Mission: Fail

Haw.  This one brought me up short, culled from near the beginning of a Politico column anticipating the Giffords shooting as the opportunity for President Obama to have his "Oklahoma City moment":

Obama idolizes Lincoln, and like his fellow Illinoisan he sees himself as a warrior by compulsion, forced by circumstance to take up arms against political adversaries instead of following his preferred path of reconciliation, civility and compromise.

(yellow highlights added for emphasis)

Our political discourse is duly elevated.