Obama Fails to Become Lincolnesque
President Obama chose to give his State of the Union address on February 12th, Lincoln’s birthday, to continue his fantasy that he is a president in the image of Abraham Lincoln our 16th President.
Both became President during a national crisis—Lincoln’s the slavery issue and the beginning of the Civil War, Obama’s the financial crisis. That might be where the similarity ends. Lincoln kept his focus on the slavery issue during the first 4 years of his presidency assisted in that effort by the Civil War.
But during that time he used his power as the Commander-in-Chief to write the Emancipation Proclamation which took effect on January 1, 1863. It was the first step toward the 13th Amendment passed in January 1865. President Obama presented an $825 billion stimulus spending bill in 2009 which was passed by the legislature after reducing it to $787 billion.
Lincoln’s first step, the Emancipation Proclamation, freed slaves if only in the rebel states. Obama’s first step to solve the financial crisis was by spending another $787 billion putting America further in debt.
Lincoln followed his first step by working with Congress and buying votes to ultimately pass the 13th Amendment which freed all of the slaves. Obama has never worked with Congress to present a budget with the goal to solve the financial issue. In his State of the Union, the budget got very little consideration with no focused plan to fix the issue in spite of the fact that it is still the number one concern of the people.
President Obama is going on a campaign tour to continue to do what he does best—talk—while Lincoln took action and in 5 years he had fixed the slavery issue. President Obama still has time and let’s hope that he will try to become a leader with a real focus on the problem and a determination to work with Congress to fix the problem. Then he will have earned the right to be called Lincolnesque.
Steve Alleman
Kansas City
3 months agoAn anonymous column accusing the President of not being something he never claimed to be? Whatever.
Mark Hastert
3 months ago“But during that time he used his power as the Commander-in-Chief to write the Emancipation Proclamation”
Yet Obamsa’s use of executive orders has earned him only criticism. And that stimulus package of which the author is so disdainful is now proven to have pulled the US out of recession while austerity and spending cuts in the EU has kept them in recession. I don’t think our author really understands the point being made.
Lest we not forget. In his time Lincoln was reviled by many in the north too. History, not pundits will tell.
George Hunsucker
Northland
3 months agoit is truly funny to see the libs such as the above post praising the porkulus bill as “pulling the US out of recession”. All it accomplished was another trillion of zero debt and some union campaign payoffs.
To argue its “success” is truly laughable.
And then we compare the Emancipation Proclamation with zero’s executive order saying don’t enforce our immigration laws against illegal aliens. Libs are a hoot….
Phil Cardarella
3 months agoAnonymous has not passed up his/her opportunity to be Kafkaesque.
Mark Hastert
3 months ago“And then we compare the Emancipation Proclamation with zero’s executive order saying don’t enforce our immigration laws against illegal aliens.”
Lincoln was roundly criticized for the Emancipation Proclamation, his suspension of Habeas Corpus, and many other executive orders he took. Maybe Obama is more Lincolnesque after all.
Matt Henry
3 months agoThe emancipation proclamation was not an executive order per se, at least not in the same way they have been used by this President. Lincoln took that step as commander in chief which is why it only applied in territories that were occupied by the US military and why he pushed so hard for the 13th amendment. He didn’t have the power to free the slaves in the union, nor did he try to claim it. In other words it was absolutely nothing like what Obama has done.
It is also important to note that the extreme measures he took, like suspending habeus corpus, have been roundly condemned by historians ever since but are considered largely overshadowed by his broader accomplishments, including the 13th amendment and saving the Union. He also took these actions not only during a time of war but in a time of great moral crisis that culminated in the deaths of millions of Americans in order to close that schism and another hundred years of post-war in which the country was far from whole. I would call that situation just a smidge more pressing than what The One has had to face. And yet we are comparing his end-runs around the will of the people as expressed by congress somehow Lincolnesque? The idea is so absurd it could be the basis of a Voltaire novel.
If you want to call Obama Lincoln-like because Lincoln suspended habeus corpus, then more power to you. I would agree that the best he can hope for is for his best moments to be compared with Lincoln’s worst.