Discussing her much talked-about memoir “Hard Choices” at a book event in Chicago, Hillary Clinton spoke about the beginning of her term as Secretary of State, likening the experience working alongside President Obama to the Lincoln-themed phrase “team of rivals.”
So far, so good. She then went on to compare the two of them, “a senator from Illinois and a senator from New York,” to two other historical senators from the same states, Abraham Lincoln and William Seward.
The only trouble? Abraham Lincoln was never a senator. Go back and read your history books. The conclusion of the Lincoln-Douglas debates was Lincoln’s defeat in the 1858 Senate election. The only time he served in Congress, he was a member of the House.
But who is to let a few key details of state and national history stand in the way of a sweeping, grandiose parallel? As she said, it was “way, way back.” Watch it for yourself here:
