Isn’t it interesting that it is the Democratic, rather than Republican, candidate for the U.S. presidency who is causing the ghosts of Reaganism to stir once again? Barack Obama’s simple yet revolutionary ideas of principled engagement with the leadership of the world’s pariah countries is causing a backlash of caustic criticism, accusing the Senator of proposing appeasement, more often than not inappropriately mentioning the name Chamberlain. I think it was Fareed Zakaria whom I first heard talking about how these criticisms were disturbingly similar (nearly word for word) to the criticism Reagan got from his own party when he first proposed talks with Gorbachev; what would end up becoming the first steps in bringing down the Soviet Union. A new column by the peculiar Florida author Ben Bova picks up where Zakaria leaves off:

Sen. Barack Obama has made it clear that he would prefer to meet with the leaders of Iran, North Korea and other adversaries to negotiate our differences. He’d rather talk than fight. This makes me think back a quarter of a century to 1983 and President Ronald Reagan’s approach to our Cold War adversary, Soviet Russia.