There is a wonderful book that I would highly recommend all Obama supporters read called "Team of Rivals" by Doris Kearns Goodwin. It's about Abraham Lincoln's nomination and presidency. You will be floored by the similarities between then and now. Lincoln not only came out of nowhere as an unknown Illinois lawyer, but he snatched the nomination away from the candidate who was considered the de facto nominee by almost everyone in the country, including the media - a senator from New York named William Henry Seward. Lincoln was confident enough in himself as a leader that one of the first things he did was to give his greatest rival the top spot in his cabinet as Secretary of State. He then went on to give cabinet spots to the other two Democratic rivals for the nomination. They were an amazing team and the story of how Lincoln brought these men together is a story for today's campaign. These men not only disliked Lincoln, they disliked each other. But Lincoln was a confident and self assured leader and understood that these men all had something to offer. This "team of rivals" brought the country through it's darkest period in history and held the union together.
I believe Barack Obama is more like Lincoln than any other stateman I've seen him compared to. How he is dealing with the Clintons shows not only his own confidence and leadership skills, but demonstrates how he is staying focused on the issues, looking at needed results, and building the relationships he needs to in order to secure the White House in November and to lead the country in the next 4 years. I don't ever second guess Obama's strategy. I trust the source of his decision making because I believe his greatest strengths are his character, his conviction and his integrity. He has also surrounded himself with excellent advisors and strategists. Whatever he has chosen to do in moving forward in alliance with Bill and Hillary Clinton is because it is the best of the options he has.
Team of Rivals is also available as an audiobook read by Richard Thomas and you can download it on to an iPod from iTunes. It's a very moving work of history that will leave you confident than that Barack Obama is truly the Lincoln of our generation.
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