Abraham Lincoln, whose 205th birthday was Wednesday, was 52 when he became president — the same age that Barack Obama is today. As president-elect, Lincoln took the train from Springfield to Washington, delivering a heartbreaking February farewell to the townspeople he would never see again. "To you, dear friends, I owe all that I have, all that I am."

President Obama held a state dinner Tuesday for the French president, Francois Hollande, with panache. Oh, it was grand, if over the top for the wintry mix mood of the moment. Mrs. Obama's billowing liberty-blue skirt ballooned in a style that would not make the cut in Paris. In her day, Mary Lincoln also entertained lavishly. Even the Obama White House dogs were dressed up.

The cross in time made me reflect on how Obama compares to the greatest. He's two inches shorter than Lincoln, who at 6'4" had the greatest stature of any president. He's a great writer and speaker, but then nobody composed presidential prose like Lincoln's monumental masterpieces. Obama had five years to do a half-finished job on health care reform and lead the country out of the Great Recession — mostly.

President Lincoln's Civil War came in April, as he knew it would, right after he took the oath of office in 1861. Remarkably, he won the Civil War in four years exactly. His assassination fell on an April night. He was 56.

It's worth remembering: running for president, Obama tried to evoke and echo Lincoln. The civil rights legacy was inescapable. Many loved the historical rhyme that the first African-American president came from the land of Lincoln.

Yet it took a lot of audacity, or chutzpah, to claim a certain place with Lincoln. Wisely, Obama has not done it as of late, but as a young aspiring president, he was bold and brash enough to presume a cosmic connection linking them. That was one of the things he told the American people as part of his legend-building. For all we know, Lincoln might have enjoyed telling a story about it, throwing his head back. He had a marvelous sense of humor. The 16th president was as shrewd as they come, so chances are he wouldn't mind if he helped Obama win.

It's instructive to contrast their styles. On one hand, Lincoln knew war was coming as president-elect. As he travelled through cities — among them Cincinnati, Albany, Philadelphia — on his way to Washington, he sounded the alarm and prepared the populace for tough times ahead. He was a stranger at every stop and people turned out to look and listen to him. Lincoln seized the chance to tell the nation what was coming.

Obama was slow to see his enemies — tea party Republicans rather than secessionist states. He missed a chance to campaign vigorously in 2010, when they came to majority power in the House. He tried to make friends with House Speaker John Boehner and to meet the tea party rebels on a middle ground in 2011 and again in 2012. Demoralized Democrats watched the president being disrespected. Obama's refrain, that he would change the culture and ways of Washington, came undone, but he was last to know.

Lincoln never tried to befriend his enemies. When Robert E. Lee turned down a chance to command Union troops, Lincoln took over Lee's spacious slave plantation and turned it into a Union Army camp, a school for former slaves and a sacred military cemetery. It's called Arlington. That impressed his new cabinet, aka a team of rivals.

The Civil War president expressed the repertoire of emotions on his craggy face. He wept one morning when Quaker visitors prayed for peace. He expressed joy at seeing his boys playing and roughhoused with them. He greeted Frederick Douglass and invited him into an inaugural party, asking what he thought of his speech. He agonized over telegrams in the War Office. And he met with countless ordinary people, one on one.

Lincoln was an open book to all, the first president of the people. Is Obama a man of the people? You tell me.

To find out more about Jamie Stiehm, and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit www.creators.com.