Referring back to previous eras is nothing new in presidential politics. Just to pull recent examples, we've seen this in Clinton's two election cycles - London anyone? We've seen it played to horrible fruition in Kerry's swiftboat adventures. Now we're seeing it with 'noun, verb and POW' and references to the Weather Underground.
I'm not here to argue the rights and wrongs of the individual instances of this - I suspect I'd be preaching to the choir. Instead, I wonder whether or not this approach is becoming ineffective?
I'll explain my thinking after the jump...