Lincoln - Bush : two articles, one paper, the obvious comparisons

[Democrat 4 Ever]

This weekend in the Courier-Journal, Kentucky's major newspaper there were two articles on the front of the Forum section of the Sunday paper. One was about Lincoln, the other was an edited transcript from an interview that Cal Thomas, Tribune Media Services had with King Chimpy. Reading about these two presidents in one article after the other, you really get how completely stupid, mean, hateful, self-serving, petty, small-minded and stupid BushyBot is and the media whores that try to help him with with softball interviews and he can't even pull that off. (They even joked about him "playing" dumb. I have tried to find a link for Cal Thomas' "conversation" but have been unsuccessful - even a doting sycophant like Thomas and heavy editing could not clean up that article respectful enough to post for all to read. In short, I read the "thing" twice and the man just doesn't make any sense not even using a dumb down filter normally employed to try and make sense of anything the Emperor lets spew from his chimpy little mouth.

The following article reminds us all of how a real leader acts. Here is a snippet from "The Spring from which Lincoln emerged" by Michael Jennings (Lincoln's birthplace National Park is just about 15 miles from my home, this is the spring the author is referencing):

(snip)

Amid the greatest bloodletting in the country's history, Lincoln never demonized the enemy or claimed that justice, let alone God, exclusively favored one side. It is impossible to imagine him denouncing the nation's foes as evildoers or boasting "mission accomplished" while strutting into Richmond (where he did take a quiet walk near the war's end). If confronted with some atrocity committed by his countrymen, he would not have treated the revelation principally as an opportunity to insist on the inherent goodness of Americans, as President Bush and others in his administration did when news broke of the prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib. Lincoln believed that history had entrusted to Americans a noble experiment in self-government, and that they had a solemn duty to preserve and protect it. But he never claimed Americans were inherently better than other peoples.

Our recent political history abounds with reminders that humility in our leaders, except for the phoniest, most platitudinous sort, is in short supply these days, and that we pay dearly for its absence.

At his first press conference after winning reelection, President Bush told a questioner: "You asked, do I feel free. Let me put it to you this way: I earned capital in the campaign, political capital, and now I intend to spend it. It is my style."

On a similar occasion, his inauguration to a second term as president, Lincoln could have preened a bit. He had won an election that he and others had predicted he would lose. The war's end was in sight. Many Republicans in Congress were clamoring for vengeance, and Lincoln could have claimed that he and they had earned the right and the political capital to exact it.

Instead, he spoke of the overweening assumptions with which both sides had gone to war, and the way Providence had dealt with them.

Read the entire article at: http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050206/OPINION04/502060329/1016/OPINION

[Inland]

1. Bush is a petty little man, appealing to the petty smallness in people

Fear, greed, self-congratulation, xenophobia.

[mermaid]

4. And THAT Is WHY The Rpugnicans Win election After Election

Because they appeal to that petty smallness in people...and far too many of our people give into the petty smallness, that meanness, that greedy, selfish arrogance. Too many people respond to the basest of emotions and motivations.

They (most people) care not for the greater good, they care only for themselves.This is my experience and observation, anyway.

And how did we, as Americans, get to this point? Ruthless greedy commericialization of our society and everything in it. The ruthless division of our people into an us versus them mentality, and most of us treat politics like a team sport. the Repugnicans play to this.

[HuskiesHowls]

2. Kinda like comparing gold and lead, isn't it???

I remember when Maslow's Heirarchy of Needs (http://web.utk.edu/~gwynne/maslow.HTM)was being discussed in sociology, that Lincoln's name came up. It was felt that he was one of the few men in recent history to have moved up to the top level, self-actualization. Of course, this was LONG before most people had even heard of the Chimperor.

[Yupster]

3. I don't share the author's

high opinion of Lincoln.