Nov 7, 2016 4 min read

It’s been a long, hard slog.

All of this started when the ex-U.S. Senator from Virginia, Jim Webb, announced he was forming an exploratory committee for a possible run for the presidency.

Remarkably, that was on Nov. 20, 2014.

Tomorrow, that’ll be 719 long, long days ago.

Webb didn’t stand a chance.

He gained little support.

He dropped out of the race in October of 2015.

Along the way, there have been a busload of potential presidents who’ve announced their candidacies, and then found themselves being folded, spindled and mutilated by a political process that’s messy, loud, but gloriously and uniquely American.

Now there are only two survivors.

Only one will move into the White House in January.

No matter who wins, they’ll discover the long shadow of the previous occupants lurking below the surface.

On that day in 2014, when Webb unofficially kicked-off his presidential campaign, Barack Hussein Obama’s job approval was only 41 percent.

His job approval is much higher today – at 54 percent.

That guy who’d been accused of being a closeted Marxist; a secret Muslim; a child of Kenya, who was, supposedly, planning to take our guns away when he ran for the presidency back in 2008, is far more popular than the two people who could become elected tomorrow.

How did that happen?

Well, after a protracted campaign, in which Americans witnessed a complete dissection of the histories of the two remaining candidates, they’ve (largely) come to feel more comfortable with a scandal-free president, than the two choices they’ve be given.

Donald Trump says Hillary Clinton will get indicted if she’s elected – because of her email and Clinton Foundation troubles.

Donald Trump faces two serious court cases within weeks, one for a lawsuit involving child rape. And the other, a fraud case over his now defunct Trump University.

In eight years, Obama, aside from political squabbles, has been completely without personal controversy.

That’s just not his style.

But with the non-stop cable news coverage, highlighted by the daily bickering by pundits, political writers and campaign surrogates -Trump and Clinton have little luster left.

Consider this.

Abraham Lincoln easily slipped into the nation’s history books as our greatest president.

Presidential candidate Lincoln probably benefitted greatly, because there were no TV sets beaming his image, with sound bites of his previous political stands; and there may have been a few opinion writers, but far fewer people could even read.

In fact, in the end, only a relatively small number of the voters who voted for him even knew what he looked like back in 1860.

Since women and slaves were thought to be unworthy of having a hand in our democracy, mainly white men elected Lincoln. And then by only 485,706 more votes than for his closest competitor – Stephen A. Douglas.

When I’ve heard Trump proclaim that we live in a “divided country,” and that only he can bring us back together, I’m aware that he suffers from a distinct lack of knowledge of history.

Lincoln’s America did divide. And, for a time, he was powerless to do anything about that.

But he prevailed with the dogged resolve that, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”

The divisions that exist today aren’t the result of government policies that can be fixed with the swipe of a pen, or certainly not with a Civil War.

These complex divisions have arisen out of an increasing number of people who are demanding that they have a genuine right to be heard.

It’s not a bad thing – except, perhaps, to Trump.

Mr. Trump has made it the foundation of his candidacy to create the false-illusion that America is failing because of “them.”

As a result, he has, as did Lincoln did in 1860, built his campaign largely through the support of white men – but for two, completely different reasons, of course.

When Trump claims that he is a Republican in the image of Lincoln, he must be reminded that we know Abe Lincoln.

Abe Lincoln was a friend of ours.

Mr. Trump, you’re no Abe Lincoln.

Edward A. Owens is a three-time Emmy Award winner and 20-year veteran of television news. E-mail him at freedoms@bellatlantic.net