Guest: Paul Hodes, Paul Rieckhoff, Edward Larson, Kent Jones RACHEL MADDOW, HOST:Â And thank you at home for staying with us for the next
hour. President Obama, as you know, just wrapped up his speech tonight in Springfield, Illinois, honoring Abraham Lincoln‘s 200th birthday. Tonight‘s speech capped, actually, a full day of dare I say very thorough commemoration of our 16th president by our 44th president. And the speech capped what has really been a campaign and a presidential transition, and an inauguration, and so far, even a presidency built on the idea of Lincoln the idea of Lincoln as the guy, the prime-mover—Lincoln‘s legacy as the defining narrative for who we are as a country. “We are not enemies but friends,†“with malice toward none,†“with charity towards all,†“a house divided against itself cannot stand,†“a team of rivalsâ€â€”it is not a numerological accident about when Lincoln‘s birthday is that explains why you have heard these words so much recently. From the very beginning of his race for the White House, Barack Obama has evoked Lincoln time and time again. And as Howard Fineman pointed out with Keith last hour, he appointed—he allied himself with Abraham Lincoln‘s legacy even before he started his run for the White House. When then-Senator Obama—excuse me—announced his presidential candidacy two years ago, it was the weekend of Lincoln‘s birthday, and he made the announcement on the steps of the old Illinois State Capitol. That is the building where, of course, Lincoln delivered his famous “House divided†speech.
“A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved—I do not expect the house to fall—but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other.â€