>"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations." -- Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugral Address

Barack Oboma's affinity for Lincoln could not be more clear. He declared his candidacy in Springfield on a cold day in February two years ago, a day much like today. I grabbed my daughters on their way to the refrigerator and got them to watch his speech with me. I said he is going to be our next president. They said I was nuts.

It's a heck of a position he has won. Things could not be more screwed up. But I continue to believe in him. He inspires faith, and faith can move mountains.

It's also telling that he refers back to Lincoln and not to a black leader like Martin Luther King. He will be remembered as America's first black president, but that doesn't really capture him. As his predecessor said, falsely, he is a uniter, not a divider.

Call me a goofy idealist but I think he can lead us out of the darkness.