McCain Says His GOP Role Model Is Teddy Roosevelt

Republican presumptive Presidential nominee Sen. John McCain’s interview with the New York Times is sparking much online discussion — and derision — for his comments about not being a computer user or big computer fan. But it skirts the interview’s key point: in this interview McCain answered the question about what kind of Republican he wants to be — and it is NOT in the mold of President George W. Bush.

In fact, McCain has noted what other journalists and biographers have long noted: his role model is early 20th century political maverick President Teddy Roosevelt, the GOPer who for a while redefined his party with his trust-busting and pro-environmental, conservationist policies.

This is no throw-away bit of information, because the American public has now seen several versions of McCain. The 2000 maverick McCain, the pre-campaign 2008 McCain who sought to win over Republicans who scuttled his 2000 chances, and now the McCain running for election who’s trying to appeal to several often conflicting constituencies at the same time while facing a different kind of Democrat.

It’s worth looking at a chunk of these quotes where McCain talks about TR:

Boldface is added here for a few of the more important points:

Q: How do you think of your self as a conservative. Do you think of yourself more as a Goldwater conservative or Reagan conservative or George W. Bush conservative.

Senator John McCain: A Teddy Roosevelt conservative, I think. He’s probably my major role model, we could go back to Lincoln, of course. In the 20th century Teddy Roosevelt. I think Teddy Roosevelt he had a great vision of America’s role in the 20th Century. He was a great environmentalist. He loved the country. He is the person who brought the government into a more modern – into the 20th century as well. He was probably engaged more in national security slash international affairs that any president ever been. I understand that TR had failings. I understand that every one of my role models had failings. TR became embittered at the end, we all know that. If you look at his presidency, if you looked at his reformist agenda from the time he was the police commissioner in New York City…..

Ask any member of a respected environmentalist group that is not a front group for the Bush administration and they will tell you that the Bush administration is considered to have one of the worst environmental records in American history. Also, this signals (again) McCain’s advocacy of a strong foreign policy, which supporters applaud and foes fear could be trigger-finger. MORE:

Q: You don’t believe in small government, the sort of classic conservative view of minimal government is not one you would necessarily share

Mr. McCain: I guess my view is I believe less governance is best governance and that government should not do what the free enterprise and private enterprise and individual entrepreneurship and ¬¬ the states can do. But I also believe there is a role for government. If there is abuses, TR was the first guy to enforce the Sherman anti-trust act against the quote trusts that were controlling the economy of America. Because I believe his quote was unfettered capitalism leads to corruption. So there certainly is a role for government but I want to keep that role minimal. And I want to keep it in the areas where only governments can perform those functions.

Government should take care of those in America who can’t care for themselves. That’s a role of government. It’s not that I’m for no government. It’s that I’m for government carrying out those responsibilities that otherwise can’t be exercised by individuals and the states — that’s the founding principles of our country — and at the same time recognizing there’s a role for our government and society to care for those who can’t care for themselves, to make sure there are not abuses of individual rights as well as the rights of groups of people and to defend our nation. And National Security is obviously No. 1.

Given this quote, it’s hard to believe how McCain — if he truly patterns himself after TR — can keep former Senator Phil Gramm as a) his adviser b) in consideration for any administration post, c) anywhere near him anymore. Gramm’s contention that people who see America in recession are suffering from some kind of political mental problem (”a mental recession”) and that critics of the state of the economy are “whiners” is the kind of old-school, cliched view of fat-cat “the economy looks great to me because I’m rich” Republicans that doesn’t fit into the TR mold.

The average American has to wonder if Gramm came up with his sound bite while his driver drove him to his interview.

To find out more about Teddy Roosevelt GO HERE.

So now voters have seen the McCain jumping through the primary and general election hoops and they know his stated role model. Another factor that could impress some independent voters: one of McCain’s most enthusiastic backers is California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who still marches to his own independent drummer, even as his poll results nosedive due to California’s economic ills. It’s clear Schwarzenegger feels McCain is the real deal.

The question now becomes: which is the real McCain?

Is it the guy jumping through the political hoops?

Or is it or the guy who wants to be like TR — a President who did it HIS way once he got in?

The answer to this question could help determine how McCain does in the general election when he runs against a more nimble kind of Democrat and will need the votes of independent voters who don’t want Bush Lite.

McCain might get a better answer if he sends Gramm back to Texas to count Gramm’s fat bank account that most complaining Americans don’t have one or are now losing it due to the Bush recession — even if Gramm whines about it.