Doris Kearns Goodwin's epithet was imperfect to start, and Obama's initial carryover even less perfect, but he finally has a true Team of Rivals.
One imagines the commander in chief as the embattled Lincoln, circumscribing his aims so he can keep his internal coalition together, while it nevertheless splinters and bounces off self-concerned walls.
President Obama and Salmon Chase Hillary Clinton have "talked of a broader policy objective — that Jefferson Davis Colonel Qaddafi must leave power. In his comments on Sunday, General McClellan Admiral Mullen suggested that objective lay outside the bounds of the military campaign."
William SewardRobert Gates "praised the mission’s 'successful start,' " but added that "Having states in the [Northern] region begin to break up because of internal differences is a formula for real instability in the future."
One could go on, especially in an oddly gendered way, something which Lincoln most definitely did not have to contend: there are the firebreathers of Samantha Power and Susan Rice, juxtaposed with the copperheads of Tom Donilon and John Brennan, but the metaphor tires.
Oh, I forgot to mention ... Lincoln won.