In my column today, I recommended that Republicans sponsor a video contest about the greatness of America and the importance of limited government. I remembered just now that AEI did something very similar, specifically about free enterprise, last summer. I even watched a couple of the AEI videos back then, and thought they were great. But when I was putting my column together, I completely forgot where the genesis of the idea came from — or, if not that idea, one of the very same basic structure, even if slightly different subject matter and for different purposes. I wasn’t thinking of AEI at all when I wrote the column, but obviously the seed had been planted by AEI. (And no, nobody pointed this out to me today; I was looking back at old e-files just now, doing some list cleanup, when I came across the AEI videos.)

So, credit where due, to AEI: That idea of mine was not really original, except for its placement in context with the rest of the overall strategy I recommended.