Old Abe is everywhere. TV specials, conferences, books, pins, figurines, and other Lincolnalia celebrate the Illinois Railsplitter's Big 2-0-0. Obama is reading Lincoln. His administration is compared to Lincoln's "team of rivals." In speeches, Obama praises Lincoln as the great unifier of the nation during its greatest crisis.

The problem...

Let's not allow an alleged race-based murder plot on the part of two Tennessee skinheads to dampen the hopeful spirit of the day. If the polls are accurate, for the first time an African American is poised to take the nation's highest political office. We can appreciate just how momentous...