My Vote for President

Abraham Lincoln once said that "If you're a racist, I will attack you with the North,"
and these are the principles I carry with me in the workplace.
- Michael Scott, The Office.

While of course President Lincoln didn't actually said this, a valuable lesson can be learned. As is expected, the entire planet is holding it's breath to see who will become the next leader of the free world, and president of the most powerful nation ever known to man. We are all asking ourselves and eachother who will we choose; who will get our vote? With everyone talking about this, I want to take this time to put in my two cents on the issue. I do not think I am alone when I say that unfortunately, neither of the candidates seem to be my favorite.

Abraham Lincoln was a hero of my first mission president, and thus has become one of mine. The current presidential candidates could learn a lesson or two from Michael Scott and carry a few more of Lincoln's values in their lives. No matter what challenges our country faces now, no president has seen a more complicated term than has Lincoln. More Americans died during the Civil War than in every other war combined, from the Revolution to Vietnam. And in this time of greatest need, arose a leader equal to the task. Lincoln was not trying to please the lobbyists, he was not trying to win oppinion polls. He had one objective: preserve the Union. And nor was he a man without faith. I fear this post will be way too long, but I have so much to say on this topic at the moment, so please bear with me.

Many people do not realize the type of man Lincoln was, nor the type of leader. He is known for his speeches like the Gettysburg Address and the House Divided Speech. But those were not his best. To give you an example, take a moment to look up Lincoln's "Lost Speech". On May 29th, 1856 in Bloomington, IL, a political convention was held to discuss how to stop the spread of slavery to the west. After a series of speeches, the audience demanded to hear from Lincoln. Lincoln took the stage and began his speech. Then the unexpected happened. William Herndon, Lincoln's law partner said this, "I attempted for about fifteen minutes, as was usual with me then to take notes, but at the end of that time I threw pen and paper away and lived only in the inspiration of the hour." There were roughly 40 news reporters present, and each one was so mesmerized by Lincoln's words, that every single one of them forgot to take notes! One delegate said, "Never was an audience more completely electrified by human eloquence. Again and again, during the delivery, the audience sprang to their feet, and by long-continued cheers, expressed how deeply the speaker had roused them." Although many scholars have dedicated their lives to rebuilding this speech, to this day there exists no verbatim copy.

Can you believe that? Show me an Abraham Lincoln of our day. Who has the power and dedication to that which is right to match such leadership? Is it any wonder why I don't like any of the candidates we have today? All you Obama fans treating him as a savior of our nation. McCain supporters rallying behind his record of military service. Now don't get me wrong, I am a registered Republican and will always vote for what I feel is the best candidate for the job. My political beliefs are pretty regularly classified as "conservative". But let's have a leader who deserves their face on our money. Our country is in a state of turmoil. While luckily we have never again seen war on American soil since the Civil War, if some of our problems aren't solved, our security as a nation could cease to exist. While the media seems content on blaming our current president's administration for every problem we face, the truth is that these problems (from the oil drama, the housing crisis, war on terrorism, etc) were not caused by the president, they are a cumulation of the glutonous culture we have grown to enjoy (yes I know that's an oversimplification as well, especially where terrorism is concerned, but stick with me here, you're smarter than that). I am also very pleased with how our president rose to the occasion and confronted the world in the post-9/11 aftermath.

But what we need now is a president ready to confront our nations issues. Not get us further into debt. Not being the next big celebrity. Someone who isn't out for the glory of the country, but the well-being of the country. At times he will not be popular. But we don't need poplularity, we need results. Our country has seen it before. Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected to 4 terms! What could get us to ignore such a blatant contradiction to our own constitution? RESULTS! Ever heard of the great depression? He helped end that! Our country has definately seen worse days. Even now with all the problems we hear about, I still have way too much to eat. And I know that when I flip the light switch and the lights come on. Do we need to wait for our country to be on the verge of collapse before we see another great leader? Perhaps we do, since it doesn't look like we will be seeing one this time around.

Anyway, I have rambled for much too long. But heck, it's my blog, I can go for as long as I want. I don't want anyone to think I'm all about doom and gloom. Those running for president are definately not slackers or they would have never made it this far in the political battlefield. But let's start something new. Forget about politics...so to speak. Let's get results. For heaven's sake, do I need to run for president? I'm this close....lets hear it...who'd support Freund for president??? I'm game if you are. So in closing I'd just like to leave you with some of the best quotes from Abraham Lincoln that give us an insight to the type of man he was, and the type of president we need. Show me a man like him, and that's who will get my vote for president.

“Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right”

"The will of God prevails. In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be, wrong. God cannot be for and against the same thing at the same time. In the present civil war it is quite possible that God's purpose is something different from the purpose of either party - and yet the human instrumentalities, working just as they do, are of the best adaptation to effect His purpose."

"If I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be closed for any other business. I do the very best I know how - the very best I can; and I mean to keep doing so until the end. If the end brings me out all right, what's said against me won't amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference."

"Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it."

"My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause."

"All I am, all I ever hope to be I owe to my angel Mother."

"I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom and that of all about me seemed insufficient for that day."

"Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration."

"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan - to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations."

"A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half-slave and half-free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved - I do not expect the house to fall - but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other."

"I have never studied the art of paying compliments to women; but I must say that if all that has been said by orators and poets since the creation of the world in praise of women were applied to the women of America, it would not do them justice for their conduct during this war. I will close by saying, God bless the women of America!"

"I have not permitted myself, gentlemen, to conclude that I am the best man in the country; but I am reminded, in this connection, of a story of an old Dutch farmer who remarked to a companion once that 'it was not best to swap horses while crossing streams'."

"Whenever I hear any one arguing for slavery I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally."

"The probability that we may fall in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just; it shall not deter me."

"Leave nothing for tomorrow which can be done today."

"In regard to this Great Book, I have but to say, it is the best gift God has given to man. All the good the Savior gave to the world was communicated through this book."

"The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country."

"The demon of intemperance ever seems to have delighted in sucking the blood of genius and of generosity."

"In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The Government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the Government, while I shall have the most solemn one to 'preserve, protect, and defend it'."

"I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union."

"At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step the Ocean, and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Buonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years. At what point, then, is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide."

"It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words: 'And this, too, shall pass away.' How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! How consoling in the depths of affliction!"

Now I can't even believe how long this has gottten. Sorry guys, I just couldn't stop. The internet is a great resource for information, and these quotes are all over the place. I know everything you read there isn't true, but if you would like to know more, I got most of my info for this post from here http://members.aol.com/RVSNorton/Lincoln2.html. If things I wrote are not totally true, I think they should be, and we should learn the lessons they have for us either way. Amen.