I was watching The Daily Show earlier this week and saw a video on oil prices by “correspondent” Rob Corddry. It was a pretty funny bit — Corddry rode around in a stretch Hummer limo, mocking bike riders, complaining about the enormous cost of filling the truck up, and driving a car from one end of the monstrosity to the other. All the while, Corddry drew comparisons between now and the last oil crisis — high prices, a dubious war that had no apparent end, turmoil in the Middle East, and a scandal-plagued president whom the public no longer trusted. But, Corddry said, “Today, the situation is completely different.”<\/p>\n
The video was, however, a year old. TDS ran the exact same clip almost exactly 12 months ago. It was just as funny this time around, but it was a little disconcerting to see how everything is exactly the way it was when the video ran the first time.<\/p>\n
The more I thought about it, the more I realized that recent political events seem to be repeating themselves. Quick, when were these headlines published?<\/p>\n
* Karl Rove has an election-year strategy that involves smearing Democrats<\/a>.<\/p>\n * Dick Cheney is arguing (falsely) that John Kerry saw the same pre-war intelligence<\/a> as the president.<\/p>\n * Conservative Republicans are saying critics of the war in Iraq are implicitly pro-al Queda<\/a>.<\/p>\n * Bush wants everyone to believe Democrats will raise taxes<\/a>.<\/p>\n