Taking The Obama/Lincoln Comparisons to their Logical Conclusions

Of all the fawning over Obama's speech by the MSM, nothing made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up more than the incessant comparisons to Lincoln. Chris Mathews did it. The L.A. Times did it. The New York Times did it. Of course, the Daily Kos did it. Here is a sampling...

Barack Obama is nothing less than our era's Abraham Lincoln. I do not think this is an exaggeration. In his words, temperment, and actions, there is no figure in American history that Barack Obama resembles more than Lincoln.

We should have known this all along. A 33-year old man does not write "Dreams From My Father" without being unusually emotionally intelligent, grounded, courageous, reflective, and sincere -- just as Lincoln could not have written his Second Inaugural without these attributes.

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In a speech whose frankness about race many historians said could be likened only to speeches by Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson, John F. Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln, Senator Barack Obama, speaking across the street from where the Constitution was written, traced the country's race problem back to not simply the country's "original sin of slavery" but the protections for it embedded in the Constitution.

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The lawyer was Abraham Lincoln, and the speech was the famous "House Divided" address with which he accepted the Republican Party's nomination as a candidate for the U.S. Senate. Lincoln lost to Stephen Douglas, but the address changed the national conversation on slavery and, two years later, Lincoln was on his way from Springfield to the White House....

Sen. Barack Obama, another lanky lawyer from Illinois, planted one of those rhetorical markers in the political landscape Tuesday, when he delivered his "More Perfect Union" speech in Philadelphia, near Independence Hall. The address was meant to dampen the firestorm of criticism that has attached itself to the senator's campaign since video clips of race-baiting remarks by his Chicago church's former pastor began circulating last week.

The thing is that Lincoln wasn't just a great speaker, a great leader, and a man of principle. Lincoln got into politics for one overriding reason...to end the evil of the day, slavery. Obama didn't get into politics to bridge racial gaps. I know this because he has quickly moved onto Iraq and the economy. He only made this speech because he was forced to by the scandal over his reverend Jeremiah Wright.

Frankly, almost none of the themes that he talked about on Tuesday were themes that he has talked about before. Thus, race relations is in no way his purpose for politics. Here is the only passages that drew on past themes.

This time we want to talk about how the lines in the Emergency Room are filled with whites and blacks and Hispanics who do not have health care; who don't have the power on their own to overcome the special interests in Washington, but who can take them on if we do it together.

This time we want to talk about the shuttered mills that once provided a decent life for men and women of every race, and the homes for sale that once belonged to Americans from every religion, every region, every walk of life. This time we want to talk about the fact that the real problem is not that someone who doesn't look like you might take your job; it's that the corporation you work for will ship it overseas for nothing more than a profit.

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a corporate culture rife with inside dealing, questionable accounting practices, and short-term greed; a Washington dominated by lobbyists and special interests; economic policies that favor the few over the many. And yet, to wish away the resentments of white Americans, to label them as misguided or even racist, without recognizing they are grounded in legitimate concerns - this too widens the racial divide, and blocks the path to understanding.

Now, if we are to take the Lincoln/Obama comparisons to their logical conclusion then the evil that Obama is fighting against is the evil of the free market and capitalism. That, frankly, is the only theme that you can find in this speech that has been throughout. Thus, if we are take this comparison logically, we would have to believe that Obama got into politics to remove the evil of free markets and capitalism from our society.

If you think my logic is silly or obtuse, it is only because I am following the significantly more silly and obtuse logic of comparing a Presidential candidate with no accomplishments yet to a mythical President from two centuries past. The reality is that it isn't my provocative conclusions that are the problem but the silly and overdone comparisons not only of Obama to Lincoln but frankly of all types. Just as Harold Miner was once compared to Michael Jordan, so to is Barack Obama to Abraham Lincoln. In fact, many a rising basketball player has invariably been compared to Jordan. The comparisons are neither fair to Jordan nor to the rising player. Neither are the comparisons to the likes of Lincoln, Reagan, FDR, JFK. These are all unique politicians that won't be replicated anymore than Jordan will be.

Barack Obama doesn't need comparisons to a mythical figure who made his mark more than a hundred and fifty years ago. Obama is his own man who will carve out his own place in politics whatever that will be. Comparisons to the likes of Lincoln are silly at best and lead to my perverted conclusion at worst. Before we annoit him the next Lincoln maybe his followers should see if the country annoits him the next President. Until then, let's leave the silly comparison the way of other silly comparisons or lest we have another Harold Miner/Michael Jordan on our hands.