"Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up, and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable – a most sacred right – a right, which we hope and believe, is to liberate the world."

— Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln's message applies to the United States more than ever. We need to shine our historical flashlights on the great leaders of the past sometimes to gain insights into solving the daunting problems we face today. Especially if the problems we face today can ultimately destroy the Republic. As we all know when Lincoln was elected in 1860 he faced the destruction of the Union.

After the state Republican party convention nominated him for the U.S. Senate in 1858, Lincoln delivered his House Divided Speech, drawing on Mark 3:25:  "A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved—I do not expect the house to fall—but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or the other."

The speech created an evocative image of the danger of disunion caused by the slavery debate.  Lincoln lost the election for Senate but the speech is relevant to today's existential problem.  Indeed, today the House shall not fall but will the House prosper or will it slowly rot away as the burden of massive debt eats away at its foundation?

Mr. Romney has stated that the election of 2012 will be a choice whether the country will be a country of entitlements or opportunity. As Lincoln said " It will become all one thing, or the other."

"Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln" is a book by historian Doris Kearns Goodwin published in 2005. The book is a biographical portrait of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln and some of the men who served with him in his Cabinet from 1861 to 1865. Three of Lincoln's Cabinet members had previously run against him in the 1860 election: Attorney General Edward Bates, Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase and Secretary of State William H. Seward.

The book focuses on Lincoln's mostly successful attempts to reconcile conflicting personalities and political factions on the path to abolition and victory in the US Civil War.

Given Lincoln was facing the greatest challenge facing the United States to date he welcomed his rivals to join his government given he believed they possessed the finest minds in the land.

President Barack Obama installed his main rivals Joseph Biden and Hillary Clinton after reading the book.  A cynic might believe that he did it to eliminate them as rivals in a future presidential primary race, and it worked.

The Republican nominee who hopefully will be the next President should consider enlisting the services of his rivals as did Lincoln, given the magnitude of the challenge facing the next administration and future of the country.

Sadly the vast majority of the voters have no sense of the future obligations of the government and its citizenry. The On – Balance Sheet debt (obligations resulting from IOUs to the buyer of the US Treasuries is $15 Trillion Dollars or 15,000 Billion Dollars. The Off- balance sheet obligations or promises to pay by the government (entitlements) is estimated to be $100 Trillion. The combined amount is $115 Trillion. Given it's hard to imagine the vast sum, I convert it to 115,000 Billion Dollars. A staggering sum.  The fiscal crisis we face today is equivalent to that faced by the Union in 1860

Let us hope that the next President welcomes his rivals into his government as Lincoln did, and let us pray the House will be a House of Opportunity.