president obama's speech in osawatomie invites compare with roosevelt's address. roosevelt's address on a quick reading -- i know you were all required to read it so i did as well -- seems to me more compelling than president obama's. it certainly in teddy roosevelt's style is more energetic. given the advantage to, in this judgment that i suppose teddy roosevelt is almost fixed in the card. for who in this situation is copying whom? by coming to osawatomie obama was paying homage to the originator. even as i'm sure that he hoped to be seen as outdoing him. i doubt, in that case, that he succeeded. and for good reason. teddy roosevelt had more time to prepare his address. he was, perhaps, the deeper thinker. and, of course, he had sought counsel from the lights of herbert crowley, as succinct from david plouffe. question of style, teddy roosevelt defined what he thought was the central issue of his time and he sought to address it. historians tell us that the concentration of power and wealth was, in fact, the central issue of his time. whatever president obama is

obama to his roots in the small town of osawatomie. answering his political dream by rediscovering its paternit in the very place where teddy roosevelt had pronounced one of his most famous speeches. obama's speech has been touted as the document that represents his program or vision for the nation today. it is the platform for the 1912 campaign. and what a difference in tone from 2008. when obama preached unity and slightly stretching lincoln a bit, he spoke of a figure who called on a house divided on itself to stand together. that wasn't quite the lincoln i remember. but now, in any case, with teddy roosevelt looking over his shoulder, obama has made the line of division bright and clear. with malice towards the 1% and charity for the 99%. obama's theme deliberately echoes the message or the more confrontational occupy wall street movement. and the effort of obama's speech is to burnish that movement's recently tarnished reputation. by, of all things, likening it to the democratic and populous spirit of the tea party. a movement that

which is why did barack obama give this speech in osawatomie, kansas. and he gave this speech, i think, because he wanted to redefine what was the central issue in american life. and i think in the first six months of 2011, president obama really went along with the narrative that jim offered for the country and really seemed to accept that the fiscal problems facing the country were the most important, and it was a battle in which he did not do particularly well in public opinion. and i think he didn't do particularly well because i don't think that was ever at the center of barack obama's presidency. solving our fiscal problems was a part of a larger objective. and so i think by giving that speech, president obama really challenged the very definition of what is at the center of american politics. and therefore i also disagree with matt that this constitutes obama abandoning the center. on the contrary, i think obama has learned from a president very much admired at this institution, ronald reagan, which is you don't win by chasing the center. you win