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NORTH ARABIAN SEA, Aug. 28, 2008 – Several senior military officials visited the USS Abraham Lincoln here Aug. 26 and yesterday. The visitors included Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of Multinational Force Iraq; Army Gen. David McKiernan, commander of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan; Navy Adm. Eric Olson, commander of U.S. Special Operations Command; and Army Lt. Gen. Martin Dempsey, acting commander of U.S. Central Command. The senior officers toured the ship, attended briefings, visited with Lincoln and Carrier Air Wing 2 crewmembers and awarded...

Barack Obama launched his presidential campaign from Springfield, Ill. He was to announce his vice presidential running mate on Saturday from Springfield as well. Why Springfield?Obama is clearly trying to capitalize on the legacy of America's most captivating president, Abraham Lincoln, for whom Springfield was as much of a home as he ever knew. But in a 2005 feature essay in Time magazine, Obama distanced himself from what he called Lincoln's "limited" views on race. So, it seems, Lincoln leaned more toward bigotry than justice, at least for Obama. What about America? As we learn more about candidate Obama, many...

Barack Obama has never been shy about comparing himself to Abraham Lincoln. He did so when he announced his candidacy at the Illinois state capitol, where both he and Lincoln served in the legislature. "The life of a tall, gangly, self-made Springfield lawyer tells us that a different future is possible," Obama said. "He tells us that there is power in words ... He tells us that there is power in hope." That was, well, audacious, to say the least — and the comparisons have continued, on issues large and small. But the most important similarity, in Obama's mind, is...

Left-Wing Racism Remembered   By Floyd and Mary Beth BrownFrontPageMagazine.com | Monday, May 19, 2008 Did you know…Martin Luther King, Jr. was a Republican? Every civil rights law, beginning in the 1860s through the 1950s and 1960s, was fought against by Democrats? Or the KKK had links to the Democratic Party? Not only are these questions addressed by the National Black Republicans Association (NBRA), but also more surprising facts. A few months ago, we had the privilege to meet the chairwoman of NBRA, a brave and gusty woman named Frances Rice. “The double standard looms large when Democrats practice...

Over the last few months, celebrations for Abraham Lincoln's 200th birthday have drawn attention to the Kentucky native's life and his legacy as president. But the 200-year anniversary of another Kentucky president's birth, Confederate President Jefferson Davis, is receiving mixed reviews. "I'll say it this way - winners write history," said Ron Bryant, a Lexington historian writing a book on Davis. "We need heroes, we need villains. Lincoln became a hero and Davis a villain." Davis was born in what is now Todd County, Ky., in 1808, one year before Lincoln. Davis served as the only president of the 11...

The John McCain camp informed us yesterday that it is mathematically impossible for Mike Huckabee to win the nomination. What they won't say is that McCain stands a good chance of losing the nomination as long as Huckabee stays in the race. Huckabee only has to win half of the remaining delegates to block McCain from the nomination. And even if he falls a few short of that, many of the delegates in McCain's column will be unbound delegates who may in fact vote for anyone they choose on the first ballot... The McCain camp thinks the "mathematically impossible" rhetorical...

Abraham Lincoln popped out of his mother's womb on Feb. 12, 1809, which means that soon begins a year of activities leading up to his bicentennial in 2009. With only $200, the devoted can buy the "premier package" for "The Official Bicentennial Kick-Off" next week in Kentucky, where Lincoln was born. That expenditure buys admission to a "Champagne Reception" and other activities. In a campaign year when reporters often ask candidates for yes-or-no answers concerning their religious beliefs, there is something to learn from Abraham Lincoln's long and winding road to God. Apart from the spin—proclamations that Lincoln was a...

Remember the Reagan Coalition? Some, like Ed Rollins, think this coalition is dead and buried. Others know better: SPARTANBURG, SC (AP) - Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson says Tuesday he thinks the legacy of Ronald Reagan is alive and well in the United States. The former Tennessee senator told a crowd of more than 100 people at a Spartanburg restaurant Tuesday morning that to say the Reagan coalition is dead is like saying the Constitution is dead. As Sen. Thompson has said, "This is a battle for the heart and soul of the Republican Party and its future." To many...

