-By Warner Todd Huston
President Obama will deliver the first State of the Union address for his second term on February 12 this year.
As is the custom, the President was invited to give the address by the Speaker of the House of Representatives. In his letter, Speaker John Boehner (R, OH) noted the “immense challenges” we face as a nation.
“Our nation continues to face immense challenges, and the American people expect us to work together in the new year to find meaningful solutions,” Boehner wrote. “This will require a willingness to seek common ground as well as presidential leadership. For that reason, the Congress and the Nation would welcome to an opportunity to hear your plan and specific solutions for addressing America’s great challenges. Therefore it is my privilege to invite you to speak before a Joint Session of Congress on February 12, 2013 in the House Chamber of the U.S. Capitol Building.”
Few expect Obama to use his upcoming State of the Union speech to offer any conciliatory gestures in order to work with the Republicans per Speaker Boehner. It is more likely that Obama will use his speech to outlay another series of demands to enlarge government and, since Sandy Hook, initiate new efforts to ban guns.
But once again Obama is surrounded with allusions to our 16th President Abe Lincoln. February 12 happens to be the birthdate of one of our most famous presidents. This isn’t the only Lincolnism surrounding Obama as he begins his second term. The President is also going to use Lincoln’s Bible during his swearing in ceremony on January 21.
Obama has constantly compared himself to Abe Lincoln during the last six years although back on December 30, he demurred from being compared to The Great Emancipator. As Carl M. Cannon pointed out, Obama’s demurral was rather disingenuous.
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, RightPundits.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, AmericanDaily.com, among many, many others. Mr. Huston is also endlessly amused that one of his articles formed the basis of an article in Germany’s Der Spiegel Magazine in 2008.
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