AOTD Discussion question #4 - Could Lincoln be elected President today?

[Bill Chapman]

Postman implies the answer is no; that in the entertainment age looks trump substance, and Lincoln didn't have looks. Imagine Lincoln trying to speak in the televised joint press conferences that we call debates. What could he say in the allotted two minute answers or 30 second rebuttals? Maybe he'd do better on radio, where as Dave Wallace has pointed out, Nixon may have won over Kennedy in 1960. What do you think?

[Bill Chapman]

Mary, I think you've definitely got a future as a political consultant for dead presidents.

 

On a more serious note, what you've suggested would be a great project to give students - Use primary and secondary source documents to research a dead president's strengths and weaknesses, then devise a plan to use them to maximum effect in a modern political campaign.

[Shawn McCusker]

Really this question comes down to "Would lincoln have adapted to todays media"? I say YES he would have been elected. Lincoln's father was disappointed in him during his life because he insisted on reading often. His father saw this as lazy and favored the work ethic of his step brother who was more traditional and toiled on the farm. This did not phase him. He had a vision of what he wanted and where he was going. As president during the Civil war he spent his time parked by the telegraph. He consumed reports of the war, updates on the battles and he used the telegraph to communicate orders to his generals who resisted his instructions. They were not early adopters of the newest forms of technology. Lincoln indeed was. I feel Postman is wrong in using Lincoln as an example of the old school of thought and communication. Lincoln was an early adopter in every sense of the term. If he were running for President today, he would have more followers than Newt. (And real ones at that).

[Bill Chapman]

Shawn, it strikes me that your description of Lincoln could almost be a description of Lyndon Johnson. I remember Johnson, not parked next to a telegraph, but sitting in front of the 3 TV sets he had in his office (one for each network). Also, after listening to many of the recordings Johnson made of his phone calls, he seems to have shared a tendency towards bipolar illness with Lincoln as well. And then there is is appearance.

[Bill Chapman]

It seems mostly forgotten now, probably due to his association with the Vietnam war, that Johnson could also be a terribly eloquent speaker. Perhaps his finest address as president was his 1965 speech before Congress urging passage of the Voting Rights Act. It is available from the American Rhetoric site.

 

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/lbjweshallovercome.htm

 

It builds and builds, so all who choose to listen, please do so all the way through.