Six flags over Lincoln

That's how some historians are referring to this museum honoring our 16th president. Exhibits include "Campaign 1860," complete with Tim Russert analyzing mock TV ads of the campaign.

Campaign 1860 brings the campaign of 1860 to life for contemporary visitors with multiple video monitors featuring an election coverage TV news program analyzing the campaign in which Lincoln won the presidency. This daring and different approach makes the complex four-way presidential race of 1860 understandable to today's audiences by accurately translating the issues and strategies of 1860 into the sound-bite media bursts of today.

Many Lincoln scholars are not amused. And I can't say I blame them.

Must everything be a multimedia experience?

I still have nightmares about the time I accompanied my son's class on a field trip to the Liberty Science Center,. which featured "science video games," a rock-climbing wall, etc., etc. The place sounded like an arcade on the boardwalk of some Jersey shore town on a rainy day. Hundreds of screaming kids bouncing off the walls to the accompaniment of electronic pings. The IMAX film of the Grand Canyon was good, but hardly worth the price of admission: $13.50 per student!

These multimedia museum exhibits are so imaginative, they require almost no imagination from the viewer, which is good cuz the viewer's senses are so assaulted he can't think. Let alone transport himself to another time and place.

In contrast, this guy needs no electronic accompaniment.



As a small boy, my son could look at him for hours without tiring--and he likes video games as much as the next kid.