As I detailed in my Huffington Post column this week, Hannity and others on the far-right are challenging the president-elect’s position on Gitmo based upon Lincoln’s more questionable executive decisions during the Civil War. The idea behind the argument is basically: If Obama likes Lincoln so much, then he has to also like Gitmo because Lincoln would’ve liked Gitmo.
Of course no-one knows if whether or not Lincoln would’ve opened or closed Gitmo. But in the comments under my item, I wrote the following response to a wingnut who agreed with Hannity:
Even if we were to learn somehow that he would have endorsed Gitmo, are you and Hannity suggesting that Obama can’t admire Lincoln without supporting this hypothetical (and unprovable) Lincoln position on Gitmo? Are you likewise suggesting that we (or Obama) can’t admire Jefferson or Madison without also supporting slavery? If that’s the case, then Republicans aren’t allowed to embrace Lincoln without embracing the income tax and post-war amnesty for America’s wartime enemies.
