The question "Where were you in 1994?"--the year the Republicans took over Congress--has been going around the campaigns recently. In some respects, this is an improvement, because previously, it often seemed like everyone was fighting over who was the best representation of conservatism as of 1980, the year President Reagan was elected--as if sticking as closely as possible to what the country needed then were a recipe for success now. This week, it seems, we've fast-forwarded 14 years. Not ideal--as Ramesh Ponnuru notes, "there is plenty of evidence that the country is not where it was back then"--but I guess it's progress.

My reservations about this question notwithstanding, I thought we'd answer it.

First off, in 1994 I was in sixth grade at Garnet Valley Middle School and my homeroom teacher was Mrs. Burke. In the school play, Robin Hood, I was King Richard.

Secondly, in 1994 Governor Romney was running against Ted Kennedy, whose economic program is strikingly similar to Robin Hood's. Here are the issues Governor Romney was running on:

He ended up giving Senator Kennedy the race of his life, causing him to have to take out a mortgage on his home.

You can see the rest of that piece of campaign literature here and here. As you can see, Governor Romney was on the wrong side of the abortion issue back then, but then again so was Senator Thompson. They've both come around, much like President Reagan and both President Bushes.

So, where was Governor Romney in the days of the Republican Revolution? Giving Senator Kennedy a pretty good scare, on a pretty conservative platform. Not a bad warmup.