Could Abe Lincoln be elected today?

With the 150th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address being celebrated this week, it's as good a time as any to wonder: In today's political climate, could Abraham Lincoln be elected president?

With tongue planted firmly in cheek, FlackCheck.org has reconceived the 1864 campaign fueled by 21st century super PACs and modern rhetorical deception.

FlackCheck, the political literacy website of Penn's Annenberg Public Policy Center, imagines a vicious attack ad that takes some of the Railsplitter's most famous words and twists them out of context.

A gravely-voiced narrator intones:

"Has President Lincoln given up?

"At a speech in Pennsylvania he even refused to dedicate a battlefield fresh with the blood of tens of thousands of Union soldiers."

Cut to footage of an bearded actor playing Lincoln and speaking:

"We cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground."

Then the narrator returns:

"Lincoln believes America will perish from the Earth and that our soldiers have died in vain.

"Honestly, Abe: Died in vain?"

The Gettysburg attack ad is one of 12 parodies produced by FlackCheck, the sister site to the decidely more sober FactCheck.org.

Another ad asks "Where's the birth certificate, Mr. President?" which impugnes his mother's honor and paints him as a Confederate sympathizer.  In another clever bit of satire a dodgy pro-Lincoln super PAC called "Steam Boat Veterans for Truth" lashes opponent Gen. George McClellan's military record.

See them all here.