Obama to echo Theodore Roosevelt in a big thematic speech on Tuesday

McClatchy reports:

Franklin Roosevelt had the New Deal. Harry Truman had the Fair Deal. John Kennedy had the New Frontier. Now President Barack Obama takes his stab at wrapping his presidency under one great mantle.

Looking to inject his economic agenda with the grand sweep of history, he'll travel Tuesday to the small town of Osawatomie, Kan., the same place where Theodore Roosevelt a century ago summoned the nation to a new progressive era under what he called a "New Nationalism."

The choice of the site is no accident. After planning the speech for more than a month, Obama will say the times of sweeping change that animated Roosevelt at the start of the 20th century — including a growing gap between the rich and poor, with a middle class squeezed and falling behind — are much the same at the start of the 21st.

Because Obama is a regressive type. He wants to return to a time when contracts, property rights, and the rule of law are replaced by an "enlightened" elite with powers to plan the economy.