In an LA Times op-ed, Historian Matthew Pinsker rips apart Doris Kearns Goodwin's pretty little picture of Lincoln's "Team of Rivals" story--that he brought his political rivals :together in his war cabinet, and through his political genius managed them into the team that won the Civil War. That's her story. Reality? Not so much:
Consider this inconvenient truth: Out of the four leading vote-getters for the 1860 Republican presidential nomination whom Lincoln placed on his original team, three left during his first term -- one in disgrace, one in defiance and one in disgust.
It may not be nearly as heinous as calling everyone you don't like "the next Hitler," but as a bad historical analogy it could be just as destructive for our side as the Hitler/Munich analogy has been for Republicans. Indeed, there's a striking underlying parallel that Pinsker--who sticks strictly with Lincoln side of things--doesn't even touch: Just as the neocons were inclined to compare anyone who looked at them cross-eyed to Hitler, Obama seems to have no limit to those he'll include in his "team of rivals" approach, despite the very limited circle of those that Lincoln included. Thus, even if the original idea were historical accurate, Obama's application seems as indiscriminate in its way as that of the neocons, who see a world populated with Hitlers--anyone, in essence, who doesn't play ball with us, and doesn't fit the role of Neville Chamberlain.
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