Edwards is a Democrat and has worked for the common people in product liability cases, winning large settlements for people who were wronged by big business. He is the best chance to fight the fascist corporatists who are controlling our country. Edwards' father was a mill worker who worked his way up to supervisor.
To the poster above: As an Illinois resident, I don't like Obama. He has not served our interests or done the job he was elected to do. He is frequently absent or votes present. He got elected because the Republicans ran a guy whose divorce from a movie star revealed he liked to have kinky sex in public places and with more than just two people. When that guy stepped down, they threw Alan Keyes into the mix for certain victory for Obama.
Obama went to Harvard and Columbia and a person who could live in Honolulu and Jakarta Indonesia is not exactly rising from poor beginnings. Obama acknowledges being raised by his mother's middle class family.|||They were both politicians. And apparently, most people who answered this question don't realize that the ideals of the Republican party at the time Lincoln was elected are essentially the same as the Democratic party's today. They have switched ideologies since his time.
Lincoln was a tyrant.
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|||They are both men and the similarities stop right there.|||edwards is better lookiing and has real nice hair ,other than that ,if you look at them real close and study the basis,they appear very close on paper!|||Lincoln was known as honest Abe for a reason...Would you trust someone going by the name Honest John?|||Obama is actually the one compared to Lincoln most often, regarding their experience--like Obama, Lincoln was a former member of the Illinois Legislature who had served briefly in Congress before becoming president. Like Lincoln, Obama is also an incredibly speaker and very charismatic. He also came from rather humble beginnings, as well as a broken family, and worked as a lawyer.
However, both of them didn't have the most humble beginnings. Edwards, for instance, had the privilege of attending college--first Clemson, then the very prestigious UNC Chapel Hill. His father was supervisor of a textile mill--not bad.
Soo...I think you cannot compare Edwards to Lincoln without also acknowledging that Obama fits the bill too.|||Well, let's see... ...Still thinking... ...UHHhmmm... ...Gimme a sec... ...Abe Lincoln once said, "It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt.". John Edwards proves him right every day.|||other than gender there are no similarities
lincoln did this nation a lot of good by eridicating slavery
edwards would literally reverse that trend and force us all into slavery
lincoln invaded the south and encouraged the raping and murdering of thousands of innocent women and children
edwards would turn out all the convicted sex offenders and allow them to continue raping and murdering|||Other than the fact that Lincoln was at one time a lawyer.. absolutely nothing at all.. and even in the lawyer part I feel safe in saying that Lincoln wasn't an ambulance chasing slip and fall lawyer... he had honor|||Illinois State Bar Association
53:512 Illinois Bar Journal
February 1965
Except for the meticulous scholar, few Americans know much about Lincoln's career as a lawyer. Yet it was his 23 years of arduous experience as a circuit-riding attorney that was the crucible through which he was prepared for the presidency and for statesmanship.
When Abraham Lincoln was admitted to the practice of law in Illinois in 1837, the young state was only just emerging from the conditions of a primitive frontier society. The majority of the pre-Lincoln judges certainly were not learned in the law, and although there were some lawyers of ability, it is extremely doubtful that the rank and file of the earliest Illinois bar knew much more law than the average educated or half-educated layman. One of the first lawyers to move into the Illinois territory was Isaak Darnielle (he left soon for Missouri). It was said of him that he "studied the ladies more than he studied his profession."
In order to gain some understanding of the manner in which trials were conducted in earliest Illinois, the following amusing incident might be recorded here: In an early trial involving the title to a mill, a somewhat erudite and locally prominent lawyer cited a case from Johnson's New York Reports in support of his argument. The opposing counsel simply evaded the force of this argument by informing the jury that this fellow Johnson was a Yankee peddler who "had gone up and down the country gathering rumors and telling stories against the people of the West and had published under the title of "Johnson's Reports."
