Eleven years ago today, Barack Obama visited an iconic town on the Kansas prairie. Although Obama's speech at Osawatomie High School was officially a presidential report on the state of the economy, everyone present knew it to be a campaign speech by an incumbent Democrat running for reelection. President Obama's speech that day was also a lyrical paean to the American middle class.
The site was well-chosen, as it had been a century before by Theodore Roosevelt, who made his own pilgrimage to Osawatomie, and Obama mentioned TR prominently in his speech.
Theodore Roosevelt had taken an extended break from politics after leaving the White House in 1909, all but delivering the presidency to William Howard Taft. But idleness was not in Roosevelt's nature and even while on an extended safari in the African bush, he stewed over reports about political developments in America: Taft had replaced TR's Cabinet; Taft was indifferent to conservation; Taft was turning away from Republican progressivism; Taft was his own man.
So Teddy Roosevelt returned home, ostensibly to campaign for Republicans in the 1910 midterm elections, but really to resume his place on the national stage. The backdrop of Roosevelt's much-hyped return to public life was Osawatomie, Kansas, and a park dedication to John Brown -- yes, that John Brown -- in memory of a pitched battle he fought there against pro-slavery agitators.
It was a delicate dance for Roosevelt. He had a bold message to proclaim (one made bolder because William Allen White and Gifford Pinchot drafted his speech), but he was making the address at a ceremony commemorating the activities of a true radical. Roosevelt finessed that problem by mentioning Brown only twice in passing -- in a 6,574-word speech -- and by pulling his punches when discussing the sweeping themes at the heart of his talk: capitalism's inequities, special interest influence in politics, and conservation.
For instance, when he discussed the environment, Roosevelt prefaced his remarks by saying, "Conservation means development as much as it does protection."
Likewise, Roosevelt spoke out against mob violence -- presumably labor union violence -- against the rich. He quoted Abraham Lincoln in his discussion of labor and capital, observing somewhat defensively that if he, Roosevelt, had coined such phrases, "I should be even more strongly denounced as a communist agitator than I shall be anyhow."
Roosevelt had a point. His Osawatomie address was labeled socialistic, even by liberals who had supported him in the past. That's because his long speech truly was a call to social and political action. Teddy Roosevelt came out for child labor laws, sanitation standards, workman's compensation, a livable wage, and workplace protections for women.
Much of what he envisioned is now the law, and some of it is owed to the speech at Osawatomie. His speech, delivered to a crowd of 30,000 supportive Kansans, essentially launched Roosevelt's 1912 third-party presidential candidacy, a bid that divided Republicans and put Democrat Woodrow Wilson in the White House. The results of that three-way race heralded the arrival of a progressive consensus in the country, just as Theodore Roosevelt's call in Osawatomie for a "square deal" foreshadowed his famous cousin's New Deal.
So why isn't TR revered by progressives today? Part of the answer is that liberalism, like conservatism, is always evolving. One example of that precept came on this very date in 1904, in the form of President Theodore Roosevelt's fourth State of the Union message. Its key provision was an expansion of the Monroe Doctrine, which I wrote about Monday. President Monroe had postulated in his 1823 message to Congress that European powers had no right to colonize Latin America or interfere with its people or governments. Roosevelt went further, asserting the right of the United States to intervene, presumably militarily, in the Western Hemisphere to protect Latin American nations from European actions that might destabilize them.
Was this the Monroe Doctrine's "Roosevelt corollary," as it was then known? Or was it, as later scholars concluded, a concept that turned the Monroe Doctrine on its head? Either way, it led directly to any number of U.S. incursions into Latin America, armed interventions that our generation would consider "preemptive war."
The point of all this is that Theodore Roosevelt was a liberal, yes, but not necessarily in a modern context. He was a Hamiltonian at heart. What TR believed in more than anything was the concentration of centralized federal power for use by an American nation he believed to be capable of -- and obliged to undertake -- heroic deeds, both at home and abroad.
In other words, Teddy Roosevelt wouldn't be any more comfortable in today's Republican or Democratic parties than he was when he was alive. That said, the 44th U.S. president had no qualms about invoking Roosevelt during his own trip to Osawatomie.
"He was the Republican son of a wealthy family … but Roosevelt also knew that the free market has never been a free license to take whatever you can from whomever you can," Obama said that day. "He understood the free market only works when there are rules of the road that ensure competition is fair and open and honest. And so he busted up monopolies, forcing those companies to compete for consumers with better services and better prices. And today, they still must. He fought to make sure businesses couldn't profit by exploiting children or selling food or medicine that wasn't safe. And today, they still can't."
"And in 1910, Teddy Roosevelt came here to Osawatomie and he laid out his vision for what he called a New Nationalism," Obama continued. "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 workday 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 broke no new ground his Dec. 6, 2011 speech, which was long on identifying problems, but short on solutions. Yet he demonstrated, once again, an impressive ability to connect with voters on a personal level. It took Obama a minute or two to get going. At the outset of his speech, he said, "Well, it's great to be back in the state of Tex …" before catching himself. While his speech writers winced, and Obama's critics smiled to themselves, Obama pressed on, giving his audience his Kansas bona fides.
"As many of you know, I have roots here," he said, before quipping. "I'm sure you're all familiar with the Obamas of Osawatomie."
"Actually, I like to say that I got my name from my father, but I got my accent -- and my values -- from my mother," he added. "She was born in Wichita. Her mother grew up in Augusta. Her father was from El Dorado. So my Kansas roots run deep."
Obama continued: "My grandparents served during World War II. He was a soldier in Patton's Army; she was a worker on a bomber assembly line. And together, they shared the optimism of a nation that triumphed over the Great Depression and over fascism. They believed in an America where hard work paid off, and responsibility was rewarded, and anyone could make it if they tried -- no matter who you were, no matter where you came from, no matter how you started out."
Whatever they thought of his economic policies, Republicans listening to this speech were reminded of something they already knew: The first African American president of the United States was going to be a very tough candidate to beat in 2012.
Carl M. Cannon is the Washington bureau chief for RealClearPolitics. Reach him on Twitter @CarlCannon.
