Lincolnesque

After listening to President Obama's Afghanistan speech last night, Tom Ricks (impressed by the rhetoric if not necessarily the substance) quipped, "Why doesn't he just grow a beard and buy a top hat?" (You know, when properly photo-shopped, Obama actually looks like Lincoln. Creepy, huh?)

Obama last night:

"Now, let us finish the work at hand. Let us responsibly end these wars, and reclaim the American Dream that is at the center of our story. With confidence in our cause; with faith in our fellow citizens; and with hope in our hearts, let us go about the work of extending the promise of America -- for this generation, and the next."

Lincoln in 1865:

"With malice toward none, with charity for all ... let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."

Hmm. Methinks the president has been up nights watching Young Mr. Lincoln again while Michelle is away (she and the girls are touring South Africa). Speaking of movies, Academy Award winner Daniel Day-Lewis will star as the 16th president in Steven Spielberg's "Lincoln." It's based on the best-selling book, "Team of Rivals," by historian Doris Kearns Goodwin. Filming starts in the fall.