Jim Webb as "21st-century Teddy Roosevelt?"

Independence, forthrightness and valor: all are characteristics ascribed to Roosevelt. Newt Gingrich praises T.R. as "a natural maverick and reformer who did what he thought was right." Indeed, T.R. was and still is one of our most popular presidents because he was a strong and dynamic leader.

While Roosevelt may be best known and admired as a hero of the Spanish-American war and as a master of "big stick" diplomacy, he should also be remembered as, in many ways, a progressive.

T.R., nicknamed "trust buster," used the Sherman Anti-Trust act to break up business monopolies; he created the U.S. Forest Service so that forests could be conserved for all Americans to enjoy. T.R. also helped increase the role of the federal government in regulating the food industry with the Food and Drug Act, and he supported progressive ideas like Social Security and the minimum wage, ideas that would come to fruition under another President Roosevelt. T.R., in fact, even ran for president as a member of the Progressive Party (better known, though, as the Bull Moose Party).

Is any of this appealing to you?  It certainly is to me.  Which is why, anytime I see qualities of Teddy Roosevelt - independence, dynamism, courage, Progressivism, conservationist - in a leader, I get excited.  In 2003, I saw those qualities in one such leader, a 4-star general named Wesley Clark.  Just imagine if Clark had been President the past 2 years, how much progress we could have made in so many areas - Iraq, the environment, the budget.  It's sickening to think of the lost opportunities. 

But now, we're in 2006, and we must look forward. True, at the moment we're stuck with the anti-Teddy Roosevelt, a man who was "born with a silver spoon in his mouth" and who "speaks LOUDLY" ("bring it on," "mission accomplished," blah blah blah) yet "carries a SMALL stick" (the inadequate force sent into Iraq; the inadequate force sent to capture or kill Osama bin Laden).  T.R. must be rolling over in his grave watching George W. Bush - the worst President in American history - in the White House.  I can just imagine what the "Bull Moose" would do to George W. Bush if he got him "mano a mano."

Unfortunately, T.R.'s not around to save us, and we're stuck with George W. Bush screwing things up for another two years.  Luckily, this November we can take back the House and Senate from the Bush clones like George Allen.  And here in Virginia, we can do our part by electing Jim Webb, a man who shares many of Teddy Roosevelt's best qualities. To quote the editorial again, this time at length (bolding added for emphasis):

So many similarities exist between Roosevelt and Webb that it's almost uncanny. Most obvious, both men served heroically in the military, T.R. as leader of the Rough Riders in the Spanish-American War and Webb as a decorated Marine in Vietnam.

After combat, Webb served as secretary of the Navy, T.R. as assistant secretary. And each chose to bolt from a Republican Party he felt had lost its bearing.

Roosevelt, a former two-term Republican president, denounced the GOP as corrupt, stormed out of the 1912 convention and ran for president as a Progressive.

Webb, after serving in the Reagan administration and supporting George W. Bush and George Allen in 2000, left the Republican Party after the invasion of Iraq because, he said, the party had "gone crazy."

Roosevelt was a well-known outdoorsman, and Webb has been spotted at times this summer, in the midst of a grueling campaign, backpacking alone in the mountains of Southwest Virginia. And both men were fighters, literally: Roosevelt began boxing at age 4, while Webb, whose campaign uses the slogan "Born Fighting," was on the varsity boxing squad at the Naval Academy.

Webb has received criticism for questioning affirmative action programs and deriding the idea of women in combat, and T.R., bellicose and often vulgar, would abhor the modern concept of political correctness.

Roosevelt once gave a campaign speech with a bullet lodged in his chest following an assassination attempt, and Webb stumps in his enlisted son's combat boots to remind people of the bloodshed in Iraq. Though their speech may be rough-edged and their style unconventional, it's the brashness, the realness and the strength of these men that we admire.

Is Jim Webb a "21st-century Teddy Roosevelt?"  Only time will tell, but - like the writer in the Roanoke Times - I can see the similarities and they send shivers of excitement down my spine.  The question is this: are Virginians ready to replace a phony, do-notthing, Southern California "cowboy" poseur with a true American hero and heir of Teddy "Rough Rider" Roosevelt?  We'll see in a just a few months.  Something tells me that T.R. will be rooting loudly for Jim Webb from his perch on Mt. Rushmore.

Lowell Feld is Netroots Coordinator for the Jim Webb for US Senate Campaign.  The ideas expressed here belong to Lowell Feld alone, and do not necessarily represent those of Jim Webb, his advisors, staff, or supporters.

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