Presidents Lincoln and Obama

[sheshe2]

Make sure you read Lincoln Lesson #3.....include the last Paragraph!

He suggests that Lincoln Lesson One might be: Make your enemies into friends.

Bray notes that Lincoln had an enormous talent for turning around even his fiercest opponents. "He was able to keep his eye on the prize," Bray says, "which means he was able to disassociate himself from personal attacks." No matter how cruelly his foes savaged him, Lincoln repeatedly rose above the fray, using humor and warmth to disarm his enemies and refocus everyone on the agenda at hand.

Instances of his temper showing, Bray notes, were rare.

Lincoln Lesson Two: Be firm, but play nice. Lincoln was no pushover. Despite his legendarily laconic style, Bray says Lincoln had a single-minded ability to steadily exert political pressure on others, inexorably pushing them toward the action he wanted, or rather he felt the nation needed. And yet, he did so in a way that left others feeling unthreatened. "He could talk without anger," Bray says. "He could talk without heat to his political opponents."

Lincoln Lesson Three: Take the long view. Lincoln clearly saw the future in a way that many of his contemporaries could not. He imagined not merely the end of slavery, but also the repercussions that would follow for freed African Americans, southern citizens, and northerners as well. He knew resolution might take many years, and yet he tried to point the politics of the day in the proper direction. "He believed firmly, I think, that if we put our heads to it and we put our wills to it, the American people could be that shining example of equality for the world," Bray says.
Color me a bit confused by this advice. Because those three things seem to describe President Obama to a tee...already. As a matter of fact, they are the very things I have been trying to highlight about him for years. They are also the things some on the left has been criticizing him for since the 2008 primaries.


http://immasmartypants.blogspot.com/2012/11/presidents-lincoln-and-obama.html

[graham4anything]

1. Lincoln-FDR-LBJ-Obama...the four best, all four 9 steps ahead to the betterment of mankind

[satxdem]

2. Agree completely

[sheshe2]

5. Welcome to DU!

[url=http://postimage.org/][img][/img][/url]
[url=http://postimage.org/]picture hosting[/url]

[satxdem]

7. thank you!

Love that pic of him!

[sheshe2]

12. That was of him returnig to the White House during Sandy!

The picture was awesome!

[cleduc]

3. I think Obama has been trying to do all three.

#2 (Firm but nice) & #3 (the long view) are in his control and that's largely been his style and approach.

#1 he tried pretty hard. He went to meet with them at their conference. He invited them to the White House. He named a number of Republicans and Hillary to his cabinet (Gregg reneged).

For #1 to work, it takes two. When the GOP met during the inauguration to plot on not cooperating, etc. It was pretty much doomed. And he's tried in policy:
- Obamacare was a GOP devised approach
- the Dream Act was written and sponsored by GOP legislators
- GOP congressmen & Senators who tried to compromise got primaried

[flamingdem]

4. Repukes will only make friends when they're down on their knees

bleeding and screaming for help.

[sheshe2]

6. I kinda think this would be the time

for them to bend a knee! Just saying!

[flamingdem]

8. At least one knee, like asking for marriage

I hope they are spurned since I doubt their proposals will be very tasteful..

[sheshe2]

11. And they probably bought the engagement ring at Wal Mart!

Losers...........

[lillianyang]

9. Spam deleted by Kali (MIR Team)

[Canuckistanian]

10. Those traits describe LBJ as well

Although LBJ sometimes used his considerable social skills as a battering ram.

I think Obama should follow in his footsteps.