Springfield of course was the hometown of Abraham Lincoln, and it's also where Obama served for eight years as an Illinois state senator--so a Springfield launching pad makes sense.
But the last time Obama gave a major speech in Springfield, it later blew up in his face.
My recent reading of Barack Obama's The Audacity of Hope,
reminded me of this story.In 2005, Obama gave a five minute speech at the grand opening of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library. Later that year, Obama, with a few revisions, submitted that speech to Time Magazine to be used as an article for a special issue on Lincoln.
That caught the eye of former Reagan speechwriter and Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan, who wrote:
This week comes the previously careful Sen. Barack Obama, flapping his wings in Time magazine and explaining that he's a lot like Abraham Lincoln, only sort of better. "In Lincoln's rise from poverty, his ultimate mastery of language and law, his capacity to overcome personal loss and remain determined in the face of repeated defeat--in all this he reminded me not just of my own struggles."
Oh. So that's what Lincoln's for. Actually Lincoln's life is a lot like Mr. Obama's. Lincoln came from a lean-to in the backwoods. His mother died when he was 9. The Lincolns had no money, no standing. Lincoln educated himself, reading law on his own, working as a field hand, a store clerk and a raft hand on the Mississippi. He also split some rails. He entered politics, knew more defeat than victory, and went on to lead the nation through its greatest trauma, the Civil War, and past its greatest sin, slavery.
Barack Obama, the son of two University of Hawaii students, went to Columbia and Harvard Law after attending a private academy that taught the children of the Hawaiian royal family. He made his name in politics as an aggressive Chicago vote hustler in Bill Clinton's first campaign for the presidency.
More..
There is nothing wrong with Barack Obama's résumé, but it is a log-cabin-free zone. So far it also is a greatness-free zone. If he keeps talking about himself like this it always will be.
"Ouch!" was Obama's reply in his book.
Related posts:
Thirty hours in Lincoln's Springfield, Illinois
The Old State Capitol Building in Springfield
Technorati tags: Illinois Lincoln Springfield Abraham Lincoln Obama Barack Obama politics 2008 elections Democrats
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