Oddly, I have heard nothing of it from my American friends, nor does it seem to have got much coverage in the press, but today is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln.
What I like about Lincoln was that he was a far from perfect figure. He seems to me a man of contradictions, and a man of doubts, which is healthy for a politician.
President Obama makes much of comparisons with Lincoln (they both began their politics in Illinois) but he will do well if he comes up with something as good as this:
'.....that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—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.'
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