A playful thought: Is Barack Obama the reincarnation of Abraham Lincoln?

Mural painter Ron English stood contentedly before his fine Obama-Lincoln composite portrait
on the side of a building on Thayer Street in Boston last July 2, 2008. The mural was an outdoor
expression of his installation in Gallery XIV’, which passed out poster copies of the art that soon
were pasted publicly across the city.  The mayor's office fielded angry calls protesting the prolific
image (probably from Republicans), yet its spontaneous popularity showed how naturally voters
saw a connection between Obama and Lincoln. (Photo courtesy of AdBusters; pay them a visit.)
 

Amid all the media hubbub about Barack Obama's homage to his spiritual mentor on Abraham Lincoln's 200th birthday, February 12th, I recalled an AdBusters photo spread on the intuitively brilliant portrait by Ron English. Some of you may have seen this image before, especially if you live in Boston. but I wager this tantalizing portrait is new to most of you.

I then recalled a Time magazine essay by Barack Obama (published June 26, 2005), "What I See in Lincoln's Eyes," in which Obama talks about the last photograph of Lincoln before his death. Here's how Obama began the essay:

"My favorite portrait of Lincoln comes from the end of his life. In it, Lincoln's face is as finely lined as a pressed flower. He appears frail, almost broken; his eyes, averted from the camera's lens, seem to contain a heartbreaking melancholy, as if he sees before him what the nation had so recently endured.

"It would be a sorrowful picture except for the fact that Lincoln's mouth is turned ever so slightly into a smile. The smile doesn't negate the sorrow. But it alters tragedy into grace."

Obama's empathy with Lincoln seems exceptional, given the known and unknon hardships awaiting him in the years ahead.

Then I recalled a comment late last year from an "intuitive" friend of mine who is absolutely convinced that Abraham Lincoln has reincarnated as Barack Obama. She cited her "evidence" as Obama's meteoric rise to the presidency after one term as the Senator from Illinois, which matched Lincoln's meteoric rise to the presidency after one term in the House as a Representative from Illinois.

She talked about the "karmic symmetry" of the "great liberator" coming back to be the first African-American president, to finish the job left undone, she said, and this time to live through the presidency without assassination.

She then noted their physical similarities. Beyond the tall and lean stature of both men, the upper lips of both men are almost identical. Next she noted that both men have small moles along the fold of skin between the nose and the cheek.

The positions of the moles do not match, I countered. I went to the web to pull images of both men and place them side by side. Lincoln's mole was on his right side, below the nose and close to his mouth. Obama's mole is on his left side, above the nostril. See, look at the difference, I said, smirking smugly.

She replied, "The difference makes no difference." Hmmm? Decide for yourself:

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