\n«In a recent CBS interview, Obama said he’s been spending a lot of time reading up on Lincoln, a further sign that he may try to channel the former president’s successes. Obama said he was reading presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin’s 2005 book ‘Team of Rivals,’ which focuses on Lincoln’s Cabinet. \u00ab\u00a0There is a wisdom there and a humility about his approach to government, even before he was president, that I just find very helpful,\u00a0\u00bb he told ’60 Minutes’ correspondent Steve Kroft. When asked whether he would be willing to put political enemies in his Cabinet, Obama responded, \u00ab\u00a0Well, I tell you what, I find him a very wise man.\u00a0\u00bb<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n»Lincoln, after all, put a political rival in his administration: fellow Republican and New York Sen. William Seward. He fought a hard campaign against Lincoln, often using his experience as a reason why he should win the party’s nomination over the Illinois politician. Seward later lost the vote. The same held true for Obama’s former primary rival Sen. Hillary Clinton, who is being discussed now as a potential pick for secretary of state. Like Seward, Clinton is a senator from New York and fought a long, bruising primary battle, albeit a Democratic one. Watch analysts weigh in on Clinton’s future »<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n»But as Obama considers Clinton and even Republicans for the Cabinet, the use of a Lincoln playbook may not help. \u00ab\u00a0A lot of what has been said as a historian strikes me as a little misguided.<\/em> [Obama], for example, is modeling himself after Lincoln by<\/em> [possibly] putting Hillary Clinton in the secretary of state,\u00a0\u00bb Forner said. \u00ab\u00a0But, by the way, that was typical in the 19th century. Most presidents took a major figure of their own political party, often someone who wanted the job himself, and made him secretary of state. That was a fairly conventional thing to do.\u00a0\u00bb<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n»[Ronald White, author of the upcoming book ‘A. Lincoln: A Biography’<\/em>] said Lincoln’s strategy was to surround himself with people who were equally strong. \u00ab\u00a0And I think one of the comparisons to recent presidents is that they often have put in people from their own states who often are ‘yes people’ to them. Therefore, they have not been given the benefit of strong contending points of view,\u00a0\u00bb he added. So would a team of rivals work today? \u00ab\u00a0I think this is the great question. Would it be possible? I hope it is. I think it’s a more difficult task today," White said. \u00ab\u00a0The Civil War also helped kind of say, ‘we have to have kind of a unity government.’ This is a big challenge. I hope<\/em> [Obama] can do it. I’m not sure he can.\u00a0\u00bb<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n»Harold Holzer, one of the country’s leading authorities on Lincoln and the Civil War, said the state of the nation today may be a major barrier to putting in place Lincoln’s playbook. \u00ab\u00a0Sen. Obama could have never contemplated a state leaving the country in reaction to his election, which was pretty rough. Lincoln could have never imagined nuclear war, the kind of foreign challenges that occur,\u00a0\u00bb Holzer said.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n»Holzer’s new book, ‘Lincoln President-Elect: Abraham Lincoln and the Great Secession Winter 1860-1861,’ examines the period between his election and inauguration. But Holzer said that although the nation’s challenges may be different, \u00ab\u00a0leadership comes not from experience alone or sometimes not from experience at all. It comes from a gravitas and self-deprecation and understanding of other people. It’s going to be a very interesting period.\u00a0\u00bb<\/em>»<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\nIl y a beaucoup de similitudes entre Lincoln et Obama: la jeunesse au moment de l’accession au pouvoir, le talent oratoire, la croyance dans la puissance du verbe, voire une certaine dimension spirituelle de la d\u00e9marche politique, etc. Il y a une certaine similitude aussi dans la perception qu’on a de deux personnages, \u00e0 la fois \u00e9nigmatiques (avant leur prise de pouvoir) et, peut-\u00eatre, \u00e0 la fois conscients de prendre le pouvoir \u00e0 un moment d’une crise intense et gravissime du pays. Y a-t-il une diff\u00e9rence de caract\u00e8re ou une similitude de caract\u00e8re? Le point est important.