and the winner is... number 16

Welp, good 'ole honest Abe's 200 birthday was last week. He must have done SOMETHING amazing in order for an entire country to continue his birthday celebrations... two centuries later. In class on Monday Wasconich posed the question, "why is he America's favorite president?" Coincidentally, an article was posted in the NYTimes last week, documenting a society that... dresses up like Lincoln? They are known as the Association of Lincoln Presenters, and spend all year preparing for Presidents Day. They are known as the "19 Lincolns" and take extreme measures to each resemble our 16th president as accurately as possible. Kinda creepy.

The photographer that was hired to take their portraits asked them why they chose Lincoln to imitate, and their answers varied from "It helped me to find myself, becoming Lincoln helped be give up drinking" to "I wanted to share with the wider world my admiration for Lincoln's moral character." I think we should designate a day in which we are each required to show up to class, completely dressed up as the figure in history that "moves" us. I was so be Queen 'lizzy.

I did a little more reasearch as to why Lincoln is admired so. Here are some reasons I cam across:

* The very foundation of Democracy within the United States was defined by Abraham Lincoln as “government of the people, by the people, for the people"

* He left the nation a more perfect Union by ensuring that Federal authority superceded State sovereignty

* also remembered for his great ability at oratory and the 13th amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

changed the course of American history, being remembered best for his introduction of the Emancipation Proclamation which freed all slaves within the Confederacy and changed the civil war from a battle to preserve the Union into a battle for freedom.

* It can truly be said that Lincoln was directly responsible for the maintenance of the Union of the States which he passionately believed was essential to the continuance of the American nation.

* Lincoln never wavered in adherence to the principles he firmly believed in though he adapted and changed policies in the face of changing circumstances and experience to obtain his goals.

I would add that he had a rockin' beard.

Here is some interesting info on other presidents I came across...

* George Bush was ranked 36th out of the 42 men who had been chief executive by the end of 2008. (Nice.)

* After Lincoln, academics rate George Washington, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt and Harry Truman as the best leaders overall.

* Rated worst overall were James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, Franklin Pierce, William Henry Harrison and Warren G. Harding.