Obama & Lincoln in words..

Read: Two Speeches on Race - from the New York Review of Books

Senator Barack Obama's speech at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia on March 18, 2008, and Abraham Lincoln's at the Cooper Union in New York on February 27, 1860.

"The most damaging charge against each was an alleged connection with unpatriotic and potentially violent radicals. [...] How to face such charges? Each decided to address them openly in a prominent national venue, well before their parties’ nominating conventions."

"Each looked for larger patterns under the surface bitternesses of their day. Each forged a moral position that rose above the occasions for their speaking."