He vehemently objected to the mere thought that this "book" should be given any authority or standing in an Illinois court, and he concluded his "rebuttal" with the following remark: "Gentlemen of the Jury, I am sure you will not believe anything that comes from such a source, and besides that, what did this Johnson know about Duncan's Mill no how?" When informed of the true nature of Johnson's Reports, instead of being dismayed by his abysmal ignorance, he vehemently denounced his opponent for his outrageous attempt to insult a sovereign and intelligent Illinois jury by introducing "foreign" law. The jury, in full accord with this argument, found against the lawyer who had dared to pervert local justice by importing alien precedents.
A Formidable Lawyer
Struggling against these rather riotous and often trying conditions, Abraham Lincoln, the self-taught lawyer, gradually rose to the forefront in his home state, meeting the many challenges of his chosen profession by growing continually in stature until he achieved the reputation as one of the ablest lawyers in Illinois, if not the whole West. According to Judge Stephen T. Logan, by close study of each case as it came up he [scil., Lincoln] got to be quite a formidable lawyer." It is readily conceded by h is contemporaries that as a cross-examiner and trial lawyer he had few equals at the Illinois bar.
Lincoln firmly believed that the human mind is best swayed by rational arguments based on information gathered by questions and answers. No matter how complex the issue might be, he always succeeded in disentangling it. Simplicity was probably his strongest point, and his illustrations were often quaint and homely, but always clear and apt, and generally conclusive. As he himself once put it, he never tried "to shoot over the heads of his audience."
Endowed with an inquiring but not wandering mind, with a direct and simple approach to the intellectual problems connected with the proper practice of law, and with the power of documentation and analytical reasoning, with the ability to marshal and organize relevant materials, and with a wonderfully luminous quality of restraint and effective verbal expression, Lincoln became also an outstanding appellate lawyer. Step by step he acquired an extensive though not particularly lucrative practice in the Supreme Court of Illinois as well as in the federal courts and the lower state courts. Probably no other Illinois lawyer could do so many things and do them so well.
The cases which he argued before federal and state courts covered virtually every conceivable subject of litigation typical of that time. Lincoln was perhaps the prime example of the all-round lawyer; "If the prodigality of his pleadings is staggering, the range and variety of his cases is scarcely less so." Leonard Swett, himself an accomplished lawyer, averred that he had listened to Rufus Choate and many others of equal standing in the profession, in the trial of cases, but that Lincoln was more impressive than any of them. What Lincoln could not accomplish with a jury, no other need try.
Always Loyal to His Client
The human interest element in some of the lesser cases--such as the Wright case in which he represented the widow of a Revolutionary soldier and succeeded in recovering exorbitant fees charged by a grasping and dishonest pension agent; or the Armstrong case in which he procured the acquittal of a man charged with homicide by introducing as evidence an almanac to refute damaging evidence-- has succeeded in partly obscuring the many truly important cases which Lincoln handled with great professional skill and telling success.
He had a total of 243 cases before the Supreme Court of Illinois, among them some of the most notable cases ever tried before that court; and he appeared twice before the Supreme Court of the United States. His work in the Supreme Court of Illinois, for instance, was marked by meticulous preparation: at all times he had complete mastery over his case, and he was never taken off his guard. A thorough study of his career at the bar shows that contrary to popular belief he was much more than a shrewd but honest "country lawyer." Loyal to his client and faithful to his ideals, he fought for whatever cause he was enlisted in, to the best of his ability.
Lincoln, who was never known to have made a single calculated misstatement, was a man of uncompromising integrity who refused to render indifferent service to a client whom he was committed to serve. In brief, he was not only a most competent but also a most conscientious lawyer--the highest praise that can possibly be bestowed on a member of the legal profession. Once his services had been enlisted, he spent himself without stint, laboring with indefatigable zeal for the interest of his client. He did not hesitate to avail himself of legal technicalities to promote the cause he was representing, and he resorted to every legitimate legal device and made full use of every technical advantage to win his case. To Lincoln's candor and "fidelity to his convictions can be attributed much of his success at the bar. When a case engaged his moral sense, no matter if the law was against him, his dynamic power of conviction and extraordinary sincerity often enabled him to overwhelm all the technicalities of the law, win over both judge and jury, and secure the verdict."
