You?re not alone. Christopher Hitchens throws this jab in his latest Newsweek piece on Lincoln?s legacy:
The heavy, brooding statue on the Mall may try to impose unanimity, but the imperishable words on the walls show that there must always be a historic argument. And there must always have been one: those who prate glibly about a “team of rivals” have not really understood that Chase and Seward and Cameron and Stanton were in fact a crew of venomous enemies, all of whom underestimated their leader.
We can blame historian Doris Kearns Goodwin for the popular notion that a president should assemble a ?team of rivals? to help him (or in the future, her) make tough decisions.
This forum featured earlier evidence that Goodwin ? or at least those who?ve appropriated her title ? misread the history of Lincoln?s ?team.?
