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Paul Simon

October 2026
1min read

FORMER U.S. SENATOR

My father grew up on a dairy farm in Wisconsin, and to his dying day he believed that the two greatest Americans were “Old Bob” La Follette and Abraham Lincoln. I caught the interest from him. But the more I read about Lincoln and his personal struggles and his efforts for the less fortunate—and his greatness of spirit—the more fascinated I became.

“I WENT TO THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS and asked an idiotic question: Did they have anything on Lincoln there? ’

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