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Lincoln est apparu r\u00e9cemment, dans les \u00e9crits historiques qui ont explor\u00e9 des aspects jusqu’ici d\u00e9laiss\u00e9s, sans doute par conformisme, de sa personnalit\u00e9, comme un personnage angoiss\u00e9, d\u00e9pressif (en plus, avec une femme psychologiquement malade); une psychologie tourment\u00e9e et d’essence tr\u00e8s pessimiste, affect\u00e9e de ce que les Romains nommaient le \u00ab\u00a0tædium vitae <\/em>\u00a0\u00bb (\u00ab\u00a0d\u00e9goût de vivre\u00a0\u00bb). Cela peut paraître surprenant par rapport \u00e0 l’image historique officielle qu’on en a, d’un Lincoln n\u00e9cessairement optimiste pour le bien de l’am\u00e9ricanisme, – mais surprise de courte dur\u00e9e lorsqu’on se rappelle ce que l’histoire officielle, surtout aux USA où elle n’est que promotion de l’am\u00e9ricanisme, fait des personnages dont elle veut se servir.<\/p>\n<\/p>\nPour cerner rapidement ce trait de caract\u00e8re fondamental de Lincoln, nous citons cet extrait d’une interview de Arnaud Teyssier, auteur d’une biographie du mar\u00e9chal Lyautey, paru dans La Nouvelle Revue d’Histoire<\/em>, en f\u00e9vrier 2006. Teyssier fait une comparaison r\u00e9v\u00e9latrice entre les caract\u00e8res de Lincoln et Lyautey.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n\nLa NRH<\/em><\/strong>: «Votre biographie de Lyautey, r\u00e9cemment publi\u00e9e, s’\u00e9carte de la litt\u00e9rature pieuse. Vous insistez souvent sur le caract\u00e8re tortur\u00e9, la nervosit\u00e9, la fr\u00e9quente d\u00e9r\u00e9liction de cet homme d’exception. Comment d\u00e9finiriez-vous son temp\u00e9rament?<\/em>»<\/p>\n<\/p>\nArnaud Teyssier<\/em><\/strong>: «Lors d’un r\u00e9cent voyage \u00e0 New York, j’ai lu un important article sur Lincoln, – un personnage qui m’a toujours int\u00e9ress\u00e9 – dans la revue am\u00e9ricaine \u00ab\u00a0The Atlantic\u00a0\u00bb… Il nous r\u00e9v\u00e8le que cette figure mythique de l’histoire am\u00e9ricaine \u00e9tait un d\u00e9pressif et un m\u00e9lancolique, qui transcendait ses pulsions autodestructrices par l’action politique et la construction d’un grand r\u00eave collectif. Je dis bien qu’il \u00ab\u00a0transcendait\u00a0\u00bb, ou \u00ab\u00a0sublimait\u00a0\u00bb, mais en aucun cas ne cherchait vraiment \u00e0 gu\u00e9rir cette profonde maladie de son \u00e2me. J’ai \u00e9t\u00e9 saisi par cette lecture parce que j’ai retrouv\u00e9 \u00ab\u00a0mon\u00a0\u00bb Lyautey. Lyautey \u00e9tait un homme tortur\u00e9 par la m\u00e9lancolie, qui fut malheureux toute sa vie. Mais, chose extraordinaire, il ne s’inclina pas devant son mal, mais au contraire en usa comme d’un ressort pour agir, pour servir son pays, ses id\u00e9es, entraîner la jeunesse dans son sillage. Lyautey disait lui-m\u00eame qu’il souffrait du ‘tædium’, mot latin qui \u00e9voque un v\u00e9ritable \u00ab\u00a0d\u00e9goût\u00a0\u00bb de la vie. Sa psychanalyse, \u00e0 lui, ce ne fut pas le divan, mais l’action…<\/em>»<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\nIl s’agit \u00e9videmment d’un facteur essentiel qui est ici explor\u00e9, aussi bien dans le cas de Lincoln que dans celui de Lyautey, – et question tout aussi importante, on le comprend, si le caract\u00e8re d’Obama a cette proximit\u00e9-l\u00e0 de celui de Lincoln. Jusqu’ici, rien ne l’a montr\u00e9, mais c’est dans la nature m\u00eame de la chose que de ne pas se montrer, puisqu’il y a effectivement \u00ab\u00a0sublimation\u00a0\u00bb et que cette d\u00e9marche est destin\u00e9e essentiellement \u00e0 l’action politique, donc \u00e0 la vie publique. La question revient \u00e0 savoir si Obama est un caract\u00e8re tragique, et la r\u00e9ponse donnerait une pr\u00e9cieuse indication sur ce que sera son gouvernement, et, surtout<\/strong>, sur la fa\u00e7on dont il abordera la crise.<\/p>\n<\/p>\nMis en ligne le 24 novembre 2008 \u00e0 09H05<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Obama et Lincoln (…et Lyautey) Il est courant, surtout aux USA, de s’int\u00e9resser, \u00e0 l’arriv\u00e9e d’un nouveau pr\u00e9sident ou dans le cours de sa pr\u00e9sidence, \u00e0 son \u00ab\u00a0mod\u00e8le de pr\u00e9sident\u00a0\u00bb, \u00e0 sa r\u00e9f\u00e9rence dans la liste de ceux qui l’ont pr\u00e9c\u00e9d\u00e9. Obama a souvent \u00e9t\u00e9 et est couramment consid\u00e9r\u00e9 comme une sorte de \u00ab\u00a0r\u00e9plique\u00a0\u00bb de… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3896,7924,6208,6375,3099,7925,7923,6383,7926],"class_list":["post-70358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bloc-notes","tag-lincoln","tag-lyautey","tag-obama","tag-pessimisme","tag-psychologie","tag-taedium","tag-teyssier","tag-tragique","tag-vitae"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.dedefensa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.dedefensa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.dedefensa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.dedefensa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.dedefensa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70358"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.dedefensa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70358\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.dedefensa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.dedefensa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.dedefensa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}