US Features
Obama takes timeout to celebrate Lincoln
Feb 13, 2009, 15:09 GMT
The sculpture depicting Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial is illuminated at night on the bicentennial of Lincoln\'s birthday in Washington, DC, USA 12 February 2009. Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States. He led the country through the American Civil War, preserving the Union and ending slavery. EPA/MICHAEL REYNOLDS
Washington - If US President Barack Obama thinks he's had a stressful first few weeks in office, he can always look back at the life of the 16th president.
Abraham Lincoln, whose 200th birthday was celebrated Thursday, came into to office after much of the South had withdrawn from the United States, founding their own breakaway Confederate States of America.
The first shots of the American Civil War were fired just weeks after Lincoln's inauguration, placing on the tall man's shoulders both the moral question of slavery, which had divided the nation, and the burden of sending hundreds of thousands of soldiers to their deaths to preserve the Union.
Obama's early days in office have been spent negotiating a massive economic rescue package to pull the United States out of a deep recession, which seems like a huge task until compared to Lincoln's time.
Obama has said that Lincoln was his most admired predecessor.
'It is a humbling task, marking the bicentennial of our 16th president's birth humbling for me in particular, I think, for the presidency of this singular figure in so many ways made my own story possible,' Obama said Thursday night in Springfield, Illinois, Lincoln's home town.
Both men launched their political careers from the Midwestern state of Illinois, quickly rising from relative obscurity to the nation's highest office.
Lincoln's bicentennial on Thursday gave US politicians a chance to step away from the issues of state and saving the economy with a nearly 800-billion-dollar stimulus plan currently before Congress.
Obama, members of Congress and historians spent Thursday morning lauding Lincoln in a ceremony at the US Capitol, which was under construction during his presidency. Obama later flew to Illinois for festivities in Springfield, the capital city where he and Lincoln both served in the state legislature.
'For what Lincoln never forgot, not even in the midst of civil war, was that despite all that divided us - North and South, black and white - we were, at heart, one nation and one people, sharing a bond as Americans that could not break,' Obama said in Washington.
The ceremony was full of anecdotes about Lincoln's humble origins, humility and moral character, reflecting the American fascination with the president who is the subjects of thousands of biographies.
'Long before he was the president we all admire, Abraham Lincoln was the American we might all aspire to be,' said Richard Norton Smith, former director of the Lincoln presidential library.
Ceremonies were also held at historical sites across the country, including the Gettysburg battlefield in Pennsylvania, where one of the key battles of the Civil War was fought and where Lincoln late gave one of his most famous speeches.
Lincoln was assassinated in 1865, just weeks into his second presidential term and within days of the war's ended. Am embittered Confederate sympathizer shot Lincoln in the head while he was attending a play at Ford's Theatre in Washington, which was reopened Wednesday in conjunction with a renovation planned to coincide with the bicentennial.
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Older Talkback
page: 1
Absolutely. The media is so in love with Obama that I'm sure they will soon be equating him with Ghandi, Jesus, heck maybe even Mother Theresa.
It's just the same over here. Our 'liberal' media hated Bush like poison but ever since Obama appeared on the scene they've been on cloud nine. During your election, as the result became more certain, a BBC pundit even stated that it looked as if 'we are going to win.' So much for objectivity and balace. To hear the Beeb one would suppose that instead of putting his pants on one leg at a time like ordinary mortals, the sainted Barrak floats gently up into the air, surrounded by a glowing nimbus of glory and descends slowly into them both feet at once; all to the sound of celestial music provided by an adoring choir of angels.
@Truebrit
Coming a little late, but that's hilarious. Thanks for the post.
Barack Obama as next President of The United States of America
The die is cast and for reasons that only a privileged few know, you Sir, will be the next President of the United States of America. Your next 4 years will be a turning point in US history and planet earth. CHANGE, your advisors and high stake investors offer the nation will undoubtedly be the same rhetoric and empty promises that make up a political campaign, that campaigns for appointment for any public office in America.
The White House will be the Black House to some, the Aryan Brothers of America will not be so happy, but yet will blame you and your staff if you fail, which will reinforce their belief that the Aryan Nation is the true leader for America. The religious zealots will be busy bees making nests to survive the onslaught of lies, corruption and deceit. Business enterprises and other competing nations will capitalize off of your inexperience in the art of corruption and murder. The organized crime organizations from different nations including our own will benefit from the lack of control over national crime.
Military governments including our own will test your tolerance to pain and deception and trick you into needless and profitable domestic and international conflict. You will no doubt attempt to colorize your staff to soften the race conflict once in office.
As President you will be President. Nations will respect you only for your title of office. Americans will soon see after your appointment as President that your intentions were manipulated by those that make the rules. You will fill the spot in history as planned, and nothing more.
You will never while in office be able to pull the troops from conflict in any land we are engaged in. As a matter of fact we as a nation will be engaged in a new conflict of war, which will galvanize Americans to seek a different form of government and a different and honest Congress.
You will attempt to shore up Americas problems with false promise and lies, because you cannot directly affect the CHANGE you promised.
Your frustration will be your downfall while in office, and your co-dependence on those that you trust will also add to your demise.
Our Armed Forces in rank will respect you as good soldiers they are, but those under them will not, and for good reasons, that only a good soldier knows.
America will not be America until its government respects the People, and tells the truth. America is a Republic, not a Democracy or Fascist Government or is it?
Until you can walk thru the streets and neighborhoods of America unaided by Secret Service or any other law enforcement agency you will not be respected by the many, only by the fearful and selfish few. Americans can protect their leaders if they are honest and respectful of the people they were elected to serve. Our Government has forsaken us for many hundreds of years, and now we will wait until your 4 years are finished for us to come to fruition.
CHANGE FOR AMERICA FOR AMERICANS!
The American Republic
A Sovereign Republic
Obama?
page: 1
NSKFeb 14th, 2009 - 02:26:44
Trying to compare Obama to Lincoln is really too much of a stretch. Has the media's obsession with US politics actually become this shallow?
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