Yep, Barack Obama is now comparing himself to Theodore Roosevelt, and he's not too far from the truth. Remember that Teddy, when he failed to get the nod from the Republican Party ran on a third party platform; a party he called the Progressive Party.
Unfortunately, Barry isn't the only person who has been mentioning Teddy lately. In an interview on Glenn Beck's radio program Newt Gingrich said, "And for government to not leave guarantees that you don't have the ability to change, no private corporation has the purchasing power or the ability to reshape the health system, and in this sense I guess I'm a Theodore Roosevelt Republican. In fact, if I were going to characterize my--on health where I come from, I'm a Theodore Roosevelt Republican and I believe government can lean in the regulatory leaning is okay."
Newt has progressive tendencies. I'd love for that not to be the case, but it is. The fact that he is tooting the horn of the same guy that Barack Obama is concerns me. We don't need another Theodore Roosevelt any more than we need another Franklin Roosevelt. In fact, we should steer clear of Roosevelts, period.
The candidate that we truly need is one who will emulate different Presidents. Those Presidents are Warren Harding and the namesake of this blog, Calvin Coolidge.
President Harding began, and President Coolidge governed over one of the great periods of American prosperity. In 1920, the world suffered from a sharp economic recession; some even say it was a depression. At that time Calvin Coolidge was Vice President under President Warren G. Harding. President Harding's idea for economic recovery was shared by Calvin Coolidge. Against the advice of Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover, who suggested "government stimulus" to kick start the economy, President Harding pushed for, and got, tax cuts for ALL INCOME LEVELS, and slashed the government's debt by a third. The result was that by 1923 the unemployment rate in the United States was down to 2.4% from nearly 12% in 1920. In fact, from 1923-1929, the average unemployment rate in America was 3.3%. Calvin Coolidge was President from 1923-1929.
When President Herbert Hoover took office the U.S. economy soared; but recession was coming. October 29, 1929 the stock market lost 25% of its value. That was bad, but no worse than the crash of 1920, so what's the difference? The response to the recession was the difference. Instead of following the lead of Harding and Coolidge, Hoover pushed for government intervention to stimulate the economy. Remind you of any recent President from Midland, Texas? And when that didn't work, like it always doesn't, Franklin Roosevelt was ushered in to office to double down on stupid. Remind you of any current President from Honolulu, Hawaii, or Chicago, Illinois, or a hut in Kenya? Hoover and FDR crippled this economy for over a decade. Bush and Obama have done the same.
Now here we are, looking to elect a President to lead America to prosperity; and instead of a Calvin Coolidge or a Warren Harding, we have a bunch of people running around trying to be like Teddy Roosevelt, who shared the same political thinking as his cousin Franklin. That is just plain stupid.
Where is Warren Harding? Where is Calvin Coolidge?
So where is Ike, he helped create the greatest middle class and prosperity the world has ever known, after cleaning up FDR's mess.
ReplyDeleteGood question, SJ. Let me restate my questions. Where is Warren Harding? Where is Calvin Coolidge? Where is Ike Eisenhower?
ReplyDeleteShort answer, our Harding, our Coolidge and our Eisenhower are not running this year. Sadly all we have are Hoover and Taft. Our Coolidge is cooling her heels in Alaska.
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