I'd be thrilled if, after Obama's first term, he truly deserved the Lincoln comparisons, but right now it's just idiotic to find these sorts of superficial similarities. What made Lincoln great was his leadership in the most terrible time in our nation's history. Let's wait and evaluate Obama's leadership after he's, you know, actually led the country for a term.
And while I respect Harold Holzer's scholarship on Lincoln, this is a remarkably dumb question to ask.
“It’s very hard to say who has a tougher job,” says Holzer. “Is it the man who’s facing a fiscal crisis worse than any since the Depression and also the specter of nuclear war, terrorism, health pandemics, and all of the issues that a 21st century president has to deal with and hopefully solve? Or is it the President who is facing the destruction of the entire country that he’s been elected to lead?”I know that Obama's supporters have a vested interest in inflating the problems he has to face so that he can seem even more like Lincoln or at least FDR. But the comparisons are fatuous. Times are bad now, but we're not in a Civil War in which over 600,000 men lost their lives and the fate of the union truly hung in the balance. The severity of the crisis Lincoln faced and his leadership determined his greatness. The lack of leadership as well as his corruption and support of the pro-slavery argument at every turn is why James Buchanan is in the basement of all presidents. As far as I'm concerned, they both retired the prize for best and worst presidents and we are fortunate that we haven't had any crisis that came close to the one that they faced.
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Don't forget that until he was assassinated, Lincoln was hated - both in the north and south. If he had not been killed, he might have ended up being impeached just as Andrew Johnson was.
Shoot, the unemployment rate, though bad, is not even as high as the previous high of the last 16 years.
Shamelessly stealing this from a Hot Air commenter on the Obama/Lincoln parallels ..
“… exactly what happened shortly after Lincoln was elected ?”
.. I guess this explains the increase in gun sales.
Perhaps in the name of minimal loss of life, Obama should proceed directly to Ford's Theater to meet up with Mr. Booth.
Given how poorly our schools teach US history these days, it's possible that a majority of Americans have only the vaguest idea who Lincoln is or what he did. But then maybe that works to Obama's advantage.
Betsy accurately points out, "that Obama's supporters have a vested interest in inflating the problems he has to face so that he can seem even more like Lincoln or at least FDR".
I'll go one further in that supporters like Barney Franks, Christopher Dodd, Franklin Delano* "Fred" Raines, James A. Johnson. and Jaime Gorelick made enormous contributions to the problems we face today.
Still, the media and Obama himself would be wise to put an end to comparisons that seem more in line with creating a cult of personality and stop reminding us all that we really don't know who he actually is yet.
* - no kidding, that's the guy's middle name and it's no joke that he cooked the books at Fannie Mae which allowed him to haul off $90 million in "compensation" for his most talented leadership of that fine organization.
While I didn't vote for Obama - I certainly don't want to see him fail.
I'm just worried about all of these expectations that everybody is coming up with. They referenced a poll on Special Report on Friday that said 50% of people thought he could live up to the expectations - and only 43% said they were too lofty.
That's just crazy - and I don't see how he can possibly live up to those types of expectations.
The Democrats and the media got him elected without his past being properly vetted--so now they have to embellish the story with this ridiculous comparison. I would not doubt that Hollywood is behind some of it.
If they could get away with it they would be saying that Obama was born in a log cabin in Hawaii.
This is like Kennedy and Camolot. The media falls right in line.
Well right this minute times are not bad. However today Lloyd's has let it be known that since the shipping from China to Europe is zero they will ship for nothing in an effort to keep their customers alive. The main US port have seen a steep drop in business. In Europe the fixed rate EU system is failing catastrophically. The point being is that I have about zero confidence in Obama, his economic advisors, and the Pelosi crowd to understand what is coming down the pike world wide. The time for bail outs to work is past. About the only thing that will work is heavy tax cuts for people and companies and that will take time and basically keep the bottom from going so far down.
Somebody needs to tell Obama that Lincoln was a Republican.
The Democratic Party was founded to oppose freeing the Slaves by such fine People as the KKK and proponents of the Jim Crow Laws.
Am I missing something here, or is ASmiths' comment joking about and/or advocating the assassination of Obama?
If so, how can this post be left to stand, without rebuke or condemnation?
This is a case where I hope I'm too obtuse to understand the point.
mark,
I'm with you on the ASmith comment - unless this gets clarified somehow - it needs to go away.
I dunno, mark. I read the comment as the Civil War starting within months and the current gun buying spree being perhaps a precursor to another civil war.
I don't think it will be, but I totally fail to see any connection to assassination.
I dunno, Dave. Ford's Theater, guns, John Wilkes Booth? Nope, no reference to assassination there. Particularly sad being Martin Luther King day.
I realize it's hard to criticize "one of your own", but anyone who read that comment and let it pass should be ashamed. God knows people don't hesitate to disagree with me, or take me to task for the occasional inappropriate/stupid joke. I have criticized other "liberals" who I thought were way out of line. Feel free to speak up, people. Unless, of course, you agree.
"...Obama should proceed directly to Ford's Theater to meet up with Mr. Booth." And somehow that is not a reference to an assassination?
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