Obama and Theodore Roosevelt (Part II)

Despite bringing up the ghost of Theodore Roosevelt in his Osawatomie, Kansas speech, Obama has little in common with TR. Compare the two on the chart below.

                                                TR                                           BO

Personality	Decisive and passionate	“Doesn’t control the weather” http://www.drudgereport.com/flash1.htm
Famous Vacations	Bear hunting in Mississippi; lion hunting in Africa; exploring the Amazon	Luxury in Hawaii
Adversity	Biggest influence, his father, died when TR was away at Harvard; lost wife and mother on the same day; went out west to heal and engage in adventures and cattle ranching	A flighty father and a no-good stepfather.
Books Written	A lot of writing on history, ranching, hunting, and politics-- http://www.theodoreroosevelt.org/research/biblioworks.htm 1882 The Naval War of 1812 1885 Hunting Trips of a Ranchman 1887 Thomas Hart Benton1888 Essays on Practical Politics Gouverneur Morris Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail 1889- 1896 The Winning of the West, 4 vols.1891 New York 1893 The Wilderness Hunter    1895 Hero Tales from American History, with Henry Cabot Lodge    1897 American Ideals Some American Game1899 The Rough Riders 1900 The Strenuous Life      Oliver Cromwell 1905 Outdoor Pastimes of an American Hunter1907 Good Hunting1909 Outlook Editorials 1910 African and European Addresses  African Game Trails American Problems The New Nationalism 1912 The Conservation of Womanhood and Childhood Realizable Ideals1913 Autobiography History as Literature and Other Essays Progressive Principles Through the Brazilian Wilderness 1914 Life-Histories of African Game Animals, 2 vols., co-author with Edmund Heller1915 America and the World War1916 Fear God and Take Your Own Part  A Book Lover's Holiday in the Open 1917 The Foes of Our Own Household National Strength and International Duty 1918 The Great Adventure	Two books on himself-- 2004 Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance 2008 The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream
Sports	Rowing, boxing, hiking, hunting	Basketball, golf, collecting Republican's email addresses
Religion	Dutch Reformed. Served as a Sunday school teacher. Loved to preach about morality.	Belonged to (viciously anti-Semitic) Reverend Wright’s Trinity United Church of Christ. Rarely attends church now. Lit a Chanukah menorah two weeks early, so who knows what he believes?

Obama and Theodore Roosevelt

I will introduce this topic, Obama and Theodore Roosevelt, with a December 7, 2011 transcript from Real Clear Politics:

MICHAEL MOORE, ON CNN: Well, "The Washington post" three weeks ago had this investigation and they said that President Obama has now raised more money from Wall Street and the banks for this election cycle than all -- than all eight Republicans combined. I don't want to say that, because if that's the truth, that Wall Street already has their man and his name is Barack Obama, then we've got a much bigger problem.

But I think President Obama, if he were here in the room, the question I would ask him is why are they your number one contributors? Why are you taking this money?

MORGAN: It's fascinating to find out why they're doing it. I'll ask him.

MOORE: What are they expecting in return in the second term from you? Right now, here's what we do know. Goldman Sachs was your number one contributor the 2008 election. And we have not seen anyone from Goldman Sachs go to jail. We have not seen the regulations, Glass/Steagall, put back on to Wall Street now three years after the crash.

Why hasn't that happened? President Obama, we the people need you to take them by the throat and say, damn it, this is the United States of America; you don't steal from the working people of this country. And this is the way it's going to be.
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Let's think about this Michael Moore exchange. People are just figuring this out now--that Obama and the Democrats prostitute themselves for political donations from investment bankers? It's not (only) the Republicans that are in the back pocket of Wall Street?

What's fitting is that the Michael Moore transcript speaks to the policies of Theodore Roosevelt (TR), so I particularly enjoyed Obama reliving Theodore Roosevelt's famous New Nationalism speech in Osawatomie, Kansas. There are plenty of interesting quotes from Obama's speech.

Obama: Those at the very top grew wealthier from their incomes and their investments – wealthier than ever before. But everybody else struggled with costs that were growing and pay checks that weren't – and too many families found themselves racking up more and more debt just to keep up....Banks and investors allowed to keep packaging the risk and selling it off. Huge bets – and huge bonuses – made with other people's money on the line.

Not one of these bankers went to jail, by the way. It's too bad that Obama did not read this line from TR's New Nationalism speech: "I believe that the officers, and, especially, the directors, of corporations should be held personally responsible when any corporation breaks the law." Instead Obama said:

And in 1910, Teddy Roosevelt came here to Osawatomie and he laid out his vision for what he called a New Nationalism. "Our country," he said, "means nothing unless it means the triumph of a real democracy … of an economic system under which each man shall be guaranteed the opportunity to show the best that there is in him." Now, for this, Roosevelt was called a radical. He was called a socialist – even a communist. But today, we are a richer nation and a stronger democracy because of what he fought for in his last campaign: an eight-hour work day and a minimum wage for women, insurance for the unemployed and for the elderly, and those with disabilities; political reform and a progressive income tax.

Obama's use of TR was misleading. He did not make two important facts clear. TR had not been president for two years, and he and his Progressive Bull Moose party lost the 1912 election and the party dissolved shortly thereafter. The American people rejected TR's approach in 1912. But, OK, let's look at what TR said and meant in his speech. TR believed in a progressive income tax on those with "big fortunes," not you and me. TR also said (in the New Nationalism speech) that "capital has its rights, which are as worthy of protection as any other rights." That doesn't sound very communist. He says that wages and hours should be reasonable but mentions neither an eight-hour day or a minimum wage. He mentions " national laws to regulate child labor and work for women," but gives no specifics. Perhaps this came out of his campaign at another point, but it was Woodrow Wilson that passed the income tax (promising a top rate of ten percent) and Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal 23 years later that would put many of these ideas into legislation.

Most importantly, TR also said in the speech: "There can be no effective control of corporations while their political activity remains. To put an end to it will be neither a short nor an easy task, but it can be done."

Obama seems to have glossed over that line too. Real progressives should stop taking donations from groups that work against the society they want. Fake progressives just go after the money.