The greatest virtue of the Steven Spielberg biopic Lincoln , which the playwright Tony Kushner adapted from Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book Team of Rivals , is that it’s about the fundamental lack of virtue that comes with being president. For as much as Abraham Lincoln is flattened out into “Honest Abe,” the universal choice for the greatest of all American presidents, his lionization papers over the horse-trading and compromise necessary to get anything done in Washington. From the film’s perspective, that doesn’t necessarily diminish Lincoln’s status as a revered and principled leader, but it does reveal something important about the ugly business of politics and the types of people who are willing to engage in the backroom dealings that aren’t suggested by their soaring oratory.

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