Once Upon a Time, Republicans Advocated Health Care Reform

Yesterday, Congress passed the much- debated health care reform bill. I can’t really remember the last time an issue so polarized the Congress, and the nation at large. After its passage, Democrats hailed health care reform as historic legislation in line with Social Security and Medicare. On the other hand, Republicans panned the bill calling it a “financial Frankenstein.” No matter what your views on its passage, I think we can all agree that it is historic legislation that will certainly be remembered as a fundamental part of Obama’s presidency. Over the weekend, the president and other proponents of the bill were out plugging it across the country, and the president’s words in particular inspired me to do a little research.

In a speech this weekend at George Mason University, President Obama said that the call for health care reform began with a Republican president, Teddy Roosevelt, which was later echoed by another Republican president, Richard Nixon. I wanted to know if these claims were in fact true, or just an attempt to couch his legislation in a broad sense of bi-partisanship. After a little research, it turns out that there were once actual Republicans who approved of sweeping health care reform.

When Theodore Roosevelt was running for a third term as part of the Progressive “Bull Moose” Party in 1912, national health insurance was a plank in his party’s platform. Health Care was listed as the 11^th issue under “Social and Industrial Justice.” (Politifact.com)  In 1974, Republican President Richard Nixon also advocated major Health Care reform. In his letter to Congress, he advocated a federal program of health care reform that does not look that different from the legislation that was passed yesterday. Read Nixon’s letter to Congress here. 

What are your thoughts on the bill?

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President Obama Accepts Nobel Peace Prize

On December 10, President Barak Obama joined Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson as the only sitting United States presidents to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize while in office. The announcement of the award, given for "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples” has been widely criticized as code for not being George W. Bush. President Obama acknowledged these criticisms in his acceptance speech, as well as the irony that he is the Commander in Chief of a nation with two ongoing wars being awarded a prize for peace. Read the full text of his acceptance speech here.

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Pearl Harbor and Teddy Roosevelt

An interesting article on the diplomatic roots of Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor in today's NY Times. Specifically, it examines President Teddy Roosevelt’s conduct during the Russo-Japanese War and how it influenced Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. The article is written by the son of one of the men who famously raised the American flag at Iwo Jima. What do you think?

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You Can Shoot Him, But You Can’t Kill Him – Teddy Roosevelt Shot on the Campaign Trail – October 14, 1912

In 1912, Teddy Roosevelt was engaged in the political fight of his life, and on October 14th it briefly turned into a fight for his life itself. While campaigning in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as the presidential candidate for the Progressive “Bull Moose” Party, Teddy Roosevelt was shot at close range by saloonkeeper John Schrank. Roosevelt was greeting a crowd in front of the Gilpatrick Hotel before a speech when Schrank aimed his gun at Roosevelt’s heart and fired a .32-caliber bullet. What kept the bullet from killing Roosevelt were the contents of his breast pocket; a glasses case and a folded speech that he planned to deliver that evening. As a result of the obstructions, Roosevelt received only a flesh wound rather than a mortal wound. In true “Rough Rider” spirit, Teddy Roosevelt insisted on giving his speech as planned saying “You see, it takes more than one bullet to kill a Bull Moose.” After finishing the speech, Roosevelt was rushed to the hospital. One can only hope that Roosevelt said “Bully” at some point.

Nothing says devotion on the campaign trail like being willing to deliver a speech even after being shot. This makes it all the more tragic that Roosevelt did not go on to win the election. Even though he served as president from 1901 to 1909, Roosevelt lost the election to Democrat Woodrow Wilson. Shrank, meanwhile, was ruled insane and spent the rest of his life in a mental hospital.

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And the Award Goes to…President Obama Wins the Nobel Peace Prize

Today the Nobel Committee announced that they would award this year’s Nobel Peace Prize to President Barack Obama “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.” His selection has been called controversial by some as he was in office for only two weeks before the February 1 nomination deadline. Here is President Obama’s response to today’s announcement in which he says that he was both “surprised and deeply humbled,” by the award.

