When the United States understood energy policy and war...

Below, an ad run by Con Ed in 1943. The message was simple: sacrifice for the greater cause. Today there are those in Congress who want to open the country's strategic oil reserve to bring down prices. Right - we're at war, and countries that control the world's oil supply are not exactly our allies, but Congressmen want to use the country's oil reserve to win back their seats in the fall. Sell out the country to save their jobs. That was the stupid idea from the Democrats, as opposed to McCain's idiot idea of gas rebate. Glad to say neither idea went anywhere. But of course, the message when we went to war from the White House was simply go shopping. I weep for our nation and the ideals it was founded on.

The ad above can be found along with an amazing trove of historical print advertising from the last century at the Duke University online library.