Lessons on Leadership by: Amanda Busse, January 14, 2008 From George Washington to George W. Bush, British historian Paul Johnson used the lives of political figures to teach lessons of leadership in a recent speech during a Hillsdale College cruise. The keys to good leadership, according to Johnson, include familiar words and phrases such as self-restraint, communication, willpower and magnanimity. They do not, however, always come across in the typical fashion, as Johnson explained. George Washington, for example, was able to show self-restraint simply by the way he dressed. “Washington might wear a uniform when the Republic was in danger,...

Rep. Ron Paul told Tim Russert on "Meet the Press" Sunday that the war was a mistake – the American Civil War. "Six hundred thousand Americans died in a senseless civil war…. [President Abraham Lincoln] did this just to enhance and get rid of the original intent of the republic," Paul said.

The other day, Jonah put some distance between himself and NR’s endorsement of Mitt Romney. I’d like to do the same. Romney strikes me as impressive, but also as terribly flawed. Over the next couple of days, I’ll do my best to explain. In the meantime, one observation. Endorsing Romney, the editors explained that they had decided against Fred Thompson largely because “Thompson has never run any large enterprise.” This brought to mind another Republican candidate—one whose management experience, like that of Fred Thompson, was limited to having served as a partner in a law firm. Abraham Lincoln.

This morning I received an e-mail from a crusty lady in Sheridan Wyoming who happens to be a Fred Thompson supporter. This lady has e-mailed me before adding a little to each of my articles supporting Fred Thompson. Charlotte isn’t the only one who tells me they are behind Fred Thompson 100%. I would have used the popular Democratic statistic of 110% except like so many things Democratic 110% doesn’t exist. Democrats are always trying to convince the voters they can go several steps beyond what’s physically possible. Every time Hillary opens her mouth she goes 110% beyond reality, she’s...

European and American countries that enslaved African people and scattered them in the African Diaspora should pay reparations for their slave crimes. This came out at the historic African Union (AU) conference in the Caribbean Island of Barbados, set to tackle the integration of the African Diaspora and the continent. Leading scholars, ambassadors and government ministers from Africa and beyond are examining economic relations and the responsibility of the slave masters in undoing the slave trade damage they inflicted on Africa and her Diaspora. With song and the beating of drums, the African people in the Diaspora of the Caribbean...

Tour the Abe on July 4thAlong with the USS Abraham Lincoln, at least one other Everett-based ship is scheduled to be open to the public.By Jim HaleyHerald Writer EVERETT - The public will be able to get a close-up view of the huge aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln over the Fourth of July holiday. It's likely one or more of the other ships at Naval Station Everett also will be open to public tours, station spokesman Rick Huling said. The Lincoln was last open to the public during the Independence Day holiday in 2005. Huling said the base is...

HOUSTON, May 17 (Reuters Life!) - U.S. President Abraham Lincoln may have come closer than previously realized to dying from smallpox shortly after delivering his Gettysburg Address, medical researchers said on Thursday. After giving the Civil War speech, Lincoln became ill with symptoms of smallpox: high fever, weakness, severe pain in the head and back, "prostration" -- an old-fashioned word for extreme fatigue -- and skin eruptions that lasted for three weeks in late 1863. Lincoln's doctors told the ailing president he suffered from a cold or a "bilious fever" before one physician told him he had a mild form...

As Democrats push to withdraw troops, they seek to undermine Republicans by creating repeated chances to side with an unpopular president. WASHINGTON — As congressional Democrats move to force President Bush to veto a war spending bill that would start a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, they are simultaneously pursuing a carefully crafted offensive aimed at another target: Republican lawmakers. In the charged debate over the war, the strategy aims to achieve Democratic objectives on both policy and political fronts, according to party leaders and aides. Convinced that Bush will never listen to their calls to bring troops home,...

