Were Theodore Roosevelt to campaign for office today, he would fracture every television screen in the country, said historian Edmund Morris.

With his wire-rimmed glasses, Roosevelt hardly looked “cool,” and his baritone voice often slipped into higher registers.

“You could never quite tell when the president wasn’t going to start yodeling,” Morris said

Morris detailed these and other glimpses into the president’s personality Sunday evening at the inaugural installment of The Presidential Lecture Series.

In the same story-telling style that earned him a Pulitzer Prize, Morris imitated the voices of Roosevelt’s contemporaries and elicited several bursts of laughter from the audience as he described the conservationist’s 1903 trip across Kansas.

During that trip, a young Kansas girl gave Roosevelt a badger whom he named Josiah and referred to thereafter as a “small mattress with four legs,” Morris told the Lied Center’s nearly full house.

And although North Dakota was Roosevelt’s closest connection to the Midwest, “he had a special affection for the state of Kansas.”

The youngest president was also a close friend of William Allen White, editor of The Emporia Gazette.

Even before Roosevelt became president, White recognized what an infectious person he was, Morris said, quoting the famous editor who said, “Roosevelt bit me, and I went mad.”

Although much of the lecture was anecdotal, Morris did take a few moments to discuss Roosevelt’s foreign policy and how it compared to President George Bush’s stance toward Iraq.

Through cultural understanding and shrewd diplomacy, Roosevelt postponed World War I by 12 years, Morris said.

He secretly threatened war with Germany, but when its leaders heeded the ultimatum, Roosevelt kept the discussions secret and spoke well of the European country. When Saddam Hussein eventually falls, Morris said, Americans can only hope that Bush will do the same.

The Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics sponsored the lecture series, which director Richard Norton Smith said was a natural fit for the institute.

Presidential biographies are “an important part of the political scene,” he said. “It’s also a wonderful way to study leadership.”

Two additional speakers will follow Morris in coming weeks. Michael Beschloss will speak on presidential leadership Nov. 10, and David McCullough, a John Adams biographer, will conclude the series Nov. 17. Both lectures begin at 8 p.m. at the Lied Center.

The lecture series, which is set to take place every November, is free and open to the public. However, ticket vouchers, available through all KU ticket outlets, Student Union Activities and the Lied Center box office, are required.