I cannot help but notice how much like Lyndon Baines Johnson syndicated cartoonist Denis McCoy chooses to portray Barack H. Obama. Is there intended irony here?

LBJ presided over what he hoped would be the end game of a war that was not popular. He did not stay the course. He is perhaps best known for his legislative initiatives collected into a volume called the Great Society. We still see poverty and racial tension in our society, so not enough came out of that.

I wish BHO more success in his endeavors. He has a hurricane headwind to plow through where LBJ had, in retrospect, a Scottish zephyr.

He is younger and, I think, stronger and more thoughtful than LBJ at what Johnson should have been happy to see as the end of a successful career in the Senate. But LBJ got caught up in the thrill of reaching for a star. Let us hope, for all our sakes, that BHO has not overreached his capabilities.

Consider the life of Abraham Lincoln. Forget that it ended in tragic assassination -- that is not my point. Consider that an Illinois lawyer -- from a chronically poor family that had to move four times before young Abe was old enough to get a job for himself -- served one term as senator from Illinois before, to the amazement of virtually every politician outside Illinois, he was elected president in 1860 by a popular and electoral landslide.

This man, by his own admission, was underprepared for the challenges he faced but had perfect faith in the meaning of the Constitution of the United States and weathered the greatest storm this country ever faced.

Lincoln was even plainer looking than LBJ. Could McCoy give us his take on Obama as Lincoln?

Bob Bramwell

Pinehurst