Nostalgia, Webster’s tells us, is a “wistful or sentimental longing for places, things, acquaintances or conditions belonging to the past.” For Barack Obama, nostalgia means turning the clock back to 2008, when the big crowds swooned and the gauzy promises of Hope & Change hadn’t yet crashed into the realities of war, high unemployment and soaring gas prices.
Despite complaints that it doesn’t have a vision for a second term, the president’s re-election team really does — you just need a rearview mirror to see it. Judging from the slant of its advertising, fund-raising and Hollywood helpers, Team Obama believes the only way their man can get four more years is to pretend the last three never happened.