bhkad

I believe someone has already summed up Lincoln's experience and deemed it roughly equivalent to Obama's.

I just ran across the WikiAnswer which seems to have inspired our poster.

WikiAnswers are the least accurate way of getting good solid answers I know of.

Lincoln ran for office at 23.

He was captain of a company of Illinois militia.

He ran a store.

Navigated a flatboat accompanied by friends, carrying some kind of goods from New Salem, Illinois to New Orleans.

He was elected to the state legislature "and, after coming across the Commentaries on the Laws of England, began to teach himself law. He was admitted to the bar and began to practice law and became one of the most respected and successful lawyers in Illinois and grew steadily more prosperous.

He served four successive terms in the Illinois House of Representatives"

He faced adversity in the legislature for some of his positions, an important ingredient in building character.

In a 23 year legal career he was involved in more than 5100 cases, several of them quite notable and he and his partners appeared before the Illinois State Supreme Court more than 400 times.

In helping to form the Republican Party at the 1856 Republican Convention he was their Vice Presidential candidate.

Abraham Lincoln - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Abraham Lincoln - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

JFK enlisted in 1941, before the Pearl Harbor attack and was a decorated PT boat skipper in WWII.


I ran across this and thought it was cute.

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OBL 11/24/02

bhkad

Ask Not! Why Obama is No JFK - Widmer

Continued at the link.

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OBL 11/24/02

MC.no.spin

You're naive to think he can unite this country and "get us on the same page again." His stance on oil drilling, nuclear energy, capital gains tax, abortion, Iraq, etc. will always create a divide. This is, unfortunately, irreparable regardless of who is put in office. There will always be a divide.

To say we are "stalled" as a country is ludicrous.

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The heart of human intelligence is pattern recognition ~ Ray Kurzweill

shuamort

You really nailed it on the head. There's no way that one candidate is going to be able to please everybody and the divide is going to be one huge game of red rover, red rover.

partier9

Your are right on with that along with MC no spin. The only people Obama can unite are the people who agree with him on the issues. Him trying to unite the country is pretty much impossible. Now he can unite the country maybe on the ideas that we need to help the middle class and become energy independent. But he could never unite the country on how to accomplish those things the country is to divided.

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If I had a billion dollars?

MC.no.spin

Good analogy. The only times in history our country has been united is when we have been under attack or after we've won a war. Ironically, President Bush holds the record for highest favorability since 1937 for all U.S. presidents - after 9/11, a whopping 92 %.

Highest approval rating

George W. Bush holds the record with 92% (10/8-9/2001 -- after the September 11 attacks).
George H.W. Bush is second highest, with 89% (2/28/-3/3/1991 -- after the Gulf War).
Harry S. Truman is third highest, with 87% (6/1-5/1945 -- after the End of World War II in Europe).
Franklin D. Roosevelt is fourth highest, with 84% (1/8-13/1942 -- after the Attack on Pearl Harbor).

United States Presidential approval rating - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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The heart of human intelligence is pattern recognition ~ Ray Kurzweill

PeteEU

Yea but he also holds the lowest ever.

Nations tend to band together (like tribes) when under threat, so its not a shocker. Look at history for many countries and you will see high popularity politicians are mostly around times of conflict, and once that conflict is over or things change for the worse, then that popularity goes down the drain. Churchill is a classic example... the war was not even over before the Brits kicked him out, but I doubt he would have lost the vote a year earlier.

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PeteEU

the makeout hobo

You think lies and slander, calling someone a traitor, is cute? You're disgusting.

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The Makeout Hobo is real, and does indeed travel around the country in his van and make out with ladies... If you meet the Makeout Hobo, it is customary to greet him with a shot of whiskey and a high five (if you are a dude) or passionate makeouts (if you are a lady).

Lerxst

The invasion of Iraq and abysmal fiscal abortion that followed.

Next?

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Step into my office....

bhkad

If it's true it's cute. If it's not true then it merely reaches the same level of B.S. that the usual anti-Bush, anti-America, anti-Right posters come up with on their best days.

I'm going to paint a picture just from my imaginings.

Barack Obama may well be trying to create a global empire the same way he won power in the hard knocks, rough and tumble world of local Chicago politics.

You pay off who you can. You sweet talk who you can. You use the law if you can.

He was a community organizer who did what? He got things done to help the living conditions of the poor. And he did it with charm and smarts but he also went to college and became an attorney and learned how to do it with the law. And that got the notice of people who wanted this bright young man to succeed but who also knew this bright young man had certain needs and wants and if they could scratch his back and he scratched their backs then everyone would be happy.

But Barack Obama may never have thought he was going to become a presidential candidate. At least not until after he'd made the acquaintance of some pretty unsavory people. People who were helpful and useful to a young man on his way up but not yet there. People who knew that they could 'invest' in this bright young man and some day he might be able to do them a favor.

And he became a magnet for lots of people on the fringes of society and some who were on the fringes of respectability and others who were on the fringes of the law. But because they all had something different to offer him he was able to tolerate or rationalize their associations. Hell, he may have even enjoyed walking on the wild side of life. Being the "Good Boy" but hanging with the "Bad Boys" and using his charm and smarts and legal skills to do what those others had to use muscle or money, sometimes gained outside of legal avenues, to achieve.

And in working with poor people, people who were eternally grateful for what he did for them, his wife says something in a US News and World Report article that sounds like the typical modesty when describing the rewards of working with those needing help:

Defining their mutual interests.

There is always an eye and an ear open to his own interest. And as much as we might want to hold in our mind's eye the image of the young, hard working, earnest and selfless community assistance worker, we also know that he is very ambitious and thinks a great deal of himself, to the point where some think he has an overly inflated view of himself.

Krauthammer:

Did you happen to see the seal he was going to use for his campaign?

Krauthammer:



The design theme gives us some insight into the man.

Do the mental images of the selfless young man and the ambitious calculating politician clash in your mind?

Well, think for a few moments of how those two themes might manifest themselves in a president of the united states. Someone who was used to helping the poor by helping them get services and even government funding and teaching the people how to organize. And someone who is so ambitious and full of himself that Krauthammer concludes:

And that larger canvas?

THE WORLD.

He plans to give $845 Billion of your tax dollars to the UN (ceding some US sovereignty to the United Nations as well) in hopes of organizing the world under his rule.


$845 Billion Dollar Obama Bill at Sunflower Desert

But this is just from my imaginings.

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OBL 11/24/02