William Rees-Mogg: Obama has the courage of a great leader
[William Rees-Mogg has had a distinguished career with The Times and The Sunday Times.]
The great American presidents have emerged from the great challenges. The greatest president of the 20th century was Franklin Roosevelt who had to overcome the challenges of the Great Depression and the Second World War. The greatest president of the 19th century was Abraham Lincoln, who had to meet the challenge of the Civil War. The presidency of Barack Obama will also be shaped by the challenges he faces; he has to overcome the depression that began in 2007. He also has to create a foreign policy that will restore international confidence in the United States.
Mr Obama has taken Roosevelt and Lincoln as his chief role models, and it is the image of Lincoln he has chosen to emphasise as he prepares for his inauguration. The first black president naturally feels kinship with the president who abolished slavery. Mr Obama has formed his Cabinet on Lincoln's principles, appointing the strongest individuals, whether or not they agree with each other and whether or not they have been his rivals for the presidency. Mr Obama is said to have been reading Team of Rivals, an excellent book on Lincoln's choice of colleagues written by the Pulitzer prizewinner Doris Kearns Goodwin.
She quotes the reply that Lincoln gave to a journalist who asked why he had chosen a Cabinet of enemies and opponents. Lincoln said: “We needed the strongest men of the party in the Cabinet. We needed to hold our own people together. I had looked the party over and concluded that they were the very strongest men. Then I had no right to deprive the country of their services.” That surely is the right principle.
There is a comparison to be made between Lincoln's choice of his Secretary of State, William H. Seward, and Mr Obama's choice of Hillary Clinton. Seward in 1860 and Clinton in 2008 had been the leading defeated candidates for their party's nomination. Both had started as the front-runners. Both had deeper roots and greater experience in American politics. Both were people of first-class ability. Both felt disappointed when they lost the nomination to a younger colleague. As Seward put it: “Disappointment! You speak to me of disappointment. To me, who was justly entitled to the Republican nomination for the presidency, and who had to stand aside and see it given to a little Illinois lawyer.” I do not suppose that Mrs Clinton, even at the moment of her greatest disappointment, would have called Mr Obama “a little Illinois lawyer”, but she may well have had similar thoughts.
The appointment of Seward turned out to be one of Lincoln's shrewdest and most important decisions. Seward, though he could be prickly, stayed with Lincoln throughout the agony of the Civil War. On the night of April 14, 1865, Lincoln was assassinated at the Ford Theatre. The conspirators made a simultaneous attempt to assassinate Seward that only narrowly failed.
On Saturday, Mr Obama travelled from Philadelphia, repeating part of the railroad journey that took Lincoln to Washington for his inauguration. In fact Lincoln had the longer journey as he started from Springfield, Illinois, where Senator Obama, with historic sense, began his campaign for the presidency; it took Lincoln 12 days to reach Washington. “He had packed his own trunk,” as Goodwin tells us, “tied it with a rope, and ascribed it simply: ‘A. Lincoln, White House, Washington DC'.” Lincoln was never to return to Springfield.
Today, the President-elect will be putting the final touches to his inaugural address. Like Lincoln and Roosevelt, he is a natural orator of exceptional gifts. His speeches will allow him to persuade the public to support his policies. He has the gifts of eloquence, humour and sympathy; these aspects of eloquence, and particularly humour, appear very strongly in Lincoln's speeches...
Read entire article at Times (UK)
The great American presidents have emerged from the great challenges. The greatest president of the 20th century was Franklin Roosevelt who had to overcome the challenges of the Great Depression and the Second World War. The greatest president of the 19th century was Abraham Lincoln, who had to meet the challenge of the Civil War. The presidency of Barack Obama will also be shaped by the challenges he faces; he has to overcome the depression that began in 2007. He also has to create a foreign policy that will restore international confidence in the United States.
Mr Obama has taken Roosevelt and Lincoln as his chief role models, and it is the image of Lincoln he has chosen to emphasise as he prepares for his inauguration. The first black president naturally feels kinship with the president who abolished slavery. Mr Obama has formed his Cabinet on Lincoln's principles, appointing the strongest individuals, whether or not they agree with each other and whether or not they have been his rivals for the presidency. Mr Obama is said to have been reading Team of Rivals, an excellent book on Lincoln's choice of colleagues written by the Pulitzer prizewinner Doris Kearns Goodwin.
She quotes the reply that Lincoln gave to a journalist who asked why he had chosen a Cabinet of enemies and opponents. Lincoln said: “We needed the strongest men of the party in the Cabinet. We needed to hold our own people together. I had looked the party over and concluded that they were the very strongest men. Then I had no right to deprive the country of their services.” That surely is the right principle.
There is a comparison to be made between Lincoln's choice of his Secretary of State, William H. Seward, and Mr Obama's choice of Hillary Clinton. Seward in 1860 and Clinton in 2008 had been the leading defeated candidates for their party's nomination. Both had started as the front-runners. Both had deeper roots and greater experience in American politics. Both were people of first-class ability. Both felt disappointed when they lost the nomination to a younger colleague. As Seward put it: “Disappointment! You speak to me of disappointment. To me, who was justly entitled to the Republican nomination for the presidency, and who had to stand aside and see it given to a little Illinois lawyer.” I do not suppose that Mrs Clinton, even at the moment of her greatest disappointment, would have called Mr Obama “a little Illinois lawyer”, but she may well have had similar thoughts.
The appointment of Seward turned out to be one of Lincoln's shrewdest and most important decisions. Seward, though he could be prickly, stayed with Lincoln throughout the agony of the Civil War. On the night of April 14, 1865, Lincoln was assassinated at the Ford Theatre. The conspirators made a simultaneous attempt to assassinate Seward that only narrowly failed.
On Saturday, Mr Obama travelled from Philadelphia, repeating part of the railroad journey that took Lincoln to Washington for his inauguration. In fact Lincoln had the longer journey as he started from Springfield, Illinois, where Senator Obama, with historic sense, began his campaign for the presidency; it took Lincoln 12 days to reach Washington. “He had packed his own trunk,” as Goodwin tells us, “tied it with a rope, and ascribed it simply: ‘A. Lincoln, White House, Washington DC'.” Lincoln was never to return to Springfield.
Today, the President-elect will be putting the final touches to his inaugural address. Like Lincoln and Roosevelt, he is a natural orator of exceptional gifts. His speeches will allow him to persuade the public to support his policies. He has the gifts of eloquence, humour and sympathy; these aspects of eloquence, and particularly humour, appear very strongly in Lincoln's speeches...