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The Spectacle Blog
For those of you who haven't been following, earlier this week, Keith Olbermann mocked Nevada Senate candidate Sharron Angle for saying of Abraham Lincoln, "He lost quite a few. But he won the big one." For this, Olbermann called her "obtuse" and insisted Lincoln only lost one election. Yesterday on this blog, Jeffrey Lord patiently explained why Olbermann was wrong, and his post was picked up by National Review's Daniel Foster. At this point, it caught Olbermann's eye, and the MSNBC host named Foster the "Worst Person in The World." Rather than acknowledge his error, Olbermann took the weasel's way out with a semantic loophole, embarrassingly insisting that he really meant that Lincoln only lost one popular election. As you know, at the time, there wasn't direct election of U.S. Senators.
But while Olbermann would like to discount several of Lincoln's losing political campaigns to bolster his case against Angle (including the 1858 Senate campaign), that's clearly not how Lincoln himself viewed those defeats at the time.
Here's how Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David Herbert Donald summed up Lincoln's mood after losing his 1858 Senate bid, in the acclaimed biography, Lincoln:
Though Lincoln was not surprised by the outcome of the election, he was bitterly disappointed. Once again, he saw victory escape his grasp. With one more defeat added to his record, he had received yet another lesson in how little his fate was determined by his personal exertions.
I also gazed through the Library of America's two-volume collection of Lincoln's speeches and writings.
It included a November 4, 1858 letter to John J. Crittenden, in which Lincoln graciously forgives the former Whig for endorsing Stephen Douglas, which was believed to have badly hurt Lincoln. His words clearly reflect the disappointment conveyed by Donald. Lincoln wrote to Crittenden that:
"The emotions of defeat, at the close of a struggle in which I felt more than a merely selfish interest, and to which defeat the use of your name contributed largely, are fresh upon me; but, even in this mood, I can not for a moment suspect you of anything dishonorable."
A few weeks later, in a November 19 letter, Lincoln tried to cheer up his friend Henry Asbury, in language typical of a losing candidate addressing supporters:
"The fight must go on. The cause of civil liberty must not be surrendered at the end of one, or even, one hundred defeats."
Angle, in her remarks, never said anything about Lincoln's won-loss record in "popular elections." She said that, "He lost quite a few. But he won the big one." Her point was clearly a more general one, that Lincoln came back from a number of political defeats. It's a statement that's completely rooted in history. That is, if you choose to get your Lincoln history from reading respected biographers and Lincoln's own words, as opposed to watching the rantings of a TV talk show host.
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More Blog Posts by Philip Klein
http://spectator.org/blog/2010/07/10/lincoln-vs-olbermann-on-lincol
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Dan| 7.10.10 @ 6:06PM
Presidential elections weren't popular either and still aren't so using Keith's brilliant revisionist logic we'd have to drop those from Abe's win loss total as well.
Missy| 7.10.10 @ 7:00PM
Olbermann's a bonehead--mother Olbermann must have dropped the little clown on his head more than once.
Fulfillment Companies| 7.10.10 @ 8:13PM
I think this was an amazing article, and have to disagree that Olbermann's a bonehead. Great point of views from both sides.
Missy| 7.10.10 @ 10:39PM
Well, if you disagree with my astute observation that Herr Overbite is a big dumb BONEHEAD--you are an even bigger bonehead!
ejp| 7.10.10 @ 8:28PM
Olbermann is a piece of human filth.
Missy| 7.10.10 @ 10:39PM
That too!
Eric Cartman| 7.11.10 @ 12:35AM
well, I would be interested in all this, but I've been irregular lately and have to go take a Olbermann and wipe myself with some Kiethpaper. Afterward, I have to put apply some Shultzcream to my hemorrhoids.
Wally| 7.11.10 @ 2:15AM
President of Keith's fan club, huh?
dollface| 7.11.10 @ 12:25PM
Kieth Olberman is living proof that if you can't cut it as a sports reporter, don't try to write for the editorial page.
