The Obama-Lincoln Parallel: A Closer Look (Remember this?)

CBS News ^ | Jan. 17, 2009 | Phil Hirschkorn

[mkboyce]

From the start of his political career, Obama seems to have modeled himself on Lincoln. Both were born in other states - Hawaii for Obama, Kentucky for Lincoln - before settling in Illinois. Each became a lawyer then served in the state legislature before serving a single term in Congress. Each rocketed onto the national political stage with powerful speeches and became commander-in-chief without any military experience.

[mkboyce]

President Obama, I’ve read about Abe Lincoln, I’ve heard family stories about Abe Lincoln, Abe Lincoln is actually a distant cousin of mine. Barack Obama, you’re no Abraham Lincoln!

-Marco

[al baby]

Nope, I won’t say it wouldn’t be prudent.

[Nonstatist]

LOL! What an embarrassing butt-sucking love note! Good thing the MSM has no memory, no sense of irony, and no humility. Otherwise, they couldnt live with themselves.

[Tublecane]

“Each rocketed onto the national political stage with powerful speeches and became commander-in-chief without any military experience.”

Startling ignorance! Ever heard of the Blackhawk War? Look it up!

[HiJinx]

became commander-in-chief without any military experience.

Not true, of course...

[Tublecane]

“Each became a lawyer...”

But only Lincoln actually practiced law. Obama used his degree to...I don’t know what. Tell old ladies where to pick up welfare checks?

[Vaquero]

future:

The elections of Both Obama and Lincoln precipitated state to secede and the subsequent Civil Wars that ensued.

[Vaquero]

correction:

that would be ‘STATES’, plural.....

[kosciusko51]

If you are right, I wouldn’t want to be O at a play.

[Fresh Wind]

Obama used his degree to...

...sue banks to force them to give loans to people who had virtually no chance of ever paying the money back.

[mkboyce]

Lincoln spoke from the heart...from knowledge and wisdom.

Obama speaks, no reads, from a teleprompter with scripted, pandering changes in diction.

[John.Galt2012]

Good old Abe...The Great Emancipator...except the Emancipation Proclamation freed ZERO slaves! From a .gov website: "the Emancipation Proclamation was limited in many ways. It applied only to states that had seceded from the Union, leaving slavery untouched in the loyal border states. It also expressly exempted parts of the Confederacy that had already come under Northern control. Most important, the freedom it promised depended upon Union military victory."

[bgill]

Abe had 3 months and 3 days in the militia.

[Dr. Sivana]

Startling ignorance! Ever heard of the Blackhawk War? Look it up!

The monument at Stillman Valley is just down the street from me.

http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/sites/stillman.htm

From the site:

In 1901, the Battlefield Memorial Association of Stillman Valley erected a monument with funds from the Forty-Second Illinois General Assembly. One side explains that it memorializes "the Illinois volunteers who fell at Stillman's Run, May 14, 1832, in an engagement with Black Hawk and his warriors."

The marble monument also soberly notes, "The presence of soldier, statesman, martyr, Abraham Lincoln assisting in the burial of these honored dead has made his spot more sacred."

I question the use of the word "martyr," as the martyr needs an opportunity to choose to die rather than sin or act dishonorably. Lincoln was watching a play.

[capydick]

How many historical errors are in this piece? SeeBS can put this out this out there because they know they are one of the entities whose propaganda has contributed to the dumbing down of America and they know what they can get away with it.

[John.Galt2012]

Almost sounds a little Marxist/Socialist doesn’t it. Free the slaves of the people I don’t like, but keep my slaves and of course the people who I DO like can keep their slaves. No wonder he likes Lincoln so much.

[Tublecane]

“except the Emancipation Proclamation freed ZERO slaves!”

Not immediately, no. But with time.

It has been blown out of proportion. The Constitutional amendment was the big deal.

[John.Galt2012]

True.

[Dahoser]

Exactly what powerful speeches were they from Obamao? Why is it (asking the obvious) that it’s the RATS who are always characterized as the great speechmakers? The Cape Cod Orca, Jesse HiJackson, the Sfacim, Bildo Klintoon, and now Obamao always make the SRM swoon when they take to a podium.We really need to do something about separation of media and state.

[Tublecane]

“Almost sounds a little Marxist/Socialist doesn’t it.”

No, it doesn’t. Marxists are ideologues. Lincoln was operating acording to practical considerations. I get sick of the idolatry, but there were real problems involved.

For one, he had no authority to free slaves within the Union, per Dred Scott.

Second, one wouldn’t want to risk alienating the border states in the middle of a war that’s not going all that well to begin with.

Third, even if it wasn’t like a thunderbolt from God that broke the chains, at least it finally made the war about slavery (to some degree), which was better than the previous cause. “Union!” Pretty empty-sounding after all these years, right? Maybe that’s why people barely talk about it anymore.