Posted on 07/07/2005 9:22:35 PM PDT by CHARLITE
The July issue of Time Magazine, a "Special Issue" as they are selling it, has several segments on President Abraham Lincoln one of which is penned by the Junior Senator from Illinois, Barack Obama. In this issue the articles ruminate on how Lincoln has been understood or misunderstood by the "ages" to which Secretary of War and one time Lincoln rival, Edwin M. Stanton, remanded him upon the President's assassination.
There are 5 articles on the Civil War leader, one superfluous one on Lincoln impersonators and Obama's piece, which is termed a "viewpoint". Along with an excellent chart called "Slavery Up Close" showing statistics on slavery, a less excellent one on some of the generals Lincoln suffered with throughout the war and an equally space filling time-line chart on Lincoln's life, the magazine is a virtual Abe-o-rama.
But the effort with the byline of Senator Obama is the most curious one of the collection. In fact, one is hard pressed to decipher why it is even included in the issue as it pertains neither to historical research of Lincoln nor a clear presentation of how Lincoln is viewed today by anyone but those who dislike his memory in the black community. It purports to be a "Character Study" and also claims to show Obama looking to Lincoln for guidance, but it really doesn't seem to be either.
Interestingly, Obama seems to attempt to claim that he and the long-suffering President are some how alike because of "humble beginnings". Now, Lincoln truly did come from humble beginnings. His parents were hardscrabble farmers and he was himself a self taught man who never could afford to attend a college. Everything he did was through his own hard work and he never got a free ticket from anyone.
And, while Obama recounts how he knew no one and had "no money" in his pockets when he first arrived in Chicago, the good Senator seems to have had all kinds of opportunities, educational and otherwise, in his fortunate life and a family that could assist him. Obama had many opportunities and assistance that Lincoln never enjoyed.
Obama went from the Punahou School, a prestigious Hawaiian academy, to two years at Occidental College in California, to Columbia University then off to Harvard law school finally becoming a lecturer at the University of Chicago. Far from "humble" those.
Next, Obama likens Lincoln's struggles to succeed in life with his own meteoric ascendancy in politics which is somewhat self service at best, ridiculous at worst. Lincoln had to overcome personal loss that would drive a comfortable modern American mad with grief. To death he lost an early love and several children and he had to overcome the prejudice against the self taught in a day when education was not only far more important to the general public, but a day when few regular folk could attain it nearly as easily. I am hard pressed to find Obama in the same category of "struggle" in which Lincoln resided.
The worst part of the "viewpoint" is where he claims not to be able to "swallow whole" the view that Lincoln deserves to be considered the Great Emancipator. He claims to be "fully aware" of Lincoln's "limited views on race". Obama has fallen into the same trap that every Lincoln denier in the African American community has in modern times, that of ascribing today's mores and mentality to a man from another time. I just cannot be done. It's the same mistake the gay community makes when they assume that, because Lincoln once shared a room with a man, then he must assuredly be gay. Of course, it was common for young, single, aspiring men to share living expenses with other young, single, aspiring men in those days. The catalyst for rooming arrangements like Lincoln’s and many others of his day wasn’t sexuality, it was economics. To assume that men of decades ago think about things exactly as we do is just not good history.
Even earlier in the issue Harvard Professor, John Stauffer, refutes Obama’s Lincoln scoffing by revealing how exceptional Lincoln's actions for the Negro really was for the time and reports how the greatest black American of his age, Frederick Douglas, came to love and admire Lincoln. He relates how important Douglas viewed Lincoln's efforts for American blacks. Apparently, Obama is not aware of how the preeminent black man of his day felt about a president that Obama discounts as "limited".
Obama wraps up his piece marveling at how Lincoln was able to retain his "humanity" throughout all his travails. He is impressed that Lincoln wandered the earth "making mistakes, loving his family but causing them pain, despairing over events, trying to divine God's will." After all Lincoln did, keeping his "humanity" is the only successful thing that Obama can firmly ascribe to one of the greatest presidents in American history without some sort of creeping doubt filling his mind.
All in all, Obama proves one of the points the magazine makes before Obama's Op Ed appears in the issue, that Lincoln is all too often morphed and molded to fit what some modern movement wants him to be and not what he really was. Obama makes this mistake with nearly every word of the piece that bears his name.
It makes one wonder if attending all those wonderful institutes of higher learning did the good Senator much good? It also makes one yearn for a log cabin or two to send our own children to instead of where Obama went.
About the Writer: Warner Todd Huston is a free lance writer, graphic designer and works in Desktop Publishing. Like every man when young, Mr. Huston was sure that Conservatives were inhumane, ignorant of history and greedy...then he grew up.
Mr. Huston realized that history was one of the least taught subjects in American schools and resolved to do his best to help his fellow citizens learn what our forefathers did and how their incredible foresight paved the way for our great nation.
So, along with commenting on the issues of the day, Mr. Huston, with his commentary, commonly tries to take a look back at American history to see what light might be shed on today's issues by reviewing from where we have come, and why we made that journey.
Mr. Huston is 42 years old and is involved in local GOP politics in his hometown.
Comments: huston@therant.us
Obama is as full of himself as any other liberal elite or politician, who think that they know better than the rest of us. BTW, that includes McCain.
Why would we assume Obama actually penned the piece? More likely he had some taxpayer-paid factotum write it up--unlike Lincoln, who wrote his speeches himself.
The one with the upside down cross? Probably.
In my opinion, Osama Obama is a pin head.
I get this queasy feeling in the pit of my stomach when this Obama dude's name comes up. He's on the fast track, my friends. The Rats are grooming him for high places. BEWARE.
Yes. They're using him.
I think because they are giving him so much attention , he'll let it go to his head and destroy himself. Liberals can't help it. If you feed them too much ego , they suck it in liberally, and they eventually explode and make a big mess out of themselves.
Look what happened to Howie Dean after they fed him too much. Eeeeeeyaaaaaaa!
I'm glad you mentioned McCain........he is worthless imho.
doesn't it make you wonder why the MSM is promoting this newby Lib like he was Jesus?
Would the Kennedy anti-Hillary faction be dumb enough to nominate this newbie in 2008? I suppose that if they are dumb enough to consider running J. François Kerry again, they would therefore be dumb enough to try running Barack.
Just picture a series of presidential debates between Barack and OUR Condoleeza! After opening statements plus one question to each candidate, and Obama's trousers would be at ankle level, doncha think?
Will somebody tell me what credentials this man has, anyway?........I mean for any public office above perhaps Traffic Superintendant?
Char :)
The RATS are twits. Let 'em scheme.
Bring it on.
Oh I hope you're right, but look at Jimmy Carter. He made it and heaven knows HE was a total disaster. Probably one of the dumbest presidents in history. Actually, disaster is an understatement, LOL!
Actually, even the Rats would probably admit he's not ready for prime time.... in 2008. I was thinking more like 2012 or 2016. They'll want to season him first.
(Season = teach him more dirty tricks. :)
Older people remember Carter, and have nothing nice to say about him. He's the lefts and the MSM's boy, but no one else has any use for him. Life was a real drag under his "wear warmer socks" presidency. If he ran again in the U.S. today, he'd lose in a landslide.
In America, the last poll I saw for Bill Clinton was a 23% approval rating, but you'd never know that by listening to the liberal press. They try to fake his popularity, but it's all just a wet dream.
Credentials? My guess is that he's young, he's Black, he goes to church, and the dem's are talking him up trying to stop the "Black flight" from their party.
No, I don't think the Kennedyites or antiHillaryites will nominate him in 2008, but maybe down the road.
Obama gives me the creeeps. I call him the Stepford candidate (or whatever he is). He seems like a total phony to me. Remember Robert Redford in "The Candidate"? Now what?
What does Obama want? Can't he get a real job?
He seems like a robot to me. The assumption seems to be that he, like Hillary, is the presumptive whatever, just because he's black and neatly dressed and doesn't have dredlocks.
What I don't understand is that since Illinois has two Junior Senators, why didn't Time ask Dick Durbin to pen an opinion. As I recall Durbin compared himself to Lincoln when he was whining about the attacks on him.
Obama probably DIDN'T write this piece in time Mag. He just doesn't seem smart enough to do it.
The hard sell Obama started getting a few years ago could've only been accomplished by a well-coordinated effort of the Dems, the print and TV media, and Madison Avenue. He , of course, is a big fat ZERO intellectually,
like Bill Clinton, and I hope the promotional/public relations machinery behind him runs out of gas (and money)as his "star" begins to dim. What a nothing.
This joker is the most over-rated person in government. Before this moron had even been sworn in, the Left was proclaiming him as the Second Coming. I don't do drugs so I don't "get it."
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