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Always individualistic in his political preferences, Senator Borah refused to follow Roosevelt into the Bull Moose Party though he thought Taft had stolen the Republican nomination. Likewise he let La Follette go off by himself as the Progressive presidential nominee. President Coolidge once summoned Borah to the White House, offered him a "place on the ticket." The Senator is said to have asked: "Which place?"
He was Herbert Hoover's greatest oratorical supporter in 1928, but broke with him soon after the inaugural because the President disapproved of the export debenture plan of farm relief. Today over the President's objections Senator Borah is demanding a special session of Congress because "we will find it very embarrassing to go home."
As an orator, Mr. Borah's chief characteristics are deliberateness, earnestness and a meticulous selection of words. He speaks without notes, says ''If you don't get any new thoughts while on your feet you'd better sit down." An adroit phrase maker, he knows the dramatic value of repetition. It was Borah who said of Mexico: "God made us neighbors; let justice make us friends." Daniel Webster is his political hero, Ralph Waldo Emerson his philosophic guide, Honore Balzac his chief source of literary amusement. Once in puritanical disgust he burned a whole set of Frank Harris in his office.
Idaho pridefully named its biggest mountain for him and his League of Nations ("Little American") speech (November 1919) was so effective as to reduce even cold, tough-minded Henry Cabot Lodge to running tears.