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How Steve Croft kept from falling out of his chair in convulsive laughter is the real mystery here. I'm not anywhere near the history buff Jim is. What exactly were Lincoln's foreign policy accomplishments? Time's up! I don't even rank Obama; I don't think he qualifies for ranking.
Is he talking about Andrew Johnson or Lyndon Johnson. LBJ's Gulf of Tonkin resolution was both a legislative and foreign policy nightmare.
I'm no historian, but I'd be curious to know what legislative success that Lincoln had ...I mean Lincoln no doubt a great President, but was it his legislative program?
:idea: Lincoln's great foreign policy achievement was to prevent Europe from interfering in the Civil War. Europe watched helplessly as the United States became richer and more powerful than all of them combined and sought a way to stop the American juggernaut. The Civil War gave them their opportunity. Both Britain and France sent cannon, rifled muskets, ammunition and other war supplies to the Confederate States; warships were built and safely harbored in both Britain and France; several European nations offered to broker a "peace" between north and south, which would have recognized the Confederate States of America...giving them the victory. It was at this time, during our Civil War, that the European powers invaded Mexico. While America was distracted, The French, British, Spanish and Austrians set up an Austrian prince as the "Emperor of Mexico" with the idea of permanently housing huge European armies along the border with the United States and helping the new CSA in any way they could. All of their plans were ruined on May 5, 1862 (Cinco de Mayo) when a 31 year-old school teacher named Ignacio Zaragosa led a small peasant army over a much larger French army at the Battle of Puebla that is still celebrated to this day by freedom loving people everywhere. The Confederate strategy of Jefferson Davis and all of his generals was to fight a delaying action until they could achieve European recognition or direct European military intervention. This would have given the southerners independence and victory no matter what the armies did. Mr. Lincoln's foreign policy was at the heart of his military strategy: to prevent the Europeans from recognizing the CSA as a real nation. Cinco de Mayo stopped the European armies from directly helping the South and Mr. Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation made it politically impossible for the Europeans to publicly endorse the Confederate government. By changing the Civil War into a war over slavery and freedom, Lincoln prevented recognition of the South from all European nations, because none of them had slavery themselves. It was the master stroke: the greatest political maneuver in American history, and painted Jefferson Davis into a corner that he could not get out of: free the slaves and win your own country, or lose your country trying to keep the slaves. In the final month of the Civil War, the Confederate government relented and allowed slaves to join the southern army and fight for their country in exchange for their freedom, but it was way too little, too late. Mr. Lincoln was the greatest foreign policy president of all time. He was the only man on the planet who understood exactly what the nations of the world were up to; what they wanted; what they needed; and what they desired most. In the end, he out-maneuvered them all, and in destroying the old world of slavery, kings and empires, he laid the foundation for what he called "a new birth of freedom" that is our legacy to this day.
:idea: re: Mr. Lincoln's legislative program. Mr. Lincoln often said that he had only one hero in life: Henry Clay. It was Clay's "American System" of building a national network of roads and canals which bound the early republic together. Not only did this system produce a much richer country, but it also promoted a true "national" identity with shared values that all of the different areas of the nation subscribed to. Mr. Lincoln's dream had nothing to do with war. His legislative program was built around the idea of a Transcontinental Railroad, which would connect all parts of the nation together, with millions of miles of telegraph wire running right along side. He wanted to connect the gold fields of California with the big capital banks in New York; the cattle ranches of Texas with the warehouses and slaughterhouses in Chicago; a series of seaports, all connected by interior rail lines which could carry American goods to the world from San Francisco, to New Orleans, to New York and beyond. Mr. Lincoln had no small dreams...
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And he's not even putting himself below those three; he is only admitting "possible" exceptions. What a guy, humility at its finest.
90 rounds of golf as of yesterday in less than three years in office. That's THREE MONTHS where he was out playing instead of doing his job. And while he does this he asks for another $1.5 trillion hike in the debt ceiling like he's playing with Monopoly money. This boob doesn't even qualify for ranking with any president!
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The British call Obama "President Pantywaist"; the Russians see Obama as a pimp... <iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/G2TwVHO_5_c?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0"></iframe>
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