The Rio Games—and those GOP games
MILWAUKEE — I’m fine with Rio.
Really. A great city, by all accounts, in a rising star of a country that deserves to be better known and better loved. And that’s even before you factor in some of the world’s greatest music, and the beaches, and Carnaval, and…
So absolutely—give the 2016 Summer Olympics to Rio de Janeiro. To Brazil. To a part of the planet that’s never hosted the Olympics. I’m fine with it, even if it means that our neighbor just down the road, Chicago, takes a gold-medal hit to the ego.
I’m happy for Rio. But it never would have occurred to me to gloat over Chicago’s loss. As a fellow American, I mean.
Being a gracious competitor is one thing. Being a Republican apparatchik is something else again.
You’d have thought, from the paroxysms of glee that greeted the news in certain GOP quarters, that Chicago’s first-round elimination by the IOC was the greatest thing that had happened to the country in decades. To this country, I mean.
How do you explain it? Was the delighted-in-defeat crowd overjoyed at avoiding the inevitable cost overruns? The crowds? The security concerns? The traffic jams? The construction dust?
Or was it enough that Barack Obama had tried, and Barack Obama had failed? Tried to bring the Olympics to his adopted home town, that is. To Chicago, one of America’s own great cities.
He made the effort. It wasn’t sufficient.
“LET’S PARTY!!!”
These folks need to find some hobbies. Some better hobbies. Spending their days reveling in presidential humiliations (real or imagined) is no way for grown-up boys and girls to get normal people to take them seriously. On the other hand, it’s a perfect way to convince normal people, whatever they might think about the current president and his policies, that these folks who keep flailing at him, who set their “north” by wherever Barack Obama sets his “south,” are still not ready for prime time.
And it’s not just the Olympics, of course.
Most famously, it’s been health-care reform, and one of the GOP’s leading lights caught saying out loud what his colleagues had only been whispering: Defeat reform because it’ll “break” Obama. It’ll be his “Waterloo.”
Not that health-care reform was a bad idea, necessarily. Or even if they did think it was a bad idea, it still wasn’t the best reason to take it down. The best reason to take it down was to stick it to Obama.
I swear—if Barack Obama were an construction engineer, these guys would be rooting for a bridge collapse.
If Barack Obama were a race-car driver, these guys would be cheering for the oil slick.
If Obama were a librarian, they’d be rooting for illiteracy.
If Obama were a farmer, they’d be praying for drought.
If Obama were an immunologist, they’d be rooting for the plague.
If Obama were a pilot, they’d be hoping for wind shear.
If Obama were a priest, they’d be singing the praises of atheism.
If Obama owned a cruise ship, they’d be wishing for a tsunami.
If Obama were a power grid, they’d be hoping for a blackout.
If Obama were hamburger, they’d be cheering for e coli.
If…
Congratulations, Rio. Condolences, Chicago.
Delighted-in-Defeaters? Get a life.
Rick Horowitz is a syndicated columnist. Write to him at rickhoro@execpc.com.
Oct 8, 2009 at 11:58 a.m.
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Yes you are correct, mine was formed more as a statement than in question form; I will fix it for you.
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Do you think getting briefed by someone other than the commander in the field is the same thing as talking to him once in 70 days?
Oct 8, 2009 at 9:14 a.m.
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No question was asked.
Everytime you lemmings bring up Afghanistan, Bush's incompetance will always be the response. We have now come to the 8th anniversary of the war in Afghanistan. EIGHT YEARS! It's now the third longest war the U.S. has ever been involved in. Bush's diversion of troops to Iraq are a direct cause of the failure in Afghanistan. Go ahead, keep focusing on Obama's single meeeting with a general. You just keep marginalizing your party.
Oct 7, 2009 at 7:57 p.m.
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Yep typical zoom, can't answer the question so side step to Bush.
Oct 7, 2009 at 3:20 p.m.
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Leave it to lemmings to focus on what Obama did in 70 days, and completely ignore Bush's failed Afghanistan policy for the last SEVEN+ YEARS.
Oct 7, 2009 at 11:13 a.m.
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"I guess those daily intelligence briefings don't count."
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Only if you think getting briefed by someone other than the commander in the field is the same thing as talking to him once in 70 days.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/weblogs/b...
Oct 7, 2009 at 11:01 a.m.
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"Do you realize he spent more time talking to the IOC about Chicago than he did to his commander in Afghanistan, where 16 AMERICAN soldiers have died recently?"
Aahhh, the lemming complaint du jur. I guess those daily intelligence briefings don't count.
Rick has it exactly correct. The cheering from the right after losing the Olympic bid is deplorable, but not unexpected from them, unfortunately. It's interesting that some I.O.C. members think Obama's visit wasn't successful because he didn't spend ENOUGH time there.
Oct 7, 2009 at 10:05 a.m.
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Rick I finally agree with something you wrote...your last three words depict exactly how I feel of most of your work.
Oct 6, 2009 at 3:50 p.m.
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Well, unfortunately Obama has proven to be a very clueless leader so far. I mean, tell me one thing the guy has done right for crying out loud. Nothing seems to be going for him and instead of concentrating on what really matters to the country right now (economy, health care, Afghanistan etc.) he decides to go out on a limb, spend millions for a few hours in Denmark and come back empty handed. What a waste of everything. And they used to blame Pres. Bush for smaller than that. Do you realize he spent more time talking to the IOC about Chicago than he did to his commander in Afghanistan, where 16 AMERICAN soldiers have died recently? That shows me where he has his priorities and who is the important person in his mind.
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