Obama Pays Tribute to Lincoln at Ford’s Theater
EmailSunlen Miller reports:
The First Couple this evening attended a star-studded gala to celebrate the renovation of Ford’s Theater in downtown DC. The night also honored Mr. Obama’s favorite president, Abraham Lincoln, on the eve of his 200th birthday.
The Marine Corps band struck up "Hail to the Chief" clad in formal attire as they made their way through the famous theater.
The evening’s lineup included honors for actor Sidney Potier, and "Star Wars" director George Lucas, in addition to marking the formal reopening for the theater which was closed for 18 months to undergo $25 million in renovations.
Mr. Obama paid homage to his favorite president who was assasinated in the very theater in 1865: "We know that Ford’s Theatre will remain a place where Lincoln’s legacy thrives, where his love of the humanities and belief in the power of education have a home, and where his generosity of spirit are reflected in all the work that takes place."
The president told the story of Lincoln’s persistence in having the Washington Monument built, even amid wartime when supplies were scarce.
"The American people needed to be reminded, he believed, that even in a time of war, the work would go on; that even when the nation itself was in doubt, its future was being secured; and that on that distant day, when the guns fell silent, a national capitol would stand, with a statue of freedom at its peak, as a symbol of unity in a land still mending its divisions."
Obama continued, "It is this sense of unity that is so much a part of Lincoln’s legacy. For, despite all that divided us — north and south, black and white — he had an unyielding belief that we were, at heart, one nation, and one people."
The program included performances by Ben Vereen, Cheryl Freeman, Jessye Norman and a video presentation of the Gettysburg Address read by former Presidents Carter, Bush, Clinton and Bush.
The crowd included DC Mayor Fenty, House Speaker Pelosi, Defense Secretary Gates, among others.
President Obama will commemorate Lincoln’s actual birthday tomorrow in their home state with an event in Springfield, Ill.
- Sunlen Miller
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This is notable, on a day that Obama is starting to turn the corner on success. I’ve heard the right do all kind of crowing, and posturing, and chicken dancing trying to shoot down a stimulus, so in the end team Obama managed to pull just enough to get his agenda moving forward. He went the extra mile on bipartisanship, and maybe this is how it’s going to turn out everytime, but a win is a win. The right better take note, there is an election next year, and the veto proof legislature may finally arrive. To ensure it all you have to do is keep up the obstructionism.
Posted by: WestCoastMessenger | February 11, 2009, 11:33 pm 11:33 pm
What a sorry post, WestCoast. “A win is a win”? Well, “a lose is a lose”, too, and this so-called stimulus bill is a loser by any sane standard. In favor of 24/7/365 campaigning on his own behalf (old habits are just so hard to shake), Obama has just sold out an entire country’s future. He doesn’t give a damn what’s in this bill, anything will do as long as he can crow that he got something passed, even if that something is a piece of crap that he doesn’t begin to comprehend (something which might involve actual work). Perhaps in six months or so, you’ll come down to earth, dear Coast. What’s left of it.
As for the Obamas heading to the theater (again?), it seems life is just one big premiere for this rollicking couple. Who cares if most of America can’t even afford popcorn at the local cineplex. Certainly not Obama. Lincoln must be rolling over in his grave at this shameless, and shameful, misappropriation of his hard earned legacy.
Posted by: Kat5 | February 11, 2009, 11:52 pm 11:52 pm
WestCoastMessenger, “Bipartisanship?”
“The extra mile”? Yeh, right! Only 3 Republican votes for this “bipartisan” pork project that doesn’t create jobs. So far, everything has been so liberally one-sided, it stinks. Lincoln, a republican who granted freedom, would turn in his grave knowing what kind of leader we have elected who now who strives to take away all of our rights and freedoms. If comrade Obama admires Lincoln so, why does he want to tear down the freedoms that Lincoln stood for?
Posted by: Mihann | February 11, 2009, 11:57 pm 11:57 pm
WestCoastMessenger:
Yes, your attitude violates the basic concepts of American self-governance.
Republicans now in Congress were elected by your fellow citizens. If you don’t respect them, you are an enemy of America.
If you don’t respect their right to have representation in Congress, you are a traitor to American values and ideas.
When people say Democrats are despots, you are what they have in mind. You expect political opponents to lie down and die because your numbers are greater than theirs?
Funny you should mention 2010; your party is likely to lose lots and lots of seats, for reasons of which you are no doubt well aware, such as character, truthfulness, faithfulness, loyalty, and decency.
Why is Obama hiding his original birth certificate? Why does he refuse to prove that he is constitutionally eligible to hold the office of president?
What is that man hiding?
We are going to find out.
