Abe has decided to play the long game instead of pandering to those “moderate” Whig squishes.
I agree. He knows he is a longshot to win over the state legislature anyway, and he knows if he is to emerge as an important politician it will be behind his core beliefs about slavery and the future course of the nation. With “House Divided” he laid his cards on the table. He is working at damage control within the political class now, and in two months he will begin to explain his views to the voting public. He may not win Douglas’s Senate seat but maybe other opportunities will come along later.