Matt X| 7.11.10 @ 12:37PM
What's so bad about Olbermann? Dave Weigel works with him now. Dave Weigel is a crackerjack honest reporter.
Oldefarte| 7.11.10 @ 12:48PM
Anyone who would waste their time/energy watching/listening to Keith Olbermann is abviously missing a few brain cells [and whose elevator does not go all the way to the top]!!!!!
Matt X| 7.11.10 @ 1:11PM
Oldefarte,
I, for one, will watch Keith Olbermann religiously now that he's hired Dave Weigel. You can't find a more objective journalist than Dave Weigel. Hell, the American Spectator ran some of his stuff...you know he has no liberal bias, despite his voting for Nader, Kerry, and Obama. :)
SoCon| 7.12.10 @ 2:17AM
Really? Weigel voted for those three pukes? Dang.
That makes me feel even more nauseated that AmSpec writers defended the squat little toad.
EW!
Nick| 7.11.10 @ 2:16PM
Like most of the liberals who post here, Olbermann-child thinks that if he reads The New Yorker, listens to NPR, and reads David McCullough, he is an expert on American politics, history, and current events.
Overbite, who is starting to resemble algore by the day (especially in girth), will believe any piece of lefty propaganda he reads, and then regurgitate it.
When he restarted his PMS-NBC show (in '02 or '03, I think), I was lucky enough to catch Olby do a segment on how Rockefeller, Ford, and other evil businessmen had conspired to get rid of the steam-powered automobile.
Steam-powered cars were somehow enviro-friendly, you see, according to the Worst Person in the Worrrrrrrrrld!
As I watched, I knew he was spouting lies.
A couple of commercial breaks later, Olby announced, with much glee, that he had Jay Leno on the line. Leno owns several steam-powered cars and is an auto expert. Overbite must have thought Jay was going to praise his re-writing of history.
Instead, Leno proceeded to explain that steam-powered cars were very dangerous and had a nasty tendency to blow-up. Many people were killed or scalded by these cars. The market-place picked the winner: the internal combustion engine. Not oil magnates and Henry Ford.
The look Olbermann-child's face was priceless, as he realized that Leno had called to correct the record, and refute his assertions, not to praise him. I wish Glenn Beck, Hannity, or O'Reilly would get that clip and play it sometime. It was great.
SoCon| 7.12.10 @ 2:12AM
Overbite's a punk.
Hi, Nick--how have you been? Bet you're busy right now with the hot weather and all!!
Don't be a stranger; I've missed you! :)
Nick| 7.12.10 @ 12:57PM
Hi SoCon!
Thanks for asking. Yes, I have been busy due to the heat wave. It didn't leave much time for reading articles and posting comments.
Good for business, but tiring. Today it is raining and cooler. Which equals no calls!
I'll try to drop by more often.
Hope things are well with you. Take care!
LarryK| 7.12.10 @ 9:01AM
What do you expect from a douchbag like Olbermann.
WendyG| 7.12.10 @ 11:39AM
Olbermann Claimed He’d Never Call a Woman ‘Idiot,’ But Tags Palin ‘Idiot’ 22 Times
Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/b.....z0tU0XKeT6
SoCon| 7.12.10 @ 7:19PM
Wendy, I've got better things to do than read about Overbite the moron--like taking out the garbage and cleaning toilets.
ELC| 7.12.10 @ 11:07PM
I too have the two-volume LOA of Lincoln's speeches and writings. Thoroughly enjoyable.
The 8-volume Collected Works are available on line:
http://quod.lib.umich.edu/l/lincoln/
Sunshine| 7.16.10 @ 1:02AM
Perhaps Keith Olbermann has special insight about elections that are not popular. He's not very popular himself.
Scott Severin| 11.4.10 @ 6:05PM
You're all full of it. Keith can park his sleigh in my carport anytime!!