A Year Ago - President Barack Obama On: "Going the distance"
Said Obama: Were on this planet a pretty short time, so that we cannot remake the world entirely during this little stretch that we have. But I think our decisions matter. And I think America was very lucky that Abraham Lincoln was President when he was President. If he hadnt been, the course of history would be very different. But I also think that, despite being the greatest President, in my mind, in our history, it took another hundred and fifty years before African-Americans had anything approaching formal equality, much less real equality. I think that doesnt diminish Lincolns achievements, but it acknowledges that, at the end of the day, were part of a long-running story. We just try to get our paragraph right.