Posted on 12/05/2008 4:17:18 AM PST by Kaslin
Barack Obama has been accused of hubris and arrogance for his continuing references of identification with Abraham Lincoln, who by the measure of many was the greatest of all our presidents.
"In Lincoln's rise from poverty, his ultimate mastery of language and law, his capacity to overcome personal loss and remain determined in the face of repeated defeat ... he reminded me not just of my own struggles," he told Time magazine as he set out in his quest for the White House. "He also reminded me of a larger fundamental element of American life -- the enduring beliefs that we can constantly remake ourselves to fit our larger dreams."
Hubris or not, Obama seeks a hero worthy of imitation, but the obvious similarities tell us little about what to expect. Both are lanky lawyers from Illinois, with scant legislative and no administrative experience. Both are relatively young for the White House, and both are endowed with a gift of powerful eloquence. Both came to Washington with "potential." Lincoln's biography has been filled out in thousands of books documenting his accomplishments and failures.
He may be the most written about man after Christ and Shakespeare; new books flourish with fresh information. More than one biographer points out how Lincoln was strong enough to put his enemies and antagonists in his Cabinet, welcoming challenges from strong leaders with whom he disagreed. They suggest that Obama follows in Lincoln's footsteps with the appointments of Hillary Clinton and Robert Gates. But, like Lincoln's, the mixed Obama Cabinet may show mixed results.
Both men suffered from associations with smarmy men. Southerners blamed Lincoln for the incendiary rhetoric of abolitionist John Brown, who was hanged for leading armed insurrection to free the slaves. Lincoln condemned Brown's murderous tactics but did not extend his criticism to sympathizers who advocated peaceful means to make their points. He urged mutual respect for differing opinions when it was difficult to reach middle ground.
"Jeremiah Wright was Obama's John Brown," writes historian Gary Wills in the New York Review of Books. Obama separated himself from the anti-American message of his pastor, saying his message arose from "a profoundly distorted view of this country" and failed to recognize how America had changed in providing opportunity to blacks.
Obama, like Lincoln, did not condemn those who listened to Wright for a different message. He said Wright preached a message of personal responsibility as well as hatred of America, asking the congregation to demand more from fathers, to spend more time with their children, reading to them and teaching them to accept challenges.
"Ironically, this quintessentially American -- and yes, conservative -- notion of self-help found frequent expression in Reverend Wright's sermons," Obama said in the first of two speeches about the preacher and his impact on the campaign. He called it an appeal to "the better angels of our nature," but it was the devil in the details that bit back.
Political debate in the age of the Internet has been dumbed-down into a swamp of ignorance, and Obama, like Lincoln, draws on poetic cadence to deliver a message of hope in troubled times. Pretty words can camouflage a multitude of cynicism, but we can hope that they heal our divisions: "As Lincoln said to a nation far more divided than ours: 'We are not enemies but friends. ... Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection.'"
John McCain sounded a contrapuntal theme in his concession speech, calling for "the necessary compromises to bridge our differences and help restore our prosperity, defend our security in a dangerous world." He recalled that it was only a century ago that Theodore Roosevelt invited Booker T. Washington to dine at the White House to the outrage of many Americans (and by no means all of them in the South).
"America today is a world away from the cruel and frightful bigotry of that time," he said. "There is no better evidence of this than the election of an African-American to the presidency of the United States."
It seems fitting that the inauguration celebration takes its theme from the Gettysburg Address, with ringing words particularly precious in the age of terrorism: "that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom; and that this government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
So how will Abe 0bama start CW2?
Rise from poverty and personal loss?
Where are records of his professional life not to mention his birth certificate?
Just another donk stealing material from a Republican. Nothing to see here, just move along, folks...
The reason Lincoln was a great president was because he took up the greatest of causes, the abolution of slavery, and was willing to take up arms for the preservation of the union.
Obama deserves a comparison to Lincoln? Is he going to preserve the union? If so, from what?
Many people are looking for a hero, a clean politician. They believe they have found their hero in Obama, for they are treating him as such; it’s just like the Jimmy Carter phenonemon.
