In Lincoln's Shadow

Throughout his extraordinary run for the nation's highest office, President-elect Barack Obama has been compared to a number of political leaders: he reminded some of the oratory and vitality of John F. Kennedy, the pragmatism of Franklin Roosevelt, the transformational influence of Ronald Reagan and even the middle-class populism of Bill Clinton.

But in his acceptance speech last night in Chicago's Grant Park, Barack Obama showed that when it comes to a political model, he has loftier aspirations. He evoked none of the above leaders, but instead an American president who at a time of great national disunity strove to bring the country together: Abraham Lincoln. While the challenges facing America are quite different in 2008 than they were in 1860, Mr. Obama's repeated invocation of Lincoln makes clear that our greatest president has firmly influenced our next one.

The linkages between Mr. Obama and President Lincoln are indeed fascinating. Both are Illinois politicians who rose -- in part, from the force of their oratory -- to the height of political power. And of course, it was the Great Emancipator who ran for office on an anti-slavery platform and won a Civil War that brought African-Americans their freedom.

But, what seems most resonant to Mr. Obama were Lincoln's efforts to bring the country together in the pursuit of great national challenges. In the shadow of the capitol building in Springfield, Ill., in February 2007 when Mr. Obama announced his candidacy for the White House he spoke of Lincoln:

Each and every time, a new generation has risen up and done what's needed to be done. Today we are called once more -- and it is time for our generation to answer that call. For that is our unyielding faith -- that in the face of impossible odds, people who love their country can change it.

That's what Abraham Lincoln understood. He had his doubts. He had his defeats. He had his setbacks. But through his will and his words, he moved a nation and helped free a people. It is because of the millions who rallied to his cause that we are no longer divided, North and South, slave and free. It is because men and women of every race, from every walk of life, continued to march for freedom long after Lincoln was laid to rest, that today we have the chance to face the challenges of this millennium together, as one people -- as Americans.

For Mr. Obama, politics is about something deeper and more lasting than short-term policy aspirations. He plays on a political turf that is not only quite different, but also more ambitious than those of his political peers. The words above are not boilerplate; they are the essence of Mr. Obama's political beliefs.

So, after wining the presidency in historic fashion, Barack Obama again returned to Lincoln. At one point he spoke the concluding words of the Gettysburg Address and in another, evoked the legacy of Lincoln in declaring the need for national reconciliation:

As Lincoln said to a nation far more divided than ours, "We are not enemies, but friends and though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection." And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn I may not have won your vote, but I hear your voices, I need your help, and I will be your president too.

These were among the most powerful words that Mr. Obama spoke on Election Night and indirectly played off John McCain's own evocative statement from his concession speech, "I wish Godspeed to the man who was my former opponent and will be my president." (For a man who ran a campaign defined more by low accusations rather than high aspirations, Mr. McCain achieved some element of redemption last night. His remarks were not only poignant and touching, but they sounded the precise tone that any concession speech must aspire to; calling on the country to come together in support of its commander-in-chief).

For all of Mr. Obama's success over the last several months in crafting an economic message that spoke directly to the American people and their fears for the future of the nation, one gets the sense that this was never the main reason why Mr. Obama sought the nation's highest office. It's not that he is unconcerned about the nation's economic plight; it is that he sees the challenge facing America in deeper almost spiritual terms. It is one not of alleviating short-term deprivation or suffering, but of long-term sacrifice and national unity in pursuit of the greater good.

As Mr. Obama said last night:

Let us summon a new spirit of patriotism, of service and responsibility where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves, but each other. Let us remember that if this financial crisis taught us anything, it's that we cannot have a thriving Wall Street while Main Street suffers in this country, we rise or fall as one nation; as one people.

Mr. Obama's model is not F.D.R., Bill Clinton or even Ronald Reagan, each of whom at a time of downturn helped the country right the economic ship. Instead, Mr. Obama seems to view himself, and the political movement he has birthed, as having a deeper and more meaningful purpose: to bring the country together and end the partisan divisions and cultural conflicts that have defined not just the past eight years, or the past 16 years, but in fact the past four decades of American politics.

We have, in America, seemingly become inured to the differences that divide white and black, rich and poor, Southerner and Northerner, suburbanite and city dweller, believer and non-believer and of course, red states and blue states. If Mr. Obama's words are any indication, he believes it is those divisions that must be confronted and tackled first if America is to meet its greatest challenges.

Surely Mr. Obama will make the economy and the war in Iraq his first priority, but last night in Grant Park he offered the American people a clear and unambiguous sense of his real priority; namely through the force of his personality, his words and his political temperament he will, as Lincoln said in his second inaugural, "bind up the nation's wounds."

If the outpouring of spontaneous emotion by millions of Americans last night -- not to mention Senator McCain's gracious words of reconciliation -- is any indication, "with malice toward none, with charity for all" the healing process in America may already be underway.