Abarack Lincoln

I'm in the middle of reading "Abraham Lincoln - Great American Historians on our Sixteenth President" edited by Brian Lamb and Susan Swan. It is a collection of essays and edited transcripts from many Lincoln experts enthusiasts covered by CSPAN. Although at this point I am only one-third of the way through the book, I am struck by the similarities between President-elect Obama and Lincoln.

Much has been made in the press about their both being from Illinois, and both having been elected after serving just one term as senators. I was surprised to learn that Lincoln, like Obama, embraced his political rivals and brought them in to his cabinet. For example, in an almost eerie parallel, Lincoln appointed William Seward as his secretary of state after defeating him for his party's presidential nomination, mirroring Obama's appointment of once-rival Hillary Clinton to the same post.

As Obama has stated that he wants his cabinet to contain people of different opinions, Lincoln also appointed people to his cabinet of opposing ideologies and sometimes obvious antagonisms. For example, Salmon Chase was appointed by Lincoln to be Secretary of the Treasury. Chase was very ambitious and spent his time in Washington running against Lincoln while treasury secretary. Did Lincoln cut him off? No, he later appointed him Chief Justice of the United States.
Lincoln preferred to embrace his enemies and use the diversity of their ideas and their inevitable disagreements as a source of strength. He surely had a much more difficult job in reigning in the egos and enduring the table-thumping arguments, but he believed the ideas that were forged from that hot furnace were indeed strong stuff, much more than would result from a room of yes-men.

I can't say if Obama is simply taking a page from Lincoln's playbook, or if he learned to value this style from his own experience, but I hope he is successful. He has publicly stated that he has studied Lincoln. I was and I guess perhaps am still, concerned about Hillary Clinton's nomination as Secretary of State, given her strong incentive to use the position to her own advantage (and Obama's disadvantage) should she seek to run for president again. However, it may prove to be a great way of uniting the moderate Clinton-ite section of the Democratic party with Obama's more progressive faction. Time will tell.

Our own insecurities and worries have caused us to look for a savior in Obama. He is only human, however, and will surely make mistakes. I do take heart, though, in that he is following either by design or coincidence, some good historical examples. From that saying that those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it, it certainly is wise to repeat those things which are time-proven to work.