In Which We Are Reminded The Real Meaning of Country First
The important thing is for the American project to go on:
Today is September 24. On this day in 1864, Abraham Lincoln presided over a country at war with itself and a party split to its roots over the question of how to plan for the nation’s reconstruction—to such an extent that on this day, Lincoln reluctantly accepted the resignation of Montgomery Blair, his Postmaster General and a valued advisor, owing to disputes over plans for Reconstruction.
Yet the campaign for the presidency was “now being prosecuted with the utmost vigor,” as one could read in the New York Times.
Read the whole thing (plus some additions) to see how past aspirants to the Presidency managed to govern and to present themselves to the American people to interview for the job.
This morning, John McCain spoke at the Clinton Global Initiative Forum while Congress is hammering out its deal now. Why does the campaign need to stop again?
UPDATE: Apparently the campaign hasn’t stopped. Senior McCain economic talking head still surrogating on Fox and Palin is campaigning at Ground Zero today.
Tags: Bush's Fubar Economy
This is so true. McCain is just trying to reshuffle the deck. McCain’s campaign is just a series of parlor tricks.
Ah, the smell of desperation. McCain is desperately trying for a win-win.
1st win: Look Presidential
2nd win: Get out of the debate(s)
Now that Congress hammered out the deal without him… what does that say about McCain?
The word superfluous comes to mind.
When you do a political stunt, at least try to look like you’re not. Also, it looks like they reached their bailout agreement before McCain came to save the day.
The critcism of McCain is valid; the use of Lincoln as an example is only an example of the article writer’s superficial understanding of government function and electoral politics in the 19th Century. By September 24, 1864, the Presidential campaign was to all intents and purposes over. If it had not been decided on September 2 with the capture of Atlanta, or September 4 when the Democrats saddled George McClellan with a ridiculous “surrender” platform, it ended at Cedar Creek in the Shenandoah Valley on September 18-19.
Newspapers played a different role in those days, and if one were to look, as a scholar, at all the ways in which Lincoln and his opponents put politics ahead of country in that race it would make our current crop of candidates look ethical.
It was a different time; there were completely different standards. But if you do want to make the comparison, the unofficial Democratic slogan in 1864 was: “The Constitution as it is, the N***er as he was.”
[Sorry, the historian in me couldn’t let it pass without some longwinded comment.]
By the way, McCain spoke at the Global Initiatives Forum in an obvious quid pro quo for Bill Clinton trashing both Obama’s position on the debates and the Democrats on regulatory reform on the morning talk shows.
I forget, Steve; which candidate was it that brought up Willie Horton in the Lincoln-Douglass debate?
I just read on kos that McCain has tried to get out of debates before. Apparently he did it with Bush in California in 2000 (he was down in polls there too).
I bet he runs out of the White House claiming victory and watch Bush back him up