I think it’s important to also note that President Barack Obama is not the first sitting president to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson both received the award as sitting presidents, and their selection as recipients of the prize was also deemed controversial at the time. In 1906, Teddy Roosevelt won the Peace Prize for drawing up the 1905 peace treaty between Russia and Japan. Woodrow Wilson won in 1919 as the founder of the League of Nations.

Interestingly, Jimmy Carter is the only president to win the Peace Prize for his efforts after leaving office. He was recognized by the Nobel Committee for “his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.” Al Gore, a former vice president and presidential candidate, also won in recognition of his efforts once he left political life. He shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for their join efforts to “disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change.”

Find a complete list of Nobel Peace Prize recipients here.

Find worldwide reaction to Obama’s selection here.

For an interesting account of the circumstances surrounding Teddy Roosevelt’s Nobel Peace Prize, including what he did with the award money, visit the Theodore Roosevelt Association.

[Image via Independent and Sameulatgilgal]

Presidential Reading lists, do they matter? What do the presidents read?

On August 24th, Slate posted an article analyzing the list of books Obama would be bringing with him on his vacation. Read the article here: http://www.slate.com/id/2226142/?GT1=38001

As the article elucidates, the president’s reading list is at times used as a barometer of national feeling, or in the case of George W. as an attempt to prove intelligence, with mixed results (see Slate article). Obama’s list seems to be a nonstarter because it appears to be based solely on his reading interests at this point. Interestingly, his list includes David McCullough’s John Adams. I wonder if past presidents have read biographies of their predecessors. If so, what motivates these choices besides courting public opinion? Do they conceive of these biographies as historical road maps with warning signs imbedded in the text or more simply as a way to have a conversation through history with other members of the same ultra- exclusive club?

Since reading the Slate article, I’ve been thinking about what our presidents have chosen to read in their free time more broadly. Beyond just using books in our modern age as a public relations tool to connote everyman-ness or further some other agenda, what kinds of books have our presidents turned to in their personal lives away from public scrutiny? Have our presidents viewed their relationship with reading the same way that I have? As a vital relationship that can provide anything from comfort to education to just plain entertainment? With these questions in mind, I have tried to find out some of the books and authors our presidents have turned to while in office.

Abraham Lincoln was famous for being a self made man from America’s frontier. He was self- taught and spent little time if any in organized schools. Instead, Lincoln taught himself by reading whatever books he could get his hands on. He famously said of his love of reading, “My best friend is the man who’ll give me a book I ain’t read.” Of the many books he read in his lifetime, Lincoln’s favorites included Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Hamlet, along with the poetry of Edgar Allan Poe, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Robert Burns and Lord Byron. One can imagine Lincoln entertaining those who worked in the telegraph office with monologues from one of Shakespeare’s dramas while awaiting word from the front during the war. Stories about families forced to turn on one another due to circumstance might have seemed appropriate during a war which often required the same of many American families living in border states.

Teddy Roosevelt was also a voracious reader who was an author in his own right. He authored his own history of the War of 1812 along with several books relating to his love of nature. Teddy has lately been remembered through books and articles for his legacy in furthering the national park system, and this love of nature and the environment was reflected in his reading choices.

Finally, a book that seems to connect many presidents over a large span of years has been the bible. Thomas Jefferson wrote his own version of the New Testament gospels that was in keeping with his interpretation of Christianity. In addition, Millard Fillmore (president from 1850-1853) learned to read by reading the family bible. To him, and countless others, the bible served not only as a religious text, but as an essential educational tool for those not lucky enough to attend formal schools. More than a hundred and fifty years later, George W. Bush would also list the bible as an important book in his life as it represents the foundation of his religious beliefs.

That said, does any of this matter? I love this kind of trivial information, but does the reading list of any president really hold any significance? I guess if we view the experience of reading as something of a transformative experience, as something that molds us, then we might take into account one’s personal library as an indication of how a person’s worldview has been shaped.

The question of what the presidents read is a favorite of mine, and hopefully I will get a chance to return to it in the future in greater detail.

Images via Mediabistro, Haysville Library, and dachshundlove.