To read the complete Lincoln quote, it appears that he viewed the role of government as limited to certain tasks that individuals cannot effectively undertake themselves. Yet President Obama cherry-picks and paraphrases to give Lincoln’s words a seemingly innocuous communitarian spin. Why is this significant, rather than just mere nitpicking? The answer lies in the fact that Obama used a tried and true Alinskyite tactic in his speech: wrapping communitarian and statist ideas in language that invokes the country’s great leaders of the past. It’s a time-honored tradition among radicals like Alinsky and Obama.