| May 2012 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| S | M | T | W | T | F | S |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||
| 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 |
| 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 |
| 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | ||
Barack Obama aimed criticism at Abe Lincoln today. How pathetic, that to show himself as a future leader of the Dems, Obama felt it necessary to insult the memory of Lincoln, a man surely much greater than Obama is. It’s unbelievable that Obama should do this rather than trying to contribute something in the way of leadership or of grand ideas, to his party and his country. It’s an indictment of the paucity of leadership on the Left.
#2Wow, are today's Republicans really so thin-skinned that this is considered a "slam"? The mind boggles.
#3It’s an indictment of the paucity of leadership on the Left.
I just read the entire article and the only "insults" and "Slams" came from the person who critiqued it.
The "Indictment" appears to be more self directed.
#4Obama: "I cannot swallow whole the view of Lincoln as the Great Emancipator," Obama said. "As a law professor and civil rights lawyer and as an African-American, I am fully aware of his limited views on race. Anyone who actually reads the Emancipation Proclamation knows it was more a military document than a clarion call for justice." Obama is taking a shot at Lincoln's reputation.
#5Is Obama wrong?
#6I'm sure some Libs would argue that Obama is correct, taking his lead to attack one of the great men of American history, rather than working to come up ways to improve the present and future of this country, which was the point I made in the article. As I said, "It’s an indictment of the paucity of leadership on the Left."
#7Is Obama incorrect in stating that Lincoln had limited views on race, and that the Emancipation Proclamation was more a military document than a clarion call for justice?
#8Let's ask Mr. Lincon Himself.
Mr. Lincoln, should slaves be freed should they then be granted the same rights as whites?
"It does not follow that social and political equality between whites and blacks, must be incorporated, because slavery must not." (lincoln, 10/18/1858)
Oh, I see, but all slaves should be liberated, correct?
"I believe the declara[tion] that "all men are created equal" is the great fundamental principle upon which our free institutions rest; that negro slavery is violative of that principle; but that, by our frame of government, that principle has not been made one of legal obligation; that by our frame of government, the States which have slavery are to retain it, or surrender it at their own pleasure;"
Anyone who knows history, and all southerners will tell you, lincoln initially was willing to compromise with slave states but as the war waged on, the north needed a moral arguement to justify the war. Thus, "The Emancipation Proclamation." This doesn't make Lincoln a bad man, it just makes him a man of his era; and a very pragmatic man at that.
Obama's views on Lincoln are nuanced, it is not an "Attack."
Be Honest, you saw a quote, you hate Obama, you read an attack into the quote. This whole conversation speaks little about Obama and volumes about you.
#9Can you hear the crickets chirping?
Hey Vic, several responses:
1) It's okay to be interested in more than one thing at a time. We all do it. If Obama is writing about Lincoln it doesn't mean that he's not thinking and working on "leadership or of grand ideas," it means that he's a smart guy.
2) Lincoln was a great president (maybe the greatest) and Obama holds him up as one of his heroes. To think otherwise is to take Obama's comments out of context.
3) Speaking of context, are you aware that Lincoln voted for, and spoke eloquently for, the continuance of slavery in America several times before becoming president? That's what Obama's talking about. You may not like it, but that's history for you. It's not black and white, so to speak. Lincoln (who I regard as one of our greatest presidents) was a complicated figure who, at the very least, used race and slavery for pragmatic political purposes. Oh, and George Washington didn't cut down a cherry tree.