Interesting

Guess who said this?

When the strongest nation in the world can be tied up for four years in a war in Iraq with no end in sight, when the richest nation in the world can't manage its own economy, when the nation with the greatest tradition of the rule of law is plagued by unprecedented lawlessness, and when the President of the United States cannot travel abroad or to any major city at home without fear of a hostile demonstration—then it's time for new leadership for the United States of America.

Answer on the next page ....

Nobody said it, actually.

But if you change the word “Iraq” to “Vietnam,” and add the clause “when a nation that has been known for a century for equality of opportunity is torn by unprecedented racial violence,” you get a bit of Richard Nixon's acceptance speech at the 1968 Republican National Convention.

I got it from Digby, who has vivid memories of Nixon, in a long, fascinating post about lessons from the Nixon era in American politics—false lessons that haunt our politics today, and true lessons that might shape them tomorrow.