Why the quiet confidence of Obama is a reminder of the intelligent greatness of Lincoln.

[babylonsister]

Garry Wills
Finding the Lincoln in Obama

by Garry Wills

Garry Wills is Professor of History Emeritus, Northwestern University. His books include Inventing America: Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence, which won him a National Book Critics Circle Award for nonfiction, and Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America, which won him a Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction. His book Nixon Agonistes earned him a coveted place on Nixon’s list of political opponents.

Why the quiet confidence of Obama is a reminder of the intelligent greatness of Lincoln.



It is superficial to think that Barack Obama must be like Abraham Lincoln just because they are both from Illinois. We did not say that Everett Dirksen, a Republican, was some new Lincoln. Or that Paul Douglas, a more likely candidate though a Democrat, should be seen through a Lincoln lens.

In fact, neither Lincoln nor Obama entered the world in Illinois. They should be seen as outsiders in many ways. Lincoln was born in Kentucky, just seventeen years after it was admitted into the Union. Obama was born at a frontier more recent but more distant, in Hawaii two years after it became a state. Lincoln came to Illinois when he was twenty-one, Obama when he was twenty-four. Both were lawyers who made their way from the bottom up. Both came onto the national stage as an outsider, without the customary credentials and connections of national politics.

Lincoln, unlike Obama, had little-to-no formal education. He was in some ways more easily dismissed than Obama. He had only two years in national office, in the lower House of Representatives, to four for Obama in the upper house, the Senate. Both were excoriated for lack of experience, but Lincoln more scathingly. In the eyes of his 1860 rivals, he was a hick, a bumpkin -- for some he was a baboon. Charles Francis Adams and his sons, Henry and Brooks, thought him unqualified for the presidency, as did many of their Eastern peers.

Each ratcheted up his presidential prospects with a significant speech—Lincoln at Cooper Union in New York, Obama at the Constitution Center in Philadelphia. Each took a challenge presented by a scandalous person – John Brown in Lincoln’s case, Jeremiah Wright in Obama’s – and refused to engage in tit-for-tat exchanges. Instead, they used the occasion to rise to a higher level of analysis, Lincoln engaging the problem of slavery, Obama discussing America’s perennial troubles over race.It was the quality of mind each showed that was important. And this brings us to the deepest resemblance between the two men.

In most gatherings, Lincoln was the smartest man in the room. So is Obama. But both men proved too smart to show that. This is not so much a matter of humility as the recognition that displaying superior intellect is foolish. Brains can be a disability, not only because they provoke envy and resentment, but because they can cut off needed help, correction, and the interaction of people that leads to success in politics.

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http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2008-11-14/finding-the-lincoln-in-obama/

[wtmusic]

1. Obama/Lincoln comparisons are premature

They have qualities in common, but Lincoln's chief mark in history is one of a great leader.

Verdict is out on Obama.

[babylonsister]

3. Sez you. This writer saw similar characteristics in the two that I agree with.

Yes, the verdict is out on the future, but there are similarities that can be compared now.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. Good analysis

let us hope that Obama's years in office are not as traumatic as Lincoln's were.