"So I says to 0bama, sorry you're no Lincoln."
Posted on 06/23/2009 4:39:49 AM PDT by Colonel Kangaroo
AUGUSTINE BEACH, FLA. — The only president who came into office facing a "worse mess" than Barack Obama was Abraham Lincoln, said George McGovern, who's promoting his book on the Civil War president.
Decades after his own unsuccessful bid for president, McGovern, a former history professor, sees similarities between the Honest Abe president and Obama.
"I really think he has some of Lincoln's qualities," McGovern said of Obama. "The only president who inherited a worse mess was Lincoln, who inherited a four-year civil war that ruined the country."
When asked how his 185-page "Abraham Lincoln" differs from 16,000 other biographies on Lincoln, the prolific speaker replied simply: "It's briefer." The publisher asked him to keep it short.
At 86, the 1972 Democratic presidential candidate continues to write opinion pieces for newspapers and when he speaks to civic groups, there is usually a standing-room only audience. McGovern, who served three terms in the U.S. Senate representing South Dakota, said he learned plenty about Lincoln while researching the book.
He said he paid attention to handicaps Lincoln had to overcome, such as having only a year of formal education, McGovern said.
"I hadn't realized what an avid reader he was. He analyzed what he read. He thought about it. He took notes on it. There were certain fields he just mastered and one of them was the law," McGovern said.
Another handicap was bouts of clinical depression.
"He called it melancholy," McGovern said, though he still was able to function well as a leader.
Would Lincoln be successful in today's political climate?
"I think he could. My only question is how he would come across on television," McGovern said.
McGovern supported Obama in the 2008 presidential race after first backing his longtime friend Hillary Clinton, who worked for his failed 1972 campaign lost to Richard Nixon.
"He was emerging as the man of the hour, the candidate of change, the candidate of new politics and a new way of doing things," McGovern said.
Obama was able to beat Clinton and John McCain because he was the right man for the moment, McGovern said, adding he had never expected to see a black president in his lifetime.
McGovern recently bought a two-story, four-bedroom home in the southern end of St. Augustine Beach, an area steeped in history with milder winters than South Dakota.
Now that his book is written, McGovern said his passion is ending child hunger.
In 2000, Congress passed the George McGovern-Robert Dole Food for Education and Nutrition Act, which feeds 22 million children around the globe with a daily nutritious meal. McGovern wants to see another 100 million children fed through the effort run by the United Nations.
"I want to live long enough if I can, and so does Bob Dole, to reach all these kids," he said. "I've battled against hunger since World War II, I am very proud of that."
"So I says to 0bama, sorry you're no Lincoln."
And just what similarities do you see between Jefferson Davis and Obama? Sounds like you’re F.O.S. to me.
Poor George turned senile long ago.
ROFLMAO!
Obama was Lincoln’s idol. Jesus and Moses also thought very highly of him.
George McGovern writes Lincoln book; former presidential candidate sees parallels with Obama
Lets see.
Lincoln sacrificed for his Country
Obama wants YOU to sacrifice for his Government.
Seems to be a different track to me....
In McGovern’s defense he’s been absolutely resolute on opposing “card check”. Not sure why he has come off the reservation on this one issue, but he’s been speaking his mind in many editorials etc.
Both are Democrats who are big government, special interest group politicians who believe in government for, by and of the non-productive.
I didn’t know this decrepit old fossil was still consuming oxygen.
I’ve always wondered if McGovern could have been a worse president than Carter. It is like comparing Godzilla with the Smog Monster.
I never tire of that picture.
Well it looks like Lincoln is break dancing in his grave in horror being compared to Obama.
Please...Education...He was an attorney for 20 years...On one year of education...Me thinks not!!
....But the same “poor George” you mentioned just did sky diving for his 85 birthday again.:)
>>> The only president who came into office facing a “worse mess” than Barack Obama was Abraham Lincoln, said George McGovern <<<<
Senility sets in.
To be completely nonpartisan about it, many Presidents have faced crises far greater than our current problems:
Grant, Reconstruction.
Wilson, WWI
Roosevelt, Great Depression.
Truman, WWII.
Nixon, Vietnam, civil disorder.
Reagan, stagflation, Iran hostages.
McGovern’s comment is just plain absurd. Does he think things were worse in 2009 than during the great depression? It’s just another way to demonize GWB for “ruining our lives.”
We can be grateful to McGovern for one thing though. When the Dems nominated him it showed how they had lurched to the far left, so it began an era of GOP dominance at the presidential level at least. Sadly though McGovern seems to have gotten the last laugh as a Democrat even farther to the left than he is managed to get into the White House at a critical time.
“”I really think he has some of Lincoln’s qualities,””
I think the world is about ready to receive The Antichrist. Comparing Obama to Honest Abe is a Satanic parody and the very antithesis of him.
1) Lincoln played a lot of golf.
2) Lincoln appointed tax cheats.
3) Lincoln had a Moron VP.
4) Lincoln was black.
5) Lincoln slinked away from adversity.
Yes a lot in common.
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