Posted by: tanarg | February 12, 2009, 12:06 am 12:06 am
Note to all posters: please drop the birth certificate non-issue if you want others to take your comments seriously. There are plenty of legitimate gripes with Obama out there. Save your fire for those. Also, Obama is NOT a liberal, nor is he a socialist. He is pretty much The Party Of The One, dedicated to embellishment of the Obama resume at all costs. And there will be costs, enormous costs.
Posted by: Kat5 | February 12, 2009, 12:39 am 12:39 am
Yea lincoln was the man that freed the people.
And america was free for a long time.
Until the first law the law makers made,that requred americans to have to do manditory things.Like income taxes.Cant they just mail us what they owe us? they have the numbers, right?
And here in california,we all now have to do insurance,when before,it was optional,but all that money,lobbied by insurance companies,got the newly rich politicians,and the to become very rich insurance companies,were sucsessful in getting passed one more thing we have to do.
Gee i thought originally law was based on laws of things we cant do,because of evil doings,muder,stealing,and so on.
Never thought they could enslave us with laws. Wish Obama could really free us again David W.
Posted by: David W. | February 12, 2009, 2:53 am 2:53 am
He is no Lincoln!
Posted by: anonymous | February 12, 2009, 4:43 am 4:43 am
If anyone want to see my birth certificat, I can show it in one minute. I dont have to get an army of high priced lawers. Something to think about.
Posted by: Joe | February 12, 2009, 4:46 am 4:46 am
“obama’s favorite president”, what a bunch of hooey. What does O know about Lincoln? O is not fit to even be in the same sentence as LIncoln. I saw a political cartoon after the Inauguration, with O “Fist bumping” Linclon…..I was shocked and horrified….. what would Lincoln, a man of honor, dignity, and sacrifice, be doing “fist bumping”, or associating at all, with a wimpy, corrupt, liar like O? How dare you insult one of the greatest men in our history by tying him in any way to this despicable piece of trash Obama!
Posted by: decentAmerican | February 12, 2009, 5:05 am 5:05 am
Lincoln is my favorite as well, and shows why Obama is not.
Lincoln was a man who made great sacrifices and endured much in his struggle to keep our country together. In a time of fear he worked to calm and inspire people in the greatness of our nation.
Obama is a man who seeks to seperate to get what he wants. He seeks to inspire fear and doubt in our nation to push his own personal agenda.
Posted by: Federalistblogs | February 12, 2009, 5:09 am 5:09 am
It’s interesting that Obama talks of unity, and the right-wingers, who appear to seethe with hatred for anyone who wants to work together, rejects him.
The people who lost the last two elections don’t like the other 65% of America who are working together to get America back on track. Fine.
But as far as your petty insults hurled at the President of the United States, you make me ill.
Posted by: Jan | February 12, 2009, 5:50 am 5:50 am
Obama is a man who seeks to seperate to get what he wants. He seeks to inspire fear and doubt in our nation to push his own personal agenda.
****************************************
Hogwash. If anything he hasn’t done enough to separate the GOP from normal decent Americans.
He has bent over backwards for these slim buckets, ignorant, unpatriotic, weak, ineffective, obstructionist, opportunists, unreliable, inmoral, untrustworth, naysayers, GOPers
Posted by: Thinking | February 12, 2009, 6:18 am 6:18 am
Kat5, What is, is. Whether you think it is, or you think it’s not, it still, is.
What is,is, is the media FAILED to do
Their job in vetting The O. They did it for everyone else and quess what, we found out that The O administration has no vetting process either, hence the withdraws of nominees because of being scandalous tax cheats. It’s like they said, I’ll pick you,you, and you and the rest will be my csars and special appointees.
Hey Jake can we get a copy of the exempt certificates seeing how you know how much The O would want you to have it. It’s been close to a week now. They seem not to have a problem running to the printing press for money but cant seem to produce 17 exemption certificates.
Maybe the O ministration just has a difficult time with any certificates that need to be produced.
And people wonder why neilsen rates Fox number one.
Posted by: bdaman | February 12, 2009, 7:12 am 7:12 am
Sure is funny how most of the questions come from the front. Be afraid, be very afraid. Gibbs might move you to the back of the class.
Posted by: bdaman | February 12, 2009, 7:29 am 7:29 am
Obama Sued Citibank Under CRA to Force it to Make Bad Loans.Buycks-Roberson v. Citibank Fed. Sav. Bank Fair Housing/Lending/Insurance
Docket / Court 94 C 4094 ( N.D. Ill. ) FH-IL-0011
State/Territory Illinois
OBAMA SAID IN 2007 THAT GIVING SUB-PRIME LOANS TO PEOPLE WHO COULDN’T AFFORD THEM WAS A GOOD IDEA!!!
