As Quoted in USA Today,…

Honest Abe is now an honest-to-gosh babe

Nation is sweet on 16th president
By Craig Wilson USATODAY
February 21, 2005

Some 140 years after his death, a melancholy and gangly man with a straggly beard, awkward social skills and no college degree, is the darling of the media.

Yep, Abraham Lincoln is hot Scholars say even he'd be amused. From magazine covers to the fronts of T-shirts, from book signings to museum openings, Honest Abe is center stage. There's even a movie in the works.

"We're re-examining our heroes," says Ronald White, author of The Eloquent President: A Portrait of Lincoln Through His Words and a professor at San Francisco Theological Seminary. "We all want to be on Lincoln's side. It makes us look better. He epitomizes the best of American values."

As Illinois Sen. Everett Dirksen said 40 years ago: "Everyone wants to get right with Lincoln."

Part of the fascination is in Lincoln's contradictions. "He has a lot of wisdom but is self-deprecating. He's humble but also ambitious," White says. "He's a bit distinctive compared to today's politicians."

...A $115 million state-of-the-art Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum opens this spring in Springfield, IL. Theme-park technology meets serious history.

...And the frenzy will only get more intense when the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial kicks off in 2009.

"People are infatuated with the (Civil War) era, with the difficult times, and I think they relate that to what's happening today," says Lincoln impersonator Lee Williams, who has been playing Lincoln around the Midwest for 15 years now.

"I hear again and again that 'Lincoln's my favorite president,' " says Williams. "I credit it all to his honesty and his character..."

Contributing: Mary Cadden

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