Alas, it seems inevitable that history will eventually repeat itself. As a result, it seems that the sound bites from 20 years ago are often uncannily appropriate for the world we live in today.
Take, for example, the US presidential campaign of 1984, when Democratic candidate Walter Mondale surprised everyone by choosing a woman, Geraldine Ferraro, as his running mate. She said, "What are my sources of strength? My husband and my three kids, my health-care team, and my religion." Sound familiar?
This folksy tone was also adopted by another prominent female politician as, according to Margaret Thatcher, "Any woman who understands the problems of running a home will be nearer to understanding the problems of running a country."
In that same year, Jesse Jackson enjoyed the distinction of being the first black candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination. Just like Barack Obama, he looked to the future, saying, "At the end of the day, we must go forward with hope and not backward by fear and division."
Current US president George W Bush might need to heed the old joke, as told by his 1980s counterpart Ronald Reagan, who said, "Recession is when a neighbour loses his job. Depression is when you lose yours."
It seems that US foreign policy hasn't changed in the intervening decades either. In the aftermath of the bombing of Libya on April 14th, 1986, an action intended to prevent terrorist attacks apparently emanating from there, Reagan said, "If necessary we will do it again."
Beleaguered UK prime minister Gordon Brown might just mutter Thatcher's line that "If my critics saw me walking over the Thames, they would say it was because I couldn't swim."
However, he might take consolation from the words of the late economist JK Galbraith, who insisted that
"The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable."
Closer to home, it might have been appropriate for Taoiseach Brian Cowen to borrow from Charles Haughey on budget day and state that "If we are to achieve national recovery, it will involve a tremendous national crusade. Leadership and initiative are required at all levels."
During a television address to the nation on January 9th, 1980, Haughey also lectured, "We have been living way beyond our means. We have been living at a rate which is just not justified by the amounts of goods and services we have been producing."
Plus ça change . . .
Eleanor Fitzsimons