Constitutional Crises

"If Musharraf is interested in learning from Lincoln, he might ponder these remarks made shortly after the 1864 election: 'We can not have free government without elections; and if the rebellion could force us to forego, or postpone a national election, it might fairly claim to have already conquered and ruined us.... But the election, along with its incidental, and undesirable strife, has done good too. It has demonstrated that a people's government can sustain a national election, in the midst of a great civil war.'"

Eric Foner in The Nation disputes Pervez Musharraf's self-comparison with Abraham Lincoln.