“I’ve been fighting alongside ACORN on issues you care about my entire career. Even before I was an elected official, when I ran Project Vote voter registration drive in Illinois, ACORN was smack dab in the middle of it, and we appreciate your work.” — Barack Obama, Speech to ACORN, November 2007
Posted by: bdaman | February 12, 2009, 7:34 am 7:34 am
Bush hands are dirty just like the rest of the LAWMAKERS. Thats why they say money is dirty. Look which lawmakers has the most, then you know who has dirty hands.
Cuomo Announces Action to Provide $2.4 Trillion in Mortgages for Affordable Housing for 28.1 Million Families, 1999:
Cuomo said the historic action by HUD raises the required percentage of mortgage loans for low- and moderate-income families that finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac must buy from the current 42 percent of their total purchases to a new high of 50 percent — a 19 percent increase — in the year 2001
Posted by: bdaman | February 12, 2009, 7:39 am 7:39 am
Jake, what about Rep. Paul Kanjorski of Pennsylvania and his explanation of the closed door meeting about what happened on Sept 15, 2008. at roughly 11 AM The Federal Reserve noticed a tremendous draw down of money market accounts in the USA to the tune of $550 Billion dollars in a matter of an hour or two. Money was being removed electronically.
Wonder who had the power to cordinate such a massive withdrawl in a short period of time. The ramifications of that, had the federal reserve not stopped it would of been TOTAL economic collapse. Could you get an answer to that today.
Posted by: bdaman | February 12, 2009, 7:50 am 7:50 am
Jake, looks like you’ll need to add William Lynn to the list of exempt certificates. Could you ask Gibbs about that today.
Posted by: bdaman | February 12, 2009, 8:31 am 8:31 am
Obama continued, “It is this sense of unity that is so much a part of Lincoln’s legacy.
—————————–
My sense of unity is greatly enhanced when he reminds us “I won” and of “the failed policies of the last eight years.”
Posted by: mad | February 12, 2009, 9:09 am 9:09 am
The continuing efforts of the liberal/nitwit media to turn the farcical Obama into Abe Lincoln are simply breathtaking.
Happily, the people are already seeing what a partisan twit Obama is.
Posted by: Jerome | February 12, 2009, 9:54 am 9:54 am
Hmm. Teevee says the vote on the hogwash bill has been “postponed”, along with Pelosi’s news conference.
Guess Reid’s move to knock Gibbs off the air yesterday DIDN’T indicate a “deal” — and that the “bill” doesn’t even EXIST yet in a form the press can examine.
They’re running out the week, huh?
Is there room to imprison all these phonies IN the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial — where at least the populace could stop by to throw vegetables, if there ARE vegetables.
Posted by: Human Intelligence | February 12, 2009, 10:52 am 10:52 am
I’m glad Obama could take some time away from campaigning to have fun.
Will someone tell BO at some point he needs to grow up and actually act like a leader and start governing?
I guess making executive decisions isn’t as easy as listening to speeches and voting present.
This is exactly why 57 million of us believed Palin was way more qualified
than Obama.
Posted by: harry | February 12, 2009, 11:21 am 11:21 am
Maybe the “snag” on Porkulus — might as well say the economy has hit a “snag” or “glitch” — has something to do with the federales’ move to seize medical records? Let us pray.
Now teevee says the pore ole Congress apparently will be permitted to “vote” to rubber-stamp … whatever … on Friday the 13th.
Now THAT is INSANE, considering. Some culture-bound Congress person ought to move the haha “vote” AWAY from Friday the 13th.
Posted by: Human Intelligence | February 12, 2009, 11:24 am 11:24 am
Obama wants so desperately to be compared to Lincoln.
Too bad he is frequently being compared to Carter.
Posted by: sammy | February 12, 2009, 11:26 am 11:26 am
If anyone want to see my birth certificat, I can show it in one minute. I dont have to get an army of high priced lawers. Something to think about.
Posted by: Joe | Feb 12, 2009 4:46:00 AM
=====================================
Right on Joe!!! The media is helping with this non-compliance re birth certificate also. There are many that have said “America will be destroyed from within”. Is this the beginning or the finish??? Yeah, know folks will blame Bush, but he had nothing to do with Lincoln, he was the beginning of our problems.
Posted by: Mildred | February 12, 2009, 11:34 am 11:34 am
“Obama wants so desperately to be compared to Lincoln.”
More like Adam Clayton Powell Jr. on rhetorical steroids …
… but watch out for those whose puppet He is to follow Lincoln in killing off a sizeable segment of the population in aggressive military adventures … Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, heck — maybe even another Civil War.
