Lincoln supported Obama in the last election. No way are they going to name him.

Its all about Norquist's - Ronald Reagan legacy project...and the never ending quest to rewrite modern history with a very favorable class war bent.....

That's because Pres. Lincoln would be a Democrat if he were alive today...and they know it.

Lincoln supported Obama in the last election. No way are they going to name him.

Exactly.
Obama became Lincoln (when he wasn't being Kennedy) in this election cycle. Remember Al Gore's convention speech? The team of rivals?
Due to the transitive property, Republicans for the time being must avoid praising Lincoln.

Lincoln never cut the top marginal income tax rate...

Hell, Teddy Roosevelt was a better President (and a better Republican) than nap-a-day Reagan.

Lincoln was a great president, perhaps the greatest. And yet there's not much about his presidency that's particularly relevant to today's circumstances. Obama is looking to FDR and LBJ for policy inspiration, not Lincoln.

Actually there are some great parallels with the political compromising and manoeuvering that Lincoln did, with incredible patience and stoicism, and as a masterful politician. His every appointment and political action was finely tuned to optimizing resources and allies in the cause of saving the Union.

Sometimes he had to sit down with the devil in order to gain the greater good.

Lincoln was hated and vilified by many for a long time - Limbaugh types paid for hire were common in the newspapers and propaganda events created by business and slavers.

Slowly he gained conversion in the loyalities of many, many hardened hearts, as the nation and world began to see, over the years, that he was incrementally winning, in a task that was becoming visible through Lincoln's very effort as a goal that had been practically impossible to be attained.

Carl Sandburg's biography of Lincoln during the Civil War years is a joyous read, because Sandburg's writing is so good, and because the story itself is both so triumphant and sorrowful.

I do see parallels with Obama.

Lincoln rather extravagantly refrained from appealing to Southern white racists; as a result, the modern Republican Party revoked his membership.

It's almost as if they think naming him will offend certain elements of their coalition.

It's almost as if they were southern Democrats and not Republicans at all, despite the label.

max
['Ya know?']

Modern Republicans rightly dismiss Lincoln for the way he unilaterally suspended habeas corpus.

It's worth noting that the Republicans haven't completely abandoned Lincoln. How many times have we heard the right defend the Republican Party by saying things like "C'mon, the GOP isn't racist, we're talking about the party of Lincoln here..."? It's a completely asinine argument, of course, but I still hear it all the time.

What about Eisenhower? I like Ike, dammit!

The party of who?

Lincoln would be a Democrat today. . . The Republican Party of today is Southern and 99.9% white. . . If they thought they could get it passed, the GOP would write laws reinstating the poll tax, debtor's prisons and - yes - Slavery.

@mds

Yes, because they've been so high-minded about the role of the executive these last 8 years. Any other bad faith arguments you'd like to make?

Abraham Lincoln: a tall, gangly Illinois trial lawyer with a relatively brief record of holding office who became nationally distinguished by opposing a popular war of choice and, as president, was racially polarizing and did more to diminish states' rights than any other. Yeah, it sure is a mystery why Republicans never, ever* talk about him.

Re: Lincoln-Obama comparisons, of course any president has at least a few things in common with any other, but I actually do think Lincoln is the former president Obama is most similar to. I've seen comparisons to JFK, FDR and Reagan, but those are mostly based on the family's appearance, wishful thinking and good speaking, respectively. Those seem more superficial to me than biography, career trajectory, public reaction to them, etc.

* Except of course to say "but we're not racist."

@ JoePo: I thought he was being sarcastic. It's so hard to tell.

Oh come on, this one is easy.

The Republicans are now mostly Southerners.

Lincoln was the dude in charge of the side that whipped their arses.

Of course they don't think that fondly of him.

As mkd notes, Lincoln is still important to modern Republicans as a defense against the charge of racism. They necessarily ignore the political realignment that's occurred over the past century, but for historically ignorant wingnuts, that's quite easy.

Lincoln's Republicanism is close to complete expiration. What used to be the most reliably Republican state - Vermont - symbolized it best. Now it's one of the most reliably Democratic states, and abolitionist New England is the nation's most Democratic region today.

Modern Republicans ignoring Lincoln, preferring to stay firmly ensconced far inside Reagan's sick rectum? Nothing particularly noteworthy there. "How many guns does everyone own?" Jebus.

This post brings to mind the presidential campaign of Gary Bauer a few cycles ago. He sought the GOP nomination primarily by including in his speeches and debate appearances, as many times as possible, the phrase "the party of Lincoln and Reagan." He might as well have stood before Republican voters and said, "I base my candidacy on cognitive dissonance."

The modern Republican Party didn't start until Goldwater so there is not much to choose from. Nixon was further left domestically than a fair amount of today's Senate Dems (Republicans don't see Watergate as that big a deal) Reagan, Bush the Elder and Bush the Lesser.

Ezra,

As usual you miss the mark. Lincoln was not really a great President, but rather a President who rose to the challenge. However his willingness to change his stance, and compromise his core beliefs to reach a politcal goal make him more like modern day Democrat's than true conservatives. That is the main reason that Republicans today do not identify with Lincoln.

Yes, youngster, they're surely racists. Everyone who disagrees with you is. Deep thinking like that will forever have you scarred as being the punk who typed "fuck Tim Russert", because he said something you didn't like.

Just.Like.A.Punk.

I thought Republicans didn't like Lincoln because they worshipped Jeff Davis now. Remember that even John McCain decided that he needed to kowtow to the Confederacy wing of the Republican Party.

James McPherson has an interesting insight into this phenomenon in the epilogue to his book "Battle Cry of Freedom", a history of the Civil War era. Southerners justified their right to enslave others by emphasizing exclusively a negative form of liberty---government should get out of the way. By winning the Civil War Lincoln succeeded in establishing a more positive view of liberty, and a more positive role for government in securing that liberty--for example in the 14th amendment, by requiring states to establish protection under the law

Modern conservatives wants to revive the exclusively negative form of liberty that southerners advocated before the Civil War.

It's interesting that the gun question that all GOP candidates were asked is the same one that had right-wingers aghast when it surfaced as one of about 70 screening questions on the Obama transition-team background profiles. The only difference is that the GOP didn't bother to ask whether any of those guns were acquired illegally.

Chester A. Arthur. He's the other great Republican President. An accidental one and a darkhouse compromise choice for VP but Arthur gave us the US Civil Service, he reformed the Post Office, he stop the Indian Wars and tackled corruption. At the end of his term he was loved by his country but hated by his party. He is the last incumbent to seek the nomination of his party and not win it. Blaine was the GOP standard bearer in 1884 and he would lose in a close election to Cleveland.

It amazes me that no one ever celebrates Chester Arthur. He was a truly great President whose accomplishment to this day impacts our lives. Thank him the next time you send a letter.