Obama has done nothing, yet. I’ll wait for his accomplishments, if there are any, before I compare him to Lincoln.
Well I don't consider him to be the greatest of all our presidents...
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Lincoln? YES! Barack Hussein O'Teleprompter? Are you kidding?
Chronologically, you have those in the wrong order.
ooops. Should have turned off the italics...
Didn’t Lincoln write his own speeches?
I don’t recall seeing a teleprompter in the picture from Gettysburgh ?
He took up the cause first.
No. He did NOT.
In fact, he once said that if he could keep the Union together by freeing all the slaves he would do that; if he could keep the Union togather by freeing SOME slaves and NOT freeing others he would do that; and if freeing NONE of the slaves was what it took to preserve the Union then he would free NONE of them.
He used slavery as a political tool.
As concerned as I am that America, the PLACE, is in danger, I am far more concerned that America, the IDEA, is on the verge of being devastated in ways the Founders could never have imagined.
My great-great grandfather fought with the 80th Ohio Volunteer Infantry at Chickamauga, Vicksburg and marched to the sea with Sherman. My wife’s great-great grandfather also fought on the Union side. Given the quasi-tyrannical nature of the current central government, we’re both sad that they fought in a struggle to secure Washington’s grip on the states in violation of the VOLUNTARY compact between those states to create that central government in the first instance, the Declaration of Independence.
Now that central government — and the power it has usurped from the states and the people — may be about to fall into the hands of a group of men and women who care even less for those principles than Mr. Lincoln did when he launched one of the deadliest wars in history.
I admit to having many problems with Mr. Lincoln. Forensic historians now view him to have been more motivated by his own internal demons and depression than by a desire to keep together by force a union some voluntary members of which chose to “...alter and to abolish..., and to institute (a) new Government...”
Inasmuch as history is always written by the victor, I recognize this will be totally foreign to those who have not spent time examining that history in detail. But I said all that to lay the basis for this, one of the few things on which a younger, pre-presidency Lincoln and I might agree:
“At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? Shall we expect some transatlantic giant to step the ocean and crush us at one blow Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest, with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not take a drink from the Ohio or make a track on the Blue Ridge in a trial of a thousand years.
“At what point, then, is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us; it cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.”
Abraham Lincoln, 1837
America, the IDEA, may soon suffer a blow which will render it a small footnote in world history. Given that history IS written by the victors, it might not even be mentioned at all.
I tremble for our grandchildren.
Obama was never poor. He went to the most expensive private school in Hawaii.
"Jeremiah Wright was Obama's John Brown"
Lincoln never met or in any way supported John Brown.
Correct.
I was merely pointing out to another person that Linoln did not “take up the cause” (of slavery) BEFORE he committed himself to preserving the Union.
“... Lincoln, who by the measure of many was the greatest of all our presidents.”
Lincoln doesn’t hold a candle to George Washington. Washington was truly a noble man; in many ways he created our country and gave us self-government. It is a real crime our schools no longer teach our children about the Greatest of All Americans!!
My story is similar to Rocky and I have always been a fighter. Never used Condominimums.
Loved to fight in the ring but had to quit... the referee kept stepping on my gloves. /
This dork wans to co-opt anything to set his legacy where does he get these ideas? Oh, I remeber, the Clintons frequently claimed Republican ideas as their own. Thing is they never proferred an original thought or strategy of their own. Well, except for Hillary care.
It occurs to me that this guy is surrounding himself with Clinton accolites. Didn’t Clinton have a win record of 10% when supporting candidates. In other words, 90% of the people he supported failed. That could be good news in terms of invented person, who nothing more than an AKA. He has 10% chance of succeding.
Wonder if he’ll shut down the free press and lock up Supreme Court Justices like Lincoln did.
“and was willing to take up arms for the preservation of the union”
IOW he was willing to destroy the village in order to save it.
I wouldn’t rate going to war as one of his great accomplishments, given what it cost people on both sides. Especially when you consider that had he been more willing to make concessions on tariffs they probably could have avoided war.
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