WASHINGTON (AP) - A defiant Democratic-controlled Senate passed legislation Thursday that would require the start of troop withdrawals from Iraq by Oct. 1, propelling Congress toward a historic veto showdown with President Bush on the war. At the White House, the president immediately promised a veto. "It is amazing that legislation urgently needed to fund our troops took 80 days to make its way around the Capitol. But that's where we are," said deputy press secretary Dana Perino. The 51-46 vote was largely along party lines, and like House passage of the same bill a day earlier, fell far short...

CNN Baghdad correspondent Michael Ware and anchor Kyra Phillips joined Kiran Chetry on American Morning to discuss their recent trip to Iraq. Towards the end, Chetry wondered if America pulling out of Iraq would “help the situation.” Neither Ware nor Phillips appear to think anything of that idea, with Ware saying pulling out would hand “Iraq to Iran…and al Qaeda.” Will liberal bloggers who constantly swoon over Ware post about this? Transcript: KYRA PHILLIPS: It would be a disaster. I mean, I had a chance to sit down with the Minister of Defense, to General Petraeus, to Admiral Fallon, head...

BAGHDAD (AP) - An Iraqi government spokesman criticized the U.S. Senate vote to begin withdrawing U.S. troops by Oct. 1. "We see some negative signs in the decision because it sends wrong signals to some sides that might think of alternatives to the political process," Ali al-Dabbagh told The Associated Press. He spoke after the Senate passed legislation Thursday that would require the start of troop withdrawals from Iraq by Oct. 1. The House passed the same bill a day earlier, and President Bush has promised a veto. The legislation is the first binding challenge on the war that Democrats...

WASHINGTON - A defiant Democratic-controlled Senate passed legislation Thursday that would require the start of troop withdrawals from Iraq by Oct. 1, propelling Congress toward a historic veto showdown with President Bush on the war. The 51-46 vote was largely along party lines, and like House passage of the same bill a day earlier, fell far short of the two-thirds margin needed to overturn the president's threatened veto. Neverthe less, the legislation is the first binding challenge on the war that Democrats have managed to send to Bush since they reclaimed control of both houses of Congress in January.

IN SEPTEMBER 1862, Union troops were soundly defeated by Confederate forces led by Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee at Manassas Junction, Virginia. The North called it the Second Battle of Bull Run. President Abraham Lincoln's somber mood afterward was recorded in a diary entry by Attorney General Edward Bates, who wrote that Lincoln "seemed wrung by the bitterest anguish--said he felt almost ready to hang himself." Soon afterward Lincoln wrote out a private musing on a small piece of lined paper. He sought to discern the will of God among the cacophony of voices all around him after news...

On this day in 1860 -- a year later in the political cycle than he would have today -- Abraham Lincoln launched his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. Shrewdly, he chose the home ground of the front-runner, Senator William Seward (R-NY). Contention for the Republican presidential nomination already underway, Lincoln traveled to New York City in February 1860 to deliver a major address at the Cooper Union, at the invitation of the Young Republicans. Calmly, logically, and convincingly, he demolished the Democratic Party's pro-slavery position by outlining the history of the crisis from the very origins of the country....

I began this column last week with a quote attributed to Abraham Lincoln in which harsh treatment was deemed warranted for congressmen who willfully take actions during wartime that damage morale and undermine the military. It turns out to have been a paraphrase of our 16th president's attitude toward those who engage in such behavior, rather than a direct quote. I regret the error and should, instead, have used the following, verbatim excerpt from a letter President Lincoln wrote in June 1863, as Robert E. Lee's army was on the march north to the fateful battle of Gettysburg. Mr. Lincoln...

On the 10th day of this year’s Black History Month, C-SPAN’s coverage of the State of the Black Union conference was preempted in midbroadcast. The spotlight departed the Hampton University forum to journey to the site of the Old State Capitol in Springfield, IL where Abraham Lincoln delivered his famous house-divided anti-slavery speech in 1858. Here, Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) was about to employ a similar unity theme in announcing his quest to become the first black man in American history to make an earnest, rather than merely symbolic, run for the presidency. While the imagery of the moment totally...

