Steven Hayward, author of The Age of Reagan: The Fall of the Liberal Order, 1964-1980 , an amazing book on the politics and history of the Vietnam-Watergate-Iran Hostage crisis era, has a blog item where he catches Sen. John Kerry borrowing a campaign slogan from Jimmy Carter:

John Kerry today tried to "re-launch" his sinking presidential campaign with the unveiling of a plan for what he’d do with his first 100 days in the White House.

But then, in an attempted indirect slap at Howard Dean, he said to New Hampshire voters, "Don’t just send them a message; send them a president."

This was Jimmy Carter’s slogan back in 1976, which he used as a way of attacking and siphoning votes from George Wallace. Can’t Kerry come up with his own slogans? Borrowing from Jimmy Carter isn’t a very good sign.

There are a number of parallels between the time described in Hayward's book, and today. In the Reagan book, for example, Hayward describes the Columbia University takeover and sit-in during 1968. Mark Rudd, a student and head of Columbia's chapter of the Students for Democratic Action, led the revolt.

Writes Hayward in the book:

Rudd's "sophisticated" response to every invitation from the faculty to discuss his grievances was to shout "Bullshit!" into a megaphone.

It's easy to see parallels between then, and today's debate over the conflict in Iraq. Evidence is shown at the threat Saddam posed - either through his WMD programs, active operation to hide them, his torture or murder of those offering the slightest dissent, details of how Saddam supported Palestinian homicide bombers, gave aid and comfort to bin Laden operative and assassin Abu Zarqawi. And all too often the response from the fringe left is the same: Bullshit.

That's not a very good sign, either.