Other parts of the Roosevelt legacy seem like natural next steps for the Obama White House. Roosevelt’s environmental conservation record is unmatched, he projected a strength of purpose Obama has often tried to emulate and he enjoyed a popularity with foreign leaders that no subsequent president has enjoyed.

Obama already has the Nobel Peace Prize that it took Roosevelt two terms to get, and they share a disdain for the media — or what Roosevelt called “slanderous mendacity for hire, and whose one purpose, as far as I am concerned, is to invent falsehood and to distort truth.”

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And though Obama has been slammed for having the messianic airs that people associated with Roosevelt, as he runs for reelection, the president will look to master that magical personal touch that drew even the Trust Buster’s enemies to him.

To touch people such as the economically distressed Kansans who flocked to Roosevelt after the speech, Obama will need to do more than make a plea for legislative action on a barely known nominee to a new federal agency, said Thomas Frank, the author of “What’s the Matter with Kansas?” and an upcoming book about the right wing’s success in capturing the language of economic discontent.

“You’re talking about an issue that’s not going to resonate with a lot of people,” Frank said. “I wish he would think bigger.”

“It would be nice to try to speak to that part of the electorate and remind them of why their ancestors liked a guy like Teddy Roosevelt,” Frank added. “This is his populist turn. Maybe that’s what Obama is doing. It’s about time — it may be too late, even.”

But Joan Wagnon, the chairwoman of the Kansas Democratic Party, said she thinks the themes of the president’s message will resonate.

“People are just mad as hell that [Wall Street executives] are still getting bonuses and the banks got bailed out while people are still unemployed,” Wagnon added. While most Kansans may not “understand the nuances of confirming” a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau director, they do see that the rich “are getting richer and the average person is not, and it’s something that people feel very strongly about.”

And there’s reason to believe the benefits of turning Obama into Roosevelt redux might outweigh whatever negative associations and name-calling that Obama has now exposed himself to.

“I leave that kind of fine print to the historians,” Shrum said. “Teddy Roosevelt’s on Mount Rushmore, so I wouldn’t worry about the fact that some hack who worked for William Howard Taft called him a socialist.”

Glenn Thrush contributed to this report.