The Republican National Committee released a new web ad this past weekend, just on the eve of what is meant to be a triumphal display on the part of the governing Democrats at their convention in Charlotte, North Carolina. And as if the RNC wanted to earn a gold star in dramatic irony, the ad actually makes the case that the Democrats – whose very campaign slogan is “Forward” – are actually stuck in the past.

The ad goes for the jugular, using clips of President Obama speaking from the stump in 2008, while also showing a split screen version of the president in the present day. As the 2008-era Obama proceeds through a speech, the 2012 Obama appears to give the exact mirror image of that speech, with a few word substitutions, almost as if nothing about the Democrats’ message circa 2008 has been altered, in spite of changing circumstances. After the speech is over, the RNC ad wryly concludes, “We’ve heard it all before.”

To make matters worse, several different versions of the ad exist, each using the same trick on a different Obama speech. Watch the most recent iteration of this ad – an extended 2-minute version – below: