Bull Moose Party Quotes
Both the Republican and Democratic Parties were ripe with graft—the Democrats in control of many large city machines and the Republicans getting bribes and “donations” from the corporations.
The “thieves” won in the sense that TR was the choice of the vast majority of the Republican voters of the time, yet the party bosses manipulated the convention to deny Roosevelt the nomination. Taft was nominated, and Roosevelt ran on the Bull Moose Party and outpolled Taft, but they split the Republican vote and lost to Democrat Woodrow Wilson.
In 1912 Theodore Roosevelt's followers bolted the Republican party when he failed to capture the presidential nomination. They formed the Progressive party. On the eve of the Progressive convention, Roosevelt was by a reporter asked how he felt. The party thereafter was often referred to as the "Bull Moose Party."
He was running on the Bull Moose Party ticket. The “square deal” phrase was a major slogan of the campaign and had first been used earlier in 1903 and 1905. See {32586} and {32766}. The Smithsonian Institution has even preserved the audio of this quotation. See their website.
Viscount Morley of Blackburn
He gave the speech still bleeding with the bullet lodged in his body. He refused to go to a hospital or get medical care until he had finished his speech. A great showman, note how he milked his wound and built up the drama of his speech.
Bull Moose Party
Obama had been commonly called a socialist by the extreme right even though his positions and statements were against socialism and he opposed major tenets of socialism like government ownership of utilities, banking and heavy industry. Obama scheduled this speech in a location in which TR had spoken in favor of his reforms. And he reminded the audience and the nation that the right wing had tried to tarnish Roosevelt by labeling him a socialist.
Referring to Theodore Roosevelt's views presented to the Progressive (Bull Moose) Party convention in 1912:
