Opinion
43: I wanna talk about Lincoln, too!
By: Jeff Dufour
Editor at Large/Columnist, "Yeas & Nays"
01/27/09 12:05 AM EST
Honest GeorgeJust because Barack Obama has linked his presidency with that of Abraham Lincoln doesn't mean that he can take ownership over the 19th century president's legacy. Heck, even George W. Bush wants a piece of the action.
The 43rd president -- and not Obama -- pens a tribute essay in "In Lincoln's Hand," a new collection of the Great Emancipator's manuscripts. "From the beginning, Lincoln understood that the outcome of America's Civil War would reverberate far beyond America's borders," writes Bush in reaction to Lincoln's message to Congress in July 1861. "And as slaves claimed their God-given right to freedom, America would grow into the more perfect union that Lincoln had always envisioned."
Paying tribute to Lincoln isn't just for politicians, however. Late night comedian Conan O'Brien also pens an essay in the book, calling Lincoln "a great comic writer of his time. ... And he was doing this in the 1860s, at a time when people tended to take forever to get to the point and took themselves very seriously. Not only that, but he wrote his own material. Who does that anymore?"
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