A Lincoln Reality Check

Lincoln, the new movie directed by Stephen Spielberg and based on Doris Kearns Goodwin's best-selling Team of Rivals, is a reassuring delight for fans of the great President who saved the Union and ended slavery, especially after last summer's strange detour into Lincoln's secret career as Vampire Hunter. The new film focuses on Lincoln's final months and his fight for the 13th Amendment at the close of the Civil War. Like the book, though, it raises old questions about our most celebrated president - especially after this year's heated presidential campaign. Just how honest was Honest Abe? What kind of politician was he? How did he really outwit better-known candidates to win the Presidency in 1860 and assemble his "team of rivals"?