Bloomberg.com: Is Obama overdoing the Obama=Lincoln thing?: "“Everyone wants to be Lincoln,” says Harold Holzer, who has written or edited more than 20 books on Lincoln and the Civil War. “Is Obama overdoing it? Maybe.”"
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None of these academics dares to be perceived as criticizing The One. Let me wade right in. Is Obama overdoing it? Hell, yes.
The choo-choo train whistle-stop tour is the point where he jumped the shark. If he starts wearing a stovepipe hat I'm moving to Canada.
3 comments:
Maybe hype will cure what ails us.
I'm on record as opposing the hype. A friend of mine, though, interprets the hype as tribute. The last pres. from IL was Lincoln, so the next pres from IL evokes Lincoln. I guess I can see that, but I still think it's too much.
There is no shortage of Obamapologists who put a positive spin on everything he does. The point stands. And this may backfire. He is raising people's expectations to the stratosphere with symbolism, while at the same time, with much of his rhetoric since the election, he has tried to lower expectations. In my experience, pictures and feelings tend to shape public perceptions more than words and ideas, when they conflict.
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