been approved by Roosevelt before him.  Trying to get out of the scrape, he averred that he had never meant to embarass Roosevelt; he said that General WIckersham had filed the suit without him knowing about it.  This either meant that he did know what had happened as was trying to appease Roosevelt, or that he really didn't know and was unaware of what went on in his own office.
• That has frightening implications for what when on in his office that he did not know about.
• He really didn't like making executive decisions, having to ponder all different sides of the question, very judicial-like.
• He left reform up to Congress, therefore dashing any real hopes of it.

Chief Diplomat

• He had success in some areas, but failed in others.
• He continued Dollar Diplomacy, helping debt-ridden Honduras; however, trade with China decreased, and his interventions in South America increased the ill-will that was already there.
• His efforts at giving a new look at American foreign diplomacy.
• Another example of his oddity with foreign diplomacy is in how he looked the other way when General Huerta murdered his successor, Francesco Maderas, to get to the presidency (this had been orchestrated by the US ambassador to Mexico).  He was willing to allow a tyrant on the throne in order to save American investments.