Saturday, May 9, 2009


" So I said to him, ' Barack, I know Abe Lincoln, and you ain't Abe Lincoln. ' "

3 comments:

  1. And, most of all, you cannot rely on quotations lifted off the Web. The "you cannots" did not originate with Abe; he never said them or anything like them.

    They actually are the work of a conservative preacher, the Rev. William Boetcker, in the early 1900s. They were reprinted, and the attribution botched, by a conservative political group in the 1940s. Here's a link to the true story.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J._H._Boetcker

    This actually wouldn't have been that hard to find out if you had checked BEFORE posting. I recommend you try that approach in the future.

    And, yes, Ronald Reagan got it wrong too.

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  2. You ascribe the quotation below the artwork to Abe Lincoln.

    I made no suggestion that it was Lincoln speaking those words. In fact, I was thinking more of the famous assertion of Senator Lloyd Bentsen to Senator Dan Quayle in the 1988 Vice Presidential debates wherein Bentsen said "I served with Jack Kennedy: I knew Jack Kennedy; Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy. "

    I had no belief that the Lincoln "quotation" as a caption to the image was in fact Lincoln's.

    I sense a bit of hostility in the tone of your response!

    I RECOMMEND YOU check YOUR anger before responding next time !

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  3. Um, give me a break. Obviously the quotation below the art is a joke based on the Bentsen squelch.

    I was referring to the quoted list labeled "Advice from the Past" to the right of the artwork. I would have thought that was obvious from my comment, which referred to the list as the "you cannots." I sense you didn't read my comment very closely, and I recommend you try doing that again.

    Angry? No. Amazed at how often people will leap to repeat an alleged Lincoln quote -- without checking to see if he actually said it -- when it seems to support their preconceived position? You betcha.

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