The lengths to which the Obama campaign is going to pretend that the last four years simply didn’t happen (or, in the words of Ezra Klein’s headline writer, to act as though Mitt “Romney’s policies are the incumbent,” rather than the sitting President of the United States) have been laughable in their extremity. Part of the effort to recreate 2008 in the current election cycle, as a new ad from the RNC shows, is to simply recycle the same words, phrases, and promises then-candidate Obama made four years ago – before his Carteresque term as President.via SunshineStateSarahObama’s copying from himself four years ago isn’t just an effort to recapture the “magic” of 2008, when his three-word catch-phrases (“Hope and Change”), vapid slogans (“We are the ones we’ve been waiting for”), and ridiculously hyperbolic self-aggrandizement (“This was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal”) captured the imagination of a majority of American voters and propelled the freshman Senator from Illinois into the White House. The repetition also stems from a serious problem the Obama campadministration* is facing as a result of its disastrous handling of an already-fragile domestic economy. Obama’s staffers and advisers have been all over the map when faced with the question of whether or not Americans are better off now than they were four years ago, with answers ranging from “No” to “Maybe” to “Absolutely!” to “lalalala not answering not answering.” Most recently, Vice President Joe Bidenopoulos declared to a union crowd, “Folks, let me make something clear, say it to the press: America is better off today than they left us when they left.” Of course, he followed that up by saying, “And if it weren’t so hot – if it weren’t so hot, I’d go into detail why.” Convincing explanation there, Joe.Given the terrible economy and the campadministration’s own messaging issues about it, is there any question why Obama would rather recycle 2008’s promises, invoke former President Bush a few more times, and try to convince America that the last four years simply didn’t happen?Image courtesy of Ace of Spades’ John Ekdahl.* Let’s be honest: the Obama campaign is the Obama administration is the Obama campaign is the Obama administration is the Obama campaign is the Obama administration is the Obama campaign is the Obama administration…well, you get the gist.