Academic

JIM LINDGREN: ?Asking millions of Americans to sign a birthday card for the President suggests a t?

By Glenn Reynolds

JIM LINDGREN: “Asking millions of Americans to sign a birthday card for the President suggests a tone-deafness about the cult of personality. If we lived in a dictatorship, getting millions of subjects to celebrate the Dear Leader?s birthday would be routine, but in a free republic this appeal to get millions of citizens to celebrate a current president?s birthday strikes a discordant note to my ear. No, I am not saying we are in a dictatorship; I am saying that because we are not, we should not be emulating the trappings characteristic of that fundamentally different sort of regime. Nor do I think this is particularly ominous.” Just revealing.

UPDATE: Orin Kerr: Relax, it’s just campaign fluff. And from the comments, there’s this: “They?re pretty clearly trying to recapture the ’spirit of ?08.’ In that way, this email serves as a nice reminder of how embarrassing the ’spirit of ?08′ really was.”

Full post as published by Instapundit.com on July 28, 2010 (boomark / email).