A friend of mine recently selected Abraham Lincoln as the worst American president in that Top 5 category on Facebook.  That’s a selection that would be jarring to the majority of Americans.

As we near the first 100 days of the current president from Illinois (which 100 days The Onion is humorously documenting), the comparison of Obama to Lincoln, which has been made many times, might need to be met not only with a dose of reality about the consequences of current policy, but with a more sobering look at Lincoln himself.

Front Porch Republic has a well-balanced article on Lincoln that would be a good intro to the not-so-shiny perspective on Lincoln.  An excerpt:

The Northern victory, which Lincoln secured by resorting to total war against southern civilians, unleashed a devastating assault on a Jeffersonian version of agrarianism that connected happiness and human well being to real communities and real places. Liberty, as defined in terms of “improvement” and “mobility,” has resulted in a rootless cosmopolitanism that has produced millions of people who claim to “love humankind,” but who do not live in one place long enough to know, let alone “love,” their neighbor. Moreover, the national infrastructure built to connect people and unify the nation economically and culturally has come at the expense of the environment. The result of a “Whig” economy has produced an ever-expanding commercialism that tempts people with products to fulfill their every desire, all in the very American quest to “pursue happiness.” Such consumer capitalism makes it all the more difficult for Americans to practice virtues of self-restraint. (emphasis added)

On a related note, all this talk of secession lately brought about an interesting and accurate response from Ron Paul: