Obama and Lincoln

For a while there were stories floating around that Barack Obama has had as much experience as John Kennedy did before he was President, which would only be true if you ignore virtually all of Kennedy’s years in Congress. This time they might have found an example thanks to Rich Miller:

The experience issue is less of a problem for me. Abraham Lincoln’s sole governmental experience was eight years in the Illinois House and just two years in Congress, yet he was one of our greatest presidents. Besides, more “experience” wallowing through the disgusting cesspool that is Washington may only hurt Obama, not help him.

According to Tom Schwartz, the Illinois state historian, 19th century voters didn’t view politics as a profession, so they didn’t expect presidential candidates like Lincoln to have extensive political experience. The issue never came up in the 1860 campaign, Schwartz said.

Miller also quotes Schwartz as arguing that the two aren’t only comparable in experience:

”What Lincoln brought to the presidency, which was very much needed at the time . . . [was] a very fine ear for listening to the public’s concerns and then being able to articulate responses that created consensus that was able to move the country forward in positive ways,” Schwartz said. Schwartz then said that he saw a direct comparison to Obama’s calls for unity and the way Obama had sparked so much interest from people who normally don’t care for politics.

Obama is definately sparking interest, for now at least. A little more experience wouldn’t hurt either in the 21st century.

Posted in Barack Obama, Op-eds. Tags: . 2 Comments »

SciFi Friday

Heroes, which leads the ratings among SF shows, has joined shows such as Lost and Jericho to go on a hiatus after a cliff hanger. Poor Milo Ventimiglia. After playing the bad kid on Gilmore Girls and American Dreams, it looked like he was going to be a clear cut good guy as a hospice nurse. Then Peter Petreli was temporarily arrested after the attacks on the cheerleaders, and then we learn he has a quite explosive fate.

When Lost returns it will be moved to 10:00 to keep it from getting lost in the ratings against American Idol. Daybreak is to be moved due to low ratings, but hopefully the remainder of the series will be shown at some other time. One reason I decided to watch was the assurances that there was going to be a resolution of the mystery after thirteen episodes, while who knows if shows like Lost will ever have a rational resolution.
Normally I’d probably overlook a miniseries such as this on the SciFi Channel, but The Lost Room does star Peter Krause (Six Feet Under and Sports Night). Sci Fi Wire has some information on the show.

TrekToday reports that G4 is will be broadcasting Star Trek: The Next Generation in January in the same manner they handled Star Trek, including every bit of trivia they can think of. This includes the Picard Maneuver:

Among the statistics that will be calculated for the series are the “Picard Maneuver” — in which crewmembers tug their uniforms to straighten them — and “Data Saves the Day.” A few original series stocks will carry over to The Next Generation‘s Spock Market, including communicators and transporters, but many new ones will be introduced, including most of the major characters and the Borg Collective.

Boston Legal has had yet another former actor for Star Trek. This week Allan Shore faced opposing council played by Michelle Forbes (Ro Laren). Alan defended a right wing racist couple from a paternity suit over their twins, modeled white nationalist singers Lamb and Lynx Gaede. It was another episode in which they have Allen defending some aspects of conservativism for variety from his usual cases. In this case it was simple. No matter how vile the songs the twins were singing, and how vile the information they were being taught at home, there was still no justification for anyone else to seek custody. The writers didn’t seem to think that this was enough for Allan to fight for so they threw in the national security argument which was totally superfluous to the real issue here. It would have better to save Allen’s objection to the over-use of national security for another case. Another case on this week’s Boston Legal acted to glorify frivolous suits. A widow wants to sue God because her husband was hit by lightening while talking on a cell phone. They wound up hitting up the cell phone company, which paid off to keep the case out of court.

Lindsay Lohan Seeks Assistance From Gore, Clinton, and Obama

A post a couple of weeks ago led from the antics of the Bush twins in Argentina to the antics of Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, and Lindsay Lohan in the United States. We’ve now come full circle as reporting on the antics of Lindsay Lohan now involves three of the top contenders for the 2008 Democratic nomination.

TMZ has a rather bizarre story on Lindsay Lohan appealing to Al Gore, Hillary Clinton, and finally Barack Obama for help in fighting the media and cleaning up her image. All three declined, leading TMZ to accuse Obama of wimping out: “Barack, we thought you weren’t afraid to confront the tough issues!”

Of course if they read Liberal Values they might offer Lindsay a bit of advice from yesterday’s Quote of the Day. That new line of underwear from Victoria’s Secret could do wonders for the reputations of those who have been going out in public without any.