Obama, Lincoln, Cunning

A reader writes:

As a Chicagoan who has watched Obama emerge on the national scene, I couldn't agree with you more about his cunning and charisma. Before things really started ramping up, people asked me whether he had a chance against the Clinton attack machine and I said "I look at all his opponents on both sides of the aisle and think, you poor, sad fools. You don't even know what you are getting into."

Every time I read articles about this I think about Herndon's statement about Lincoln:

"That man who thinks Lincoln sat down calmly and gathered his robes about him, waiting for the people to call him, has a very erroneous knowledge of Lincoln. He was always calculating, and always planning ahead. His ambition was a little engine that knew no rest."

That describes Barack Obama to a tee which is precisely why he is such an incredibly deadly politician.