President Lincoln - 1862 Copyright Albert Kaplan 1983 (click on image for the full daguerreotype plate) In 1977 Albert Kaplan purchased the daguerreotype receipted as "Portrait of a Young Man" from an art gallery in New York. "When I first saw it I thought that there were similarities between the handsome, aristocratic, and tastefully groomed young man of the daguerreotype, and my mental image of President Lincoln."Over the years Kaplan researched and assembled materials which cast light on the physical man, Lincoln. Kaplan believed that the best qualified people to analyze the image, and the assembled materials, to consider...

The leading Republican candidate for president in 1860 was Senator Seward of New York, distinguished by decades of experience in state and national government. But there was another candidate, relatively unknown nationally, but a recognized anti-slavery lawyer from Illinois. Some of his opponents delighted in calling Abraham Lincoln a "black Republican." Lincoln's government experience consisted of one congressional term, preceded by four terms in the Illinois House of Representatives. Still, the darkhorse candidate had earned a reputation for leadership of the Illinois anti-slavery coalition of former Whigs and free soil Democrats. In debates and major speeches of the 1850s, he...

Today is of course the birthday of America's greatest president, Abraham Lincoln. As a politician and as president, Lincoln was a profound student of the Constitution and constitutional history. Perhaps most important, Lincoln was America's indispensable teacher of the moral ground of political freedom at the exact moment when the country was on the threshold of abandoning what he called its "ancient faith" that all men are created equal. In 1858 Lincoln attained national prominence in the Republican Party as the result of the contest for the Senate seat held by Stephen Douglas. It was Lincoln's losing campaign against Douglas...

Whether or not you believe that Abraham Lincoln was racist, his Emancipation Proclamation certainly propelled in motion the abolition of slavery and freedom of the African American. "That on the 1st day of January, A.D. 1863, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons and will do no act or acts...

The "political center" Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan were not. In the wake of the 2006 elections came a surge of claims that victory had gone to advocates (read: Democrats) of something known as the political "center." Time magazine even put a helpful diagram of this so-called "center" on its cover. To the left a circle of blue, to the right a circle of red. The co-centric, as they say in math class, was a sliver of purple in the center. That bard of the imagined political center, Washington Post columnist E. J. Dionne, was not alone in cheering a...

Abraham Lincoln may have suffered from a genetic disorder that literally shattered his nerves, a new study on worms suggests. Many of the president's descendants have a gene mutation that affects the part of the brain controlling movement and coordination, researchers discovered last year. The mutation prevents nerve cells from "communicating" with each other properly, but scientists weren't sure exactly how or why. The malformed protein could actually be causing nerve cells to break altogether, show the experiments announced today by scientists at the University of Utah. If Honest Abe had the disease, it would explain the gangly walk for...

We thank you President Bush for 20 years of peace and freedom. Here in 2027, as we look back on all that has happened, we salute you for your steadfastness in the face of unstinting vitriol from the left, including books and movies advocating your assassination, in holding fast to your belief that America’s future could only be secured by facing the terrorists on their ground, not ours. Your decisions to go first into Afghanistan and then into Iraq before they could supply nuclear weapons to terrorists and to finish that job has turned out to be as important to...

Four books are on the indispensable list as Christmas nears. Three deal with the war in all of its many complicated dimensions: Robert Kaplan's Imperial Grunts; Mark Steyn’s America Alone, and Lawrence Wright’s The Looming Tower. The fourth is an extended review of presidential leadership in a time of terrible suffering and mortal threat: Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln barely won the Republican nomination in 1860, barely won the presidency, suffered a near total defeat in the elections of 1862, and presided over a Civil War that claimed the lives of 600,000...

Abraham Lincoln, the U.S. president who won the Civil War and ended slavery, topped a list of the 100 most influential American figures in shaping U.S. history, a survey released on Tuesday said. The Atlantic Monthly magazine asked 10 notable historians to rank the Americans they felt had the greatest impact on U.S. history. Other figures who made the top 10 included U.S. Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt, as well as civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. Also included were Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall and inventor...

The Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission was created by Congress to inform the public about the impact Abraham Lincoln had on the development of our nation, and to find the best possible ways to honor his accomplishments. The President, the Senate and the House of Representatives appointed a fifteen-member commission to commemorate the 200th birthday of Abraham Lincoln and to emphasize the contribution of his thoughts and ideals to America and the world. The official public Bicentennial Commemoration launches February 2008 and closes February 2010, with the climax of the Commemoration taking place on February 12, 2009, the 200th anniversary of...

"Mission Accomplished" vs. "Halp us jon carry - we r stuck hear n irak" (media bias) Compare the coverage in the liberal media of the "Halp us jon carry - we r stuck hear n irak" banner by our troops in Iraq this week vs. the feeding frenzy over the "Mission Accomplished" banner from the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln returning from an extended deployment so they could participate in Iraqi Freedom back in March 2003. This morning ONE major newspaper decided to run a picture of the banner along with a cover story... The New York Post, ironically the only...

Emancipation Proclamation, in U.S. history, the executive order abolishing slavery in the Confederate States of America. Desire for Such a Proclamation In the early part of the Civil War, President Lincoln refrained from issuing an edict freeing the slaves despite the insistent urgings of abolitionists. Believing that the war was being fought solely to preserve the Union, he sought to avoid alienating the slaveholding border states that had remained in the Union. “If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do...

If the penny were eliminated, rounding prices to the nearest nickel would not cost consumers extra money, according to a new study by Robert M. Whaples, professor of economics at Wake Forest University. Whaples, an expert on the history of the U.S. economy, recently presented his findings at the John Locke Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank. "It's time to eliminate the penny," said Whaples, who estimates that the United States loses roughly $900 million a year on penny production and handling. In a penny-free market place, what consumers pay at the cash register would be rounded to the nearest...

"For the past century-and-a-half, the Republican Party has proven to be the most effective political organization ever to champion equality and human rights in the United States and around the world."-- Michael Zak This weekend marks a proud milestone for Republicans, the 150th anniversary of the first Republican National Convention. Founded in 1854, the Republicans, distinct from Democrats, grounded their party on two noble convictions: that America was truly one nation, not a polyglot of regions, races, or classes, and that American identity was based not on blood or soil, but on its founding ideal -- the dignity, worth, and...

“The President "lied" us into war. Much of the pre-war intelligence was wrong. The civilian defense chief was detested as "brusque, domineering and unbearably unpleasant to work with." Civil liberties were abridged. And many embittered Democrats, claiming the war had been an utter failure, demanded that the administration bring the troops home. George Bush? Well, yes - but also a President who looms far larger in American history, Abraham Lincoln. One is struck by the parallels in reading Doris Kearns Goodwin's masterful new book, Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln.” Thomas Bray , Real Clear Politics I...

03.02.06 Know Your Freedoms! Update III (3/3 @ 10:49 a.m.): I’m going to do something today that I haven’t done in a loooong time: go offline. I’ll check via the Treo periodically to approve comments caught in the moderation queue. Enjoy your freedom, and rest easy this weekend! ———————————————————————Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves. - Abraham Lincoln It matters little to me, in 2006, that some of the men who drafted the U.S. Constitution owned slaves or that none of them had people like me in mind when they drafted what is still and will...

You reply, “Of course not, they’re both long dead.” But this may actually happen, with different participants. The seven Lincoln-Douglas debates in Illinois in 1858 set the pattern that live debates are the best way for Americans to judge among candidates. Just one person in D.C. represents solely Western Carolina: your 11th District Congressman. You deserve a debate among the candidates. The official candidates for the 11th (alphabetically) are: John Armor, Michael Morgan, Heath Shuler, and Charles Taylor. Normally, civic organizations don’t invite candidates to speak, to avoid favoring one over the others. But, there’s a non-partisan opportunity here. Get...

Multi Media Slide Show http://postgazette.com/pg/06051/658231.stm Dozens of relatives of the 16th president rest in an obscure Fayette County cemetery, while the family maintains a mostly quiet Western Pennsylvania presence JOHNSTOWN -- If you happen into Vitamin World at Johnstown's Galleria mall, you might be rung up by an assistant manager who bears a powerful resemblance to the president on your $5 bills. You might even say, as others do, "You really look like Abe!" "Thank you," the man might reply, with a smile spreading just above his bygone beard. Or he'll tease, "Which one? There are several Abrahams in the...

