Team of Rivals

I finished Team of Rivals by Doris Kearnes Goodwin this week. I started this account of Lincoln's presidency and how he ensured its success by bringing into his cabinet the best men even if they were opposed to him in the summer and and enjoyed it so much that I rationed myself because I didn't want it to end.  I could hardly bring myself to read the last 100 pages because I knew that bastard Booth was going to assassinate him.
I have a new hero.  What a man.  If there are other books that will tell me that everything he's supposed to have done was down to blind luck, and that the Gettysburg address was written by someone else, I'm not interested.  In common with most nations the UK history syllabus is heavily nationalistic so I grew up knowing little or nothing about Lincoln. This book, so well written, was a revelation.  I marvelled at each page, each new act of wisdom or magnanimity. And so astute. So human.  I felt bereft as I read of his final visit to the theatre.  Come on, America, you had Lincoln, FDR, Luther King, you can't settle for Sarah Palin and the Tea Party. Can you?
Mind you, who are we to criticize?  Thatcher, Blair, Cameron... God knows, we need someone.

So come back Woody Guthrie
Come back to us now
Tear your eyes from paradise
And rise again somehow
If you run into Jesus
Maybe he can help you out
Come back Woody Guthrie to us now

Christmastime in Washington - Steve Earle