Sarah Palin is no Teddy Roosevelt

Tonight, Senator Sam Brownnoseback declared that Sarah Palin comes from the Teddy Roosevelt wing of the Republican Party. While MSNBC's Tom Brokaw and Keith Olbermann repeated this meme, they saw that this stretching back to Teddy Roosevelt was just that—a stretch.

The picture that the Republican Party is trying paint at the convention is that of two Mavericksm of two politicians, that would make TR proud. But neither Sarah Palin nor John McCain are reformers. They're more of the same neo-conservatism that we've suffered through for eight years. They only promise one thing: four more years of the failed policies of George W. Bush.

The Republicans are tossing around the B.S. when they compare themselves, and especially Sarah Palin, to Teddy Roosevelt. It is an insult to the memory of one of our greatest Presidents and greatest Americans. When you look at TR's story and you'll notice that he's nothing like Palin:


Teddy Roosevelt was a leader in the Republican Party back when the party had a strong progressive wing. In fact, Roosevelt was the leader of the Progressive Movement.

While he was a hunter, Teddy Roosevelt was also a staunch conservationist. He started the National Parks system and believed in preserving the environment, not exploiting it and destroying it simply for its raw materials.

Roosevelt had a great deal of foreign policy experience as the Assistant Secretary of the Navy and management experience as the Governor of New York. He was world travelled and an avid writer who published 32 books. Palin only recently got her first passport.

The base of the Republican Party hated Roosevelt, but he was selected as William McKinley's running mate to appease the more liberal wing of the party.

And Roosevelt's ascension to the Presidency helps define the of the importance of having a Vice President who is ready to assume the presidency. The very experienced Roosevelt succeeded McKinley in the White House after the President was assasinated.

As President, Roosevelt continued to be a progressive reformer who sought to move the GOP toward the left. Roosevelt distrusted wealthy businessmen and dissolved dozens of monopolistic corporations.

Roosevelt was the first President to call for universal health care and national health insurance.

Disillusioned with the Republican Party and upset that the party's nomination was stolen from him, Roosevelt left the party. He formed his own party, the Progressive or Bull Moose Party. As a third-party candidate, he beat Taft in the popular vote and pulled so many progressives out of the Republican Party that Democrat Woodrow Wilson won in 1912. Roosevelt left the Progressive Party later, only to again become the progressive "fly in the ointment" of the Republican Party until his death.

Teddy Roosevelt is a man that every politician should aspire to be. But Sarah Palin is no Teddy Roosevelt. She is the polar opposite of Teddy Roosevelt.