Obama's new 'Teddy Roosevelt' populism: Will it help in 2012?

The president tries to find his voice by channeling the progressive politics of an early 20th century GOP president

President Barack Obama pauses during an economic speech in Kansas in which he invoked the legacy of Republican President Teddy Roosevelt, who focused relentlessly on the middle class.
(Image credit: Julie Denesha/Getty Images)

On Tuesday, President Obama issued a rousing call for a stronger government role in protecting the middle class, and a stinging rebuke of GOP-backed "trickle-down economics." The location of the speech — Osawatomie, Kan. — was no accident. In 1910, Teddy Roosevelt used a famous speech there to demand a "square deal" for average Americans and promote a "New Nationalism" that became the framework for the progressive era. Channeling Teddy and Occupy Wall Street, Obama made a moral and economic case for tackling America's rising wealth disparity. Will emulating TR's populist message help Obama win re-election?

This was an inspired choice: Apparently, Obama is "a Teddy Roosevelt nerd" just like me, says John Avlon at CNN. So surely, "the irony that a Republican president defined the progressive era is not lost" on him. In fact, it's an association Obama is "courting directly in a bid to broaden the appeal of his 2012 agenda beyond partisan lines." Roosevelt is a hero to "Republicans, Democrats, and especially independents," and invoking his ghost lets Obama cleverly "strike populist tones and sound less like a liberal social democrat."

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