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In Lincoln's Footsteps

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 12, 2009

Barack Obama has paid tribute to Abraham Lincoln in many ways, from tracing his inaugural path

on a whistle-stop train tour from Philadelphia to Washington to using Lincoln's Bible

at his inauguration. Here are some more of the unions of the nation's 16th and 44th presidents.

LINCOLN/OBAMA

Jobs before presidency

Lawyer, Illinois state legislator (seven years), member of U.S. House/

Lawyer, Illinois state legislator (seven years), member of U.S. Senate

Springfield, Ill.

Home for 24 years/

Home base for presidential campaign launch
Yosemite National Park
Signed the grant in 1864 that set aside the land that became the park/

Sat in front of the painting "View of Yosemite Valley," by Thomas Hill, at the luncheon with congressional leaders after the inauguration. (The group dined on replicas of Lincoln's White House china.)

"A New Birth of Freedom"

Included phrase in his Gettysburg Address/

Official theme of Obama's inauguration

Cabinet approach

Created a "team of rivals"/

Read Doris Kearns Goodwin's "Team of Rivals," named strong personalities, three Republicans, to Cabinet

Debates

Debated Stephen Douglas seven times/

Debated John McCain three times

Father

Kentucky frontiersman/

Kenyan goatherd and economist

Wife

Mary Todd Lincoln, who belonged to the aristocracy of Lexington, Ky., and was criticized for her expensive clothing in the midst of the Civil War/

Michelle Obama, daughter of a pump operator for the Chicago Water Department, who has been widely praised for her stylish fashion choices during a time of two foreign wars

Nicknames

Honest Abe/

Pumpski (Michelle's pet name for Obama)

Pets

Fido, a mongrel killed by a knife-wielding drunk/Has narrowed search to labradoodle or Portuguese water hound
Dog quote

"Calling a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg." - Lincoln, in a comment thought to have been inspired by Fido/

"This has been tougher than finding a commerce secretary." - Obama, on the search for a dog

Kevin Barnard

Sources: The Associated Press, New York Times, Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies www.whitehouse.gov, www.sj-r.com, www.trivia-library.com, abcnews.go.com.

LINCOLN/OBAMA

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