In Good Company

A few days ago, I published a post entitled "The Only Thing We Have to Sell is Fear Itself." My post critiqued a new Republican National Committee television commercial featuring Osama Bin Laden, and made the point that the ad could blow back on the GOP this year, because scaring the American people about terrorism only works if the fearmonger can be trusted to keep us safe, and George Bush and his Republican-led Congress have lost our trust in this regard. The title of my post was a reference to President Franklin D. Roosevelt's rallying call during his inaugural address in March 1933, during the depths of the Great Depression, that "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself."

After I published my post, Wonkette featured the post in last Friday's "Metro Section." And they didn't even use the term "schtup" this time, as they did last time they featured one of my posts.

Then, last night on MSNBC's "Countdown With Keith Olbermann," Keith delivered a hard-hitting "special comment" regarding the RNC commercial. Keith made the point that the Republican party, in creating and running the tawdry ad, was engaging in the very terrorism of the American people that Bush and the Republicans claim to be fighting. Then Keith ran footage of FDR while making the exact same point that my title had made:

"Eleven Presidents ago, a chief executive reassured us that 'we have nothing to fear but fear itself.'
His distant successor has wasted his administration insisting that there is nothing we can have but fear itself."

I feel like I'm in good company.