A "Lawyer's Lawyer"
The unreserved esteem in which he was held by the general public no less than the high confidence which he enjoyed among his fellow attorneys is the greatest praise that may be bestowed upon any lawyer. Probably no other lawyer in his time and place was more respected and more admired by his colleagues, neophytes and oldsters alike, than Lincoln. He knew instinctively how to try a case without making it a personal issue between counsels. Curing his long practice at the bar he never made a personal enemy in the profession.
Such qualities, which require generosity, patience, tact, courtesy, firmness, courage, self-control, and a big-mindedness which few men posses, also guided his conduct in the political arena. Lincoln the lawyer, Lincoln the candidate for high office, and Lincoln the President were essentially the same man.
The outstanding reputation and trust which he enjoyed among his brethren at the bar was abundantly evidenced by the fact that a substantial part of his law practice came from other lawyers who retained him to handle matters for them either before the Supreme Court of Illinois or in the Eighth Judicial Circuit of Illinois, or who enlisted his services as co-counsel in many important litigations. In the truest sense of the term, Lincoln was a "lawyers lawyer."
Lincoln most definitely possessed the basic qualities and qualifications of a prominent lawyer: a remarkable familiarity with the law and its technical aspects, a thorough command of the leading legal doctrines, a thoroughness in preparing and handling cases, an insatiable intellectual curiosity about the law and its operations, an abiding passion for advocacy, a special talent for stating the pertinent legal issues and of getting at the heart of the controversy, a practical and hard-headed approach to every legal problem, a sensitive consideration of others, a profound insight into the deeper recesses of the human mind and heart, and a glorious gift of expressing himself concisely and in plain language.
"Resolve to Be Honest"
IT is significant that in a community where straightforward dealing was assumed as a matter of course, Lincoln should have won an enviable reputation for integrity and honor. His refusal to handle a questionable case is perhaps best illustrated by the following incident: "We can doubtless[ly] gain y our case for you," he informed a prospective client who wished to retain his services in an action of debt, "we can set a whole neighborhood at loggerheads; we can distress a widowed mother and her six fatherless children, and thereby get for you six hundred dollars to which you seem to have a legal claim, but which rightfully belongs, it appears to me, as much to the woman and her children as it does to you. You must remember, however, that some things legally right are not morally right. We shall not take your case, but we will give you a little advice which we will charge you nothing. You seem to be a sprightly, energetic man. We would advise you to try your hand at making six hundred dollars in some other way."
"It is because he had the courage and character to uphold the highest standards of the law in daily practice," one of his biographers wrote, "that Lincoln is entitled to a place in the foremost rank of the profession. He lived his ideals and showed them to be practical...." Lincoln strongly discouraged pointless litigation and violently denounced any attempt at stirring up litigation, insisting that the most noble function of a lawyer was that of a "peacemaker."
He outrightly demanded that a pronounced moral tone ought to be infused into the profession, and he exhorted both lawyers and law students always to choose honesty above professional success:
"Let no young man choosing the law for a calling, foe one moment yield to this popular belief [scil., that lawyers are necessarily dishonest]. Resolve to be honest at all events; and if, in your own judgment, you cannot be an honest lawyer, resolve to be honest without being a lawyer. Choose some other occupation, rather than one in the choosing of which you do, in advance, consent to be a knave.
Conclusion
Historians and biographers are prone to overlook and minimize the importance of Lincoln's career at the bar and the decisive influence which the law and legal practice had upon his political career. He was certainly a great deal more than just a skillful, honest lawyer. It has been said, and probably with good reason, that the best training and preparation he had for the Presidency of the United States, after all, were his twenty-three years' arduous experiences as a practicing lawyer in Illinois. For law, with its sphere as varied as life itself and as broad as the combined activities of any government, was indeed Lincoln's schoolmaster.
edwards as a lawer
http://www.nationalreview.com/york/york0鈥?/a>
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