TR and His Fan

Roosevelt and McCain, for good and ill

John McCain mentions Teddy Roosevelt almost as often as Gary Bauer invokes Reagan’s “shining city on a hill.” TR makes obvious sense as a model for McCain: Roosevelt was also a war hero, who exuded a manly vigor and relentlessly trumpeted a rhetoric of reform. And TR is in the air. The office of George W. Bush’s strategist Karl Rove is full of Roosevelt memorabilia. Rove himself has been compared to another figure of that era, Mark Hanna, the Republican operator who got McKinley elected from his front porch in 1896. Four years later, Hanna the insider had to accede to placing TR the insurgent on the ticket with McKinley. If W. wins the nomination, Rove and McCain may well reprise their respective roles later this year.

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Rich Lowry

Rich Lowry is the editor in chief of National Review.

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Theodore Roosevelt

John McCain

Roosevelt and McCain, for good and ill

John McCain mentions Teddy Roosevelt almost as often as Gary Bauer invokes Reagan’s “shining city on a hill.” TR makes obvious sense as a model for McCain: Roosevelt was also a war hero, who exuded a manly vigor and relentlessly trumpeted a rhetoric of reform. And TR is in the air. The office of George W. Bush’s strategist Karl Rove is full of Roosevelt memorabilia. Rove himself has been compared to another figure of that era, Mark Hanna, the Republican operator who got McKinley elected from his front porch in 1896. Four years later, Hanna the insider had to accede to placing TR the insurgent on the ticket with McKinley. If W. wins the nomination, Rove and McCain may well reprise their respective roles later this year.