Posted on 11/29/2008 11:38:59 AM PST by presidio9
Thousands of Americans have bought Doris Kearns Goodwin's 2005 book, "Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln ," after hearing that it shaped President-elect Barack Obama's thinking.
"Rivals," which examines how Lincoln put three of his opponents in the 1860 election in his Cabinet, was No. 14 on Amazon.com's bestseller list the Friday before Thanksgiving , no small feat for three-year-old nonfiction. (Obama's "Audacity of Hope" and "Dreams From My Father" were No. 10 and 11 on that list, respectively.)
Goodwin spoke by phone with McClatchy recently about her take on Obama and the lessons Lincoln offers him:
Q. Barack Obama called you after reading "Team of Rivals" and you met. What did he ask you, and what did you tell him?
A. It was early in the primary process. He hadn't won any of the primaries yet. My husband ( Richard Goodwin , an adviser to presidents Kennedy and Johnson) and I went down and visited him in his Senate office. It was very relaxed and fun. That was the first time I'd met him.
He just called me on my cell and said, "This is Barack Obama ," and told me he'd read the book and how much he admired Lincoln and how much he thought he could learn from Lincoln. He seems to be a man who thinks about history, which is great.
(We talked about) the Progressive era, the New Deal, the 1960s, when it was ripe for leadership to take the country in a new direction. That was something that happened in Lincoln's time. He (Lincoln) worried that his generation didn't have the challenges that the Founding Fathers had, and that all that was left for his generation was modest ambitions.
Of course, that turned out not to
(Excerpt) Read more at mcclatchydc.com ...
I looked up Doris Kearns Goodwin and all I found was “plagiarist”.
Is this a joke? Lincoln and Obama have nothing in common.
Obama just wants thinks so very highly of himself. Another “feel good” American.
Whenever this “historian’s” name is mentioned, it should be prefaced by “Proven Plagarist - Doris Kearns Goodwin”. Also one of the 400 ‘historian’s who took out a full page NYT add emphasizing a Bl_w Job is not a high crime or misdemeanor.
I find these idiots ....well...idiotic....LINCOLN was a REPUBLICAN!!!! And, they keep comparing Obama to REPUBLICAN’S....it has to drive the lefties madddd.
Abraham Lincoln is a man who jailed political rivals, suspended habeas corpus and shut down oppositional newspapers.
Sounds like the 1860's version of the "Fairness Doctrine".
Oh crap, that doesn't bode well for the future, does it?
I'm so screwed: I'm conservative, Catholic, long-time Freeper, and I work for a coal mining company.
I'd go out and buy a gun (while the 2nd amendment is still part of the Constitution), but my limited supply of spendable cash took a hit on Turkey Day when the water heater died on me.
I get a big kick out of the current liberal masturbation pieces that go out of their way to point out that Lincoln is a big hero of Obama's. Um, Abraham Lincoln is universally regarded as either the greatest or second greatest president this country has ever produced. I would venture to guess that he has been a hero for every single one of his successors. A president who looks up to Lincoln is like a baseball player who looks up to Babe Ruth.
The only “Lincoln” that Obama (the dope) should be compared with is George Lincoln Rockwell.
And won the Civil War, which saved the nation and ended slavery. What's you point?
And this plagiarista ought to know about sex with Presidents too. No wonder her husband accompanied her to Obama’s office.
One big difference between Obama and Lincoln is Obama is a drug dealing infanticide supporter.
Also even though they’re both sooo articulate, Lincoln didn’t say ‘ummmm uhhhhh’ 20 times per paragraph.
Well, everyone knows where I stand, FWIW.
Lincoln was a tyrant. The Republican party of his day was extremely liberal...it had more in common with today's democrat party than the GOP.
Lincoln gagged the press, suspended habeus corpus and waged an unconstitutional war of aggression against the legally seceeding south.
Where I stand is this: Anyone who argues that Lincoln was not either this nation’s greatest president or its second greatest president is a complete idiot, and generaly not worth arguing with.
Doris has no credibility with anybody who knows she’s a partisan plagarist. Unfortunately, most voters don’t know it.
One immediate difference is that there was no question if Lincoln fulfilled the constitutional requirements to be President.
just grins
...last time I saw a picture of Goodwin her face was shot full of gin blossoms.
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