Abraham Lincoln's appearance and historical documents that note his especially clumsy gait have long caused researchers to puzzle over whether he may have had a genetic disorder called Marfan syndrome. Now, members of the beloved president's family tree are wondering if Lincoln had a different, incurable hereditary disease called ataxia that affects the coordination it takes to walk, write, speak and swallow. Researchers at the University of Minnesota have discovered a gene mutation in 11 generations of relatives who descended from Lincoln's grandparents. There's a 25 percent chance that Lincoln also inherited the gene, said Laura Ranum, a genetics professor...

A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day Free Republic made its debut in September, 1996, and the forum was added in early 1997.   Over 100,000 people have registered for posting privileges on Free Republic, and the forum is read daily by tens of thousands of concerned citizens and patriots from all around the country and the world. A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day was introduced on June 24, 2002. It's only a small room in JimRob's house where we can get to know one another a little better; salute and support our military and our leaders; pray for those in...

This is the proclamation which set the precedent for America's national day of Thanksgiving. During his administration, President Lincoln issued many orders like this. For example, on November 28, 1861, he ordered government departments closed for a local day of thanksgiving. The holiday we know today as Thanksgiving was recommended to Lincoln by Sarah Josepha Hale, a prominent magazine editor. Her letters to Lincoln urged him to have the "day of our annual Thanksgiving made a National and fixed Union Festival." The document below sets apart the last Thursday of November "as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise." According to...

Most Americans—including most historians—regard Abraham Lincoln as the nation’s greatest president. But in recent years powerful movements have gathered, on both the political right and the left, to condemn Lincoln as a flawed and even wicked man. For both camps, the debunking of Lincoln usually begins with an exposé of the “Lincoln myth,” which is well described in William Lee Miller’s 2002 book, Lincoln’s Virtues: An Ethical Biography. How odd it is, Miller writes, that an “unschooled” politician “from the raw frontier villages of Illinois and Indiana” could become such a great president. “He was the myth made real,” Miller...

Dear Christopher, I wanted to take some time to write a short note to you on this the day of your entry into the United States Navy. Our country faces challenges — no, let me say it stronger— threats, from within and from without, the likes of which it has never faced in its 225+ year history. You have made a choice to serve your country, to embark on a career in the Armed Forces of the United States of America. And I am very pleased, proud even, as I and your friends and family see you off today as...

To mark Memorial Day, we have reprinted Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. Today, as in 1863, the nation is at war. It is a struggle not with ourselves, but with those who seek to deny us our freedom. In this battle, it is not just soldiers who face the ultimate sacrifice. Americans of all ages, creeds and parties are under threat. Indeed the entire world and all who inhabit it are under threat from Islamist fanatics and other violent radicals. It seems right, therefore, to recall that America's struggle is the world's struggle — it is the test that transcends the...

For the most part, I agree with Peter Lawler’s critique of the recent New York Times column by David Brooks on Lincoln and the evangelical abolitionists. But Lawler says one thing that is dead wrong and needs to be corrected. Lawler writes that “Lincoln opposed abolitionism before the Civil War because he believed it was unconstitutional; the Constitution only opposed the expansion of slavery into new territories. Abolitionism was a revolutionary principle, and it could finally only be justified by Lincoln after civil war had begun.” While Lawler is correct in observing that Lincoln was no abolitionist, his argument plays...

On Sept. 22, 1862, Abraham Lincoln gathered his cabinet to tell them he was going to issue the Emancipation Proclamation. He said he had made a solemn vow to the Almighty that if God gave him victory at Antietam, Lincoln would issue the decree. Lincoln's colleagues were stunned. They were not used to his basing policy on promises made to the Lord. They asked him to repeat what he'd just said. Lincoln conceded that "this might seem strange," but "God had decided the question in favor of the slaves." I like to think about this episode when I hear militant...