We couldn’t have a debate list without a cinematic look at what is probably the most famous debate in American history, the 1858 face-offs between Abraham Lincoln and incumbent Stephen A. Douglas during the Illinois race for the U.S. Senate. Raymond Massey’s impression of the future President may or may not stand up to Daniel Day-Lewis’ upcoming take in Lincoln, but he gets the old-movie honor of delivering a lengthy—though not entirely historically accurate—oration without the camera cutting away too much. Lincoln may not be remembered for his zingers—and he has no obvious moderator or time limit with which to cope—but there’s plenty of evidence here that his rhetorical skills, persuasiveness and humor would stand up just fine more than 150 years later. After all, you can’t really beat “a house divided against itself cannot stand.”
Fighting words: “It is the eternal struggle between two principles, the one the common right of humanity, the other the divine right of kings. It is the same spirit that says ‘you toil and work and earn bread and I’ll eat it.'”
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKfNMel5dug]