Via Jeralyn

Obama Says Faith Community to be a Priority of His Administration

Barack Obama privately met with religious leaders in Chicago today. His spokesperson Jen Psaki told reporters on the campaign plane today:

Reaching out to the faith community is a priority for Barack Obama and will be a priority under an Obama Administration. This is one of several meetings he will have over the coming months with religious leaders....He's done it before. He'll do it again.

"It's not surprising, then, they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

Almost everything I’ve seen in the many discussions of this remark concentrate on the nouns, primarily guns and religion.  I want to say a few words about the verb cling.

“…We’re a nation that has strong values, and we live them….It’s a wonderful country that we’ve been privileged to live in….It’s about having the imagination to dream…and the courage to reach….People are the only thing that makes a difference, and each person makes a difference.” This is just part of what Wes Clark says in answer to a question Hannah Robinson (class of 2010) asks him at Colgate University after his lecture on February 20, 2007.

I've been listening to the Congressional debate about the Iraq resolution, and I'm listening over and over to Congressional representatives quote the saying "A house divided against itself cannot stand." (Somehow no one says anything about a Senate.) They all attribute it to Abraham Lincoln.

I know that most Americans associate the phrase with Lincoln, and for good reason, because he used it to great effect in the Lincoln Douglas debates. But Lincoln was quoting someone else.