McCain's Conservative model

After reading this interesting article about who McCain views as his conservative model, I found it interesting that he picked Theodore Roosevelt. I had never heard of Theodore Roosevelt described as a conservative model before. Typically when asked this question candidates choose either Robert Taft, Barry Goldwater or Ronald Reagan. Being the product of America's great educational system I decided to go to Wikipedia for a refresher as to what it had to say about Theodore Roosevelt and specifically his conservative credentials that McCain might like to emulate.

What I discovered is that trying to label Theodore Roosevelt as a conservative is a huge stretch by anyone's imagination. In fact by many people he was and should be labeled a Progressive. This line from Theodore Roosevelt's Wikipedia entry stuck out specifically to me:

He was a Progressive reformer who sought to move the dominant Republican Party into the Progressive camp.

After all Roosevelt was the first US President to call for universal health care as well as national health insurance. He also had a very aggressive and interventionist foreign policy, modifying the standing Monroe doctrine to include the Roosevelt Corollary which stated that only the United States has the right to intervene in Latin American countries and should do so when we thought necessary.

I would like to know what actions Theodore Roosevelt took during his presidency that McCain most admired and would like to build upon. If he chooses Roosevelt's interventionist "Big Stick" foreign policy or nationalized health care/health insurance plans then I'm even less interested in McCain.