Obama-Lincoln

President-elect Barack Obama, who in 9 days will swear in as the 44th President of the United States, paid a visit to the Lincoln Memorial with his family yesterday.

On January 20th, Obama will take the oath on Lincoln’s personal bible. He is the first president elect to use Lincoln’s bible, since Lincoln himself in 1861. Obama’s inaugural theme is a “New Birth of Freedom” this inspired by Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address “that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth” in 1863. The Obama’s , along with secret service spent about a half hour at the museum, before returning to their hotel.

President-Elect Obama plans to take a train trip from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Washington DC; three days before the inauguration, this was the last route Lincoln took before becoming president.

Obama and Lincoln have been compared to each other in many ways, one very important issue is war. Lincoln took office as the civil war was taking place and Obama with Iraq. Obama constantly mentions Lincoln in his speeches and praised him for being one of the greatest presidents of the United States. Obama, when asked by CBS’s Katie Couric, other than the bible, what book will you swear in on? He responded “Doris Kern Goodwin’s “Team of Rivals”. But we must remember one thing, Lincoln, the first republican to hold the office of President, successfully led the country through its greatest internal crisis, the American Civil War, preserving the Union and ending slavery. I get that Obama is the next new thing, like Lincoln was, but Obama needs to think very carefully about the war in Iraq because it is nothing like the Civil War. And although there a similarities between President Lincoln and himself, we must remember he is not Abraham Lincoln.

When inaugurated on January 20th, Obama will honor the 16th President as he will swear in on a platform that looks west onto the Lincoln Memorial.