Lincoln

What I have often said that I admire most about Lincoln is not the myth, nor the notion that he was perfect, but that he was very human. It is the fact that he was scarred, flawed, and broken, yet, pliable and open to change, growth, and compassionate suffering.

He rose to leadership through some back doors. He stumbled into our nation's greatest crisis, and crisis squeezed greatness and leadership out of him, revealing some essence that could be shaped into something more than he had ever revealed to himself or others.

He was willing to change his mind and was able to change the hearts and minds of a people.

His motives, tactics, and predispositions will be argued among scholars and historians for years to come --- but the fact that he continues to be the subject of such debate, verifies the significant place he holds in our history.

He will always be one of our most complex, confounding, and contradictory character and those things, in my opinion, convince me more and not less, of his greatness.