Abraham Lincoln

Preston Manning on the new Spielberg film, ‘Lincoln’—and what Obama could learn from it

For the record, Colby Cosh on some ‘just plain weird’ alternate-universe U.S. history

A few years back I came upon one of those historical footnotes that gets you thinking: after Abraham Lincoln was shot on April 14, 1865, as he lay dying in a boarding house across the street from the Ford Theater, one of the small group that watched over him was Dr. Anderson Abbott, Canada’s first black physician.

Rumours about bin Laden are only the latest in a toxic new wave of conspiracy theories

Every third monday in February, the U.S. celebrates a national holiday honouring George Washington and his successors as president. The presidency was not originally meant to be the most important elected office in the world. The separation of powers between the exceutive and legislative (Congress) branches made sure that American Revolution would not replace a royal monarch with a civil one. Also, at the time of the founding Constitution, the new nation was far from being the superpower it would become less than 200 years later. Yet, no one today would dispute that the American president, despite the checks and balances of the U.S. Constitution, is the most consequential political actor in the world.

Peter Wehner notes the difference between civility and weakness.

And that makes us look crazy

Andrew Steele draws the line between raucous debate and what it is that we have.

Marx and Freud have faded badly, but Darwin still rules today

Obama looks to Lincoln, who gave Americans the optimism they craved

Bad idea.

Back, for a moment, to David Foster Wallace’s take on John McCain.