Nobody in the South who knows how Lincoln “preserved unity” is that crazy about unity … OR about the present federal government.
Posted by: Human Intelligence | February 12, 2009, 11:36 am 11:36 am
Human Intelligence: Friday, Feb. 13, will be another democrat reason to blame the failure on something else, ‘if we had only waited until Valentine’s Day everything would have been alright’.
Democrats – The take no responsibility party—we must make sure the media blames everything on Bush for the next four years.
Posted by: Mildred | February 12, 2009, 11:43 am 11:43 am
Obama is more like Castro than Lincoln.
Posted by: bailey | February 12, 2009, 11:46 am 11:46 am
That’s nice.
Jake, I have a question. During the campaign Obama talked about how US workers would be put to work making wind turbines and the like under a new energy economy. HOWEVER, why does the buy-American clause of the stimulus specifically exclude energy initiatives? For instance, wind farms will be allowed/encouraged to buy wind turbines made in Europe in setting up their operation. As this seems like a very big contradiction and a major flaw in the job creation talk, I would truly appreciate it if you could look into it. Thank you very much.
Posted by: Question | February 12, 2009, 12:00 pm 12:00 pm
“Obama is more like Castro than Lincoln.”
Obama is NOTHING like Castro.
Castro turned his back on a comfy well-to-do life in order to lead armed struggle, on behalf of the poor, against the US-supported ruling class in Cuba.
Obama’s a corporate construct whose propaganda-fired horse-pucky is about consolidating “our” political power, along with handing off the Treasury, TO the very rich.
Meanwhile, Obama’s use of the word “stakeholders” — one of those Reaganaut words used to replace “citizens”, “people” and so on — shows again that His rhetoric is waaay over-rated.
p.s.: Obama’s no Lincoln, either: He’s just tall, that’s all.
Posted by: Human Intelligence | February 12, 2009, 12:03 pm 12:03 pm
” … hammer away at Gibbs every chance he gets.”
Today, the hot news from The Puppet’s hogwash machine seems to be coming from Axelrod, harrumphing that He won’t be pushed around — hahaha — by the stock market.
Where IS Gibbs? Does he seem remind anybody else of … Cheney?
Posted by: Human Intelligence | February 12, 2009, 12:26 pm 12:26 pm
Human Intelligence, Really I missed that. Could it be that since Obama won the election the stock market has dropped over 2000 points. Axelrod was the same one who said he knew Obama and Blago had talked about the senators seat. Funny how Baer cleared the O staff but four subpeonas have been issued and one is for Axelrod. I guess Fitzy won’t be able to push the O staff around either. We have not heard the last on the Blago connection. The truth will come out tomorrow, bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow he will sing. Resko is his backup singer.
Posted by: bdaman | February 12, 2009, 12:41 pm 12:41 pm
Human Intelligence Jump over to the Michelle Vogue cover article and check my posts
Posted by: bdaman | February 12, 2009, 12:44 pm 12:44 pm
bipartisanship does not mean, if you don’t agee with me, hush
Posted by: Lizzie | February 12, 2009, 1:01 pm 1:01 pm
More importantly, what dress was Michelle wearing and who designed it?
Posted by: Sally J | February 12, 2009, 2:30 pm 2:30 pm
“Obama is more like Castro than Lincoln.”
—-
Ya think so, ehn?
Castro actually has done something. What has PB0?
Zero, a 0.
Posted by: two cats | February 12, 2009, 2:42 pm 2:42 pm
“And people wonder why neilsen rates Fox number one.”
I believe HL Mencken applies
“No one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public”
Or perhaps PT Barnum
Posted by: Ryan C | February 12, 2009, 3:12 pm 3:12 pm
PT Barnum was successful…the NY Times on the other hand…
Posted by: Grand Old Party | February 12, 2009, 6:16 pm 6:16 pm
From Lincoln in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates:
” I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races, that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people … I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race. I say upon this occasion I do not perceive that because the white man is to have the superior position the negro should be denied everything. I do not understand that because I do not want a negro woman for a slave I must necessarily want her for a wife. My understanding is that I can just let her alone.”
Debate at Charleston, Illinois, September 18, 1858
Posted by: John Lloyd Scharf | February 18, 2009, 9:02 pm 9:02 pm
The only thing obama has to do with lincoln is Lincoln said if america is to be destroyed it will be from within. Obama is that one from within, he is quickly bringing us into being bank rupt, he has past Bush in spending in 2 month , where are all the liberals who cried about us spending too much money on iraq. He obama has spent more in 2 months than bush spent on both wars 9/11 and katrina combined, where are all the crazy libsrals now?
Posted by: Darwin | March 8, 2009, 3:14 am 3:14 am