During his Tuesday evening address to a joint session of Congress Obama cited....
...by name the late Sen. Robert Kennedy as saying, “The future is not a gift. It is an achievement."

However, a number of other passages coming out of the presidential mouth struck a few listeners as sounding vaguely familiar. Talking of the need for improved education, Obama in one prominent line said, "We are the first nation to be founded for the sake of an idea." Hmm. Turns out, someone else said those same memorable words about the time Obama was editing the law review.

The United States, that previous politician told an American audience, is the "first nation to have been founded on an idea."  But what U.S. Democrat would want to quote Britain's conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher on national TV?