Obama to Echo Roosevelt in Speech

Obama to Echo Roosevelt in Speech

President Obama to Osawatomie, Kansas to Invoke Teddy Roosevelt Speech

by Kimberly Schwandt | December 06, 2011

OSAWATOMIE, KANSAS -- President Obama will give an economic speech in Osawatomie, Kansas Tuesday at a location the White House says was very specific in picking and meant to echo President Teddy Roosevelt.

Roosevelt spoke in the very same town more than 100 years ago on August 31, 1910 where he presented his vision for American and the coming 1912 election.

Sound familiar?

That's by design.

The White House says they spent a month planning and choosing this location and that there are parallels between how working class families felt then and now.

Roosevelt gave what was called a "New Nationalism" agenda, talking about regulation calling out special interests (even using that term), welfare, human rights and calling for a greater federal government.

At the time the remarks, given to more than 30,000 people, had a wide-range of reaction, even some calling them "communist and "socialist," according to the Kansas Historical Society. 

Others lauded it as a great address.

"This New Nationalism regards the executive power as the steward of the public welfare," Roosevelt said.

The Obama administration's take is that Roosevelt's Osawatomie speech was about a "fair chance, a square deal, and an equal opportunity to succeed," as stated on the president' schedule.

Adding that Obama will "talk about how he sees this as a make-or-break moment for the middle class and all those working to join it."

The word "fair" was used several times in advance of describing the speech. That's a word Obama has used multiple times, over several months in wrangling with Congress and GOP, saying the wealthiest need to pay their "fair share" in his jobs bill proposal that taxes millionaires.

"[T]he President's speech will encapsulate the debates that we've been having this year over our economic policy and over our economic future," White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said in Monday's briefing.

Democrats and the White House are currently squabbling with Republicans over the expiring payroll cut extension and Obama.

Carney says the speech marks a moment for the president to send a message.

"So he thinks it's an opportune time and an opportune location to really try to put into broader perspective the kind of debates we've been having and the issues that are of vital importance to building an economic future in this country in his mind that gives middle-class Americans the kind of fair shake and fair shot that they deserve," Carney said.

Roosevelt - the 26th president and a Republican - when he gave the speech, had just left up two terms after being thrust into the presidency after President McKinley was assassinated. He left the Republican party, and joined what was called then the "Progressive" party, which didn't gain much steam.

In the speech, he often used quotes from Abraham Lincoln, something President Obama does as well.

Obama's remarks will take place a the Osawatomie High School. 

Obama to Echo Roosevelt in Speech