Does Obama err by leaning on Lincoln?
Then Sen. Barack Obama at the dedication of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, Springfield, Ill., April 2005. (Chicago Tribune photo by Pete Souza.)
by Frank James
President-elect Barack Obama really has a thing for Abraham Lincoln.
The latest manifestation of what appears to be his Lincoln envy is the way Obama intends on arriving in Washington for his inaugural, by train via Philadelphia and Baltimore, just like Lincoln. There’s been no mention of whether the president-elect will be wearing a stove-pipe hat.
Of course, Lincoln was sneaked through Baltimore because of credible reports of a conspiracy against his life. As we have seen since then, the protection afforded a president has so improved that a U.S. president can even go into hostile territory as President Bush just did when he went to Iraq and, given the right preparations, be safeguarded from most threats except perhaps a pair of size 9 shoes.
In Obama cabinet appointments, there has been the whole Lincolnesque “team of rivals” theme and Obama has returned to the Lincoln language repeatedly, saying we must “think anew” and “act anew.”
