Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Legal Commentary Blogs -> Discriminations

Legal Commentary

: Discriminations

Abraham Obama

At the Democratic Convention Al Gore, never given to understatement, compared Obama to Abraham Lincoln.

Gore praised Obama as a great orator with the power to inspire others, and suggested he shared the finest characteristics of another Illinois politician now generally considered to be America?s greatest president.

Gore also used Lincoln to take on Republican criticism that Obama, who has served just four years in the Senate, is too inexperienced to be president.

Lincoln?s experience ?consisted of eight years in the state legislature and one term in Congress,? Gore said. When Lincoln ran for president, he was known ? much like Obama ? as a clear thinker and great orator.? He said both had the ability to incite passion in others, and that like Obama, Lincoln opposed a popular foreign war ? the U.S.-Mexico War.

You will not be surprised to hear that I think comparisons of Obama to Lincoln are considerably overblown ? Lincoln, after all, was actually from Illinois, and did I mention that Obama is black?

But the fact that a major party nominating a black candidate for president is noteworthy, combined with my view that Obama?s acceptance speech itself was not one of his best and will not prove to be memorable, does suggest to me that the most apt characterization of the combination of the convention/nomination and the acceptance speech comes from one line in the Gettysburg Address:

The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.

Full post as published by Discriminations on August 30, 2008 (boomark / email).