Abraham Lincoln will hover over Tuesday's presidential inauguration in ways big and small. The lofty official theme, "A New Birth of Freedom," comes from a famous Lincoln speech. And since Honest Abe liked all things apple, dessert at the luncheon after Barack Obama's swearing-in will be an apple cinnamon sponge cake.
The Lincoln theme resonates on numerous levels, say organizers and scholars. Like Lincoln, Obama got his start in the Illinois Legislature. Both gained renown as orators. The nation was, and is, facing perilous times. And as the first black American assumes the presidency, whom better to recall than the man whose Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 laid the groundwork for the end to slavery?
Fitting as the Lincoln theme may be, it was actually chosen months before the Nov. 4 election and just as Obama was emerging in June as the Democratic Party's nominee. A congressional committee picked it for one reason: Lincoln was born 200 years ago. No matter which candidate had won the election, this inauguration would have honored the 16th president in the bicentennial year of his birth.
"It's a happy coincidence that, with the selection and election of President-elect Obama, the theme is that much more appropriate," said Carole Florman, spokeswoman for the congressional committee overseeing inaugural events at the Capitol.
Obama himself has embraced Lincoln since launching his presidential bid in February 2007 at the old State House in Springfield, Ill. Obama has often quoted him. On Tuesday, Obama will be sworn in with the Bible used at Lincoln's 1861 inauguration.
The official inaugural theme, "A New Birth of Freedom," comes from Lincoln's brief but famous Gettysburg Address, delivered in 1863 after the Battle of Gettysburg. It is a grand echo that, intended or not, reinforces the public's already high expectations.
"For the inaugural theme, I think it is good to have lofty images," said Martha Joynt Kumar, a Towson University expert on the media and the presidency. "I think you want to aim high. That's what we want, right? The public has a great deal of confidence because they see him as a person of hope."
She added: "I think all of us would like to see presidents aim high. Better Abraham Lincoln than James Buchanan."
Still, Robert Schmuhl, who teaches American studies at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind., sees a potential risk.
