Marathon Pundit: Obama lied: He has compared himself to Lincoln

Sunday, December 30, 2012

Obama lied: He has compared himself to Lincoln

Lincoln statue, Dixon, IL

The first bit comes from the Weekly Standard. When asked by NBC's David Gregory about the movie Lincoln and the 16th president's working-over of Republicans and Democrats to pass the 13th Amendment, President Obama responded this way, the Weekly Standard tells us:

"Well, no," Obama said in response to Gregory's question. "Look, a) I never compare myself to Lincoln. And b) obviously the magnitude of the issues is quite different from the Civil War and slavery. The point, though, is democracy has always been messy. We're a big diverse country that is constantly sort of arguing about all kinds of stuff. But eventually, we do the right thing."

Now from the Wall Street Journal's Peggy Noonan seven years ago:

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."

And then there is this, courtesy of Wizbang:

"When you listen to what the Federalists said about the Anti-Federalists, and the names that Jefferson called Hamilton and back and forth — I mean those guys were tough,” Obama said. "Lincoln — they used to talk about him almost as bad as they talk about me. So democracy has never been for the faint of heart."

Obama uttered that valentine to himself last year on his taxpayer-funded campaign-style bus tour of the Upper Midwest last year.