Memo to Barack Obama: What Would Lincoln Do? What Would FDR Do?

[David Zephyr]

President Obama, you have spoken many times how much you admire Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt, but I ask you this:

Now that you have your party in firm control of both houses in Congress, now that you hold the highest position among all of our citizens, after you promised that you would deliver a government option -- not a corporate co-op -- to us, what will you do? What would Lincoln have done? What would Roosevelt have done?

Ask yourself that, President Obama.

You have a chance to do the right thing for the American people, perhaps the only chance we'll have for a generation.

Show us that you are the leader that we have so hoped you would be.

Show us that you have the spine that we believed you had.

Show us that you, like Lincoln and Roosevelt, can buck up and push back and stand firmly for what you know is right, what you know American women, men and children need today, what you promised us that you would do when you became President.

Your own words, Mr. President: You told us that you would not sign a bill that did not have a government option. Will you hold to that, President Obama? Will you resist the corporate, so-called "co-op"? Can you veto a bill that doesn't include the government option? Can you tell your own party that you will veto such a bill?

As you walk through the residence where John and Abigail Adams and Thomas Jefferson and James Madison lived, where John and Jackie Kennedy lived, where Franklin and Abraham lived, I hope you remember us, the American People who believed in you.

We are counting on you, President Obama. Show us the audacity of hope. And show us leadership. You'll never have this chance again. You are coming to a historic fork in the road. Take the high road.

Because that's the road that Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt would take. Take the high road.

[Horse with no Name]

1. "take the high road"

MANY Americans are depending on you. Nice OP.

[David Zephyr]

5. I want to believe he's going to do the right thing.

Thanks.

[Horse with no Name]

6. Me too

but I am low on hope these days.:(

[madrchsod]

2. .ya have to throw lbj in the mix.

obama is a child compared to lbj.....

[Captain Hilts]

4. EVERYONE's a minor leaguer compared to LBJ...

[Captain Hilts]

3. Sometimes, you have to lower a shoulder...

FDR: And play rough.
ER: But remember to smile when you do so...

[David Zephyr]

8. Great photo. Thanks for sharing it.

What a couple! Thanks for their words, too.

I hope everyone at the DU can make a way to visit the FDR Library, Residence and Eleanor's Cottage along the Hudson.

Great photo! They made history.

[Captain Hilts]

9. Yes. By any standard, they're tops. For both...

being in the White House was the 'easy' part of their lives.... And it was.

They were tough.

I once got the VIP tour of ER's closets and bathrooms! I could see the top of my head in the bathroom mirror!

[MarjorieG]

7. Financial regulation, climate change, all important, and we have lobbyists not around then.

They did not have the corp-conservative backlash, 24/7, so I'd say different. Every talking head, bit of media, also not for change, Obama's success, and it doesn't help this is complicated to understand and sell. Single-Payer was always DOA, but simple.

[Horse with no Name]

13. Those are all beltway folks

People outside the beltway are the ones he needs to worry about.
You know, the quiet ones who make their decisions in a voting booth.

[timeforpeace]

10. With the way he's got the deck stacked in the House and Senate, he'll get it done.

[Tim01]

11. Lincoln promised to kill or remove every Indian from the state and provide Minnesota with 2 million

dollars in federal funds.

He admires Lincoln?

"Similar atrocities occurred all through the Lincoln Administration."

"When Lincoln outright refused to pay the owed money, remember he had a war to finance the Indians revolted."

"So, on December 26, 1862, the Great Emancipator ordered the largest mass execution in American History, where the guilt of those to be executed was entirely in doubt. Regardless of how Lincoln defenders seek to play this, it was nothing more than murder to obtain the land of the Santee Sioux and to appease his political cronies in Minnesota."


"Lincoln's western armies, using the tactics of murder, rape, burning and pillaging, simultaneously being used against Southern noncombatants by the eastern armies, turned their attention to the Navajos."


http://www.unitednativeamerica.com/issues/lincoln.html

[glitch]

14. Thanks for posting. Did not know this about Lincoln. nt

[Tim01]

16. I didn't either untill somebody told me.

I certainly never learned this in school.

I've seen photos of letters he wrote in his own handwriting, it's all true.

The info is all available, it just isn't what is taught.

[glitch]

18. :( nt

[dflprincess]

15. Actually, there were orignally 303 Dakota men scheduled to be exeuted. Lincoln pardoned 265 of them

Even with the 38 remaining victims, it was still the largest mass hanging in U.S. history.

There is an excellent chapter ("Little Crow's War" if I remember correctly) on this in Dee Brown's "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee".

[Tim01]

17. He was afraid foreigh nations would join with south if the north hung 303 "indians",

He was probably right.

The trial for each "indian" lasted about 10 minutes.

[Toasterlad]

12. I Know TRUMAN Signed An Executive Order Integrating the Military.

Obama definitely doesn't have TRUMAN'S balls.

[Captain Hilts]

19. And FDR had already started integrating the military, he just didn't announce it. nt

[David Zephyr]

21. That is actually correct. Thanks for posting that.

:thumbsup:

[Hannah Bell]

20. dunno about FDR, but his grandson would get a million dollar health insurance mgt job.