The Great Olympic Sideshow-- What Did We Learn As A Nation?

-By NOAH
 
This week we’ve been treated to a prime example of just how out of bounds the Republicans have gone. Right now, they are so far off the reality of our planet that they appear to be spinning, out of control, right out to the orbit of Pluto or beyond, out to the deepest, darkest, coldest reaches of the solar system. I’m talking about the great Repug crusade against the very idea of Chicago being the host city for the 2016 Olympics. Their personal animosity towards President Obama is so fevered that they don’t care who gets hurt just as long as they can put the word ‘failed’ next his name. If good Americans suffer, well, to them, we are just collateral damage.
 
Think about it. Whatever city gets the Olympic games has to build infrastructure for that Olympics, everything from roads to hotels to sports facilities. Yes, they all cost money, money that comes from taxes, bonds, banks, corporate contributions and investments and other sources, but they also present a chance to generate even more money, not just during the Olympics, but for years after, even with the inevitable overruns. It takes money to make money. Sure, Obama is a corporatist. That’s my personal problem with him. Sure, Chicago getting the Olympics would have been good for American companies, but it also would have been good for a whole lot of American individuals, even if it made the city crazy for a few weeks. Would any of us turn down a cut of the t-shirt sales? More importantly, the point is that an Olympics generates jobs, an average of 350,000 jobs. That’s jobs just to build the stuff, staff the new facilities, to manufacture, ship and truck materials, even to build more men’s room stalls for tap dancing Republican Senators and Congressmen. What’s not to like? 
 
Well, it seems that the righties hate President Obama so much that, to them, none of that is important. The usual collection of sideshow freaks that add up to the Republican Party leadership have been very clear that they want Obama to fail. They are now also very clear about how Americans getting good American jobs means nothing to them. An Olympics means a massive economic development program. Economic development? Now, that's a horror, if you’re a Repug. They have too much invested in continued human misery and Presidential failure. It isn’t just about people’s health. Help people get jobs? Help a region? Help your fellow Americans? Hell no! President Obama is such a strong, compelling presence in the political landscape that the only hope Republicans see themselves having goes hand in hand with the utter devastation of the American middle and working classes. They operate from such a negative starting point that it never occurs to them that they might win votes by being part of the solution.

This isn’t just about Obama’s sweet home Chicago. People from all over America would have received much needed work. What’s wrong with that? According to the righty media goons and politicos-- you know the names-- plenty. All week long they carped and bitched about how a real President wouldn’t fly off to Copenhagen to try to win the day for his country and his hometown. Glenn Beck, Mr. Out On A Day Pass, himself told his naïve followers that the Vancouver Olympics ended up losing a billion dollars. Never mind that the Vancouver Olympics doesn’t happen until next year. Hey, who needs facts when you are leading the gullible around by the nose? John Bo(eh)ner and his fabulous fake tan whined that Obama’s taking the time to make a pitch for Americans, corporations and citizens alike, was a stupid waste of time when there are more pressing matters. Try telling that to someone who was hoping for a job. You can bet that the Repugs would have done the same incessant whining and bitching if Obama hadn’t taken the time and made the effort. Besides, it’s not like a President can’t do any work for the country aboard Air Force One. This is all about going after the President. Do they think that, if Houston was on the short list, the whole Bush Crime Family wouldn’t be going for it like Obama did? That’s really a rhetorical question. We know that reptiles don’t think. Sorry if I just insulted any reptiles. Obama did the right thing. He was looking out for Americans. That bugs the hell out of Republicans. Too bad. Time for them to get real and get a life.
 
Instead of getting real, Republicans are rejoicing that Chicago lost out to Rio. Matt Drudge gleefully chirped “The Ego Has Landed. World Rejects Obama.” Glenn Beck says that’s the best headline he has seen in a very long time. A Drudge subhead snidely chimes “Obama + Michelle x Oprah = Zero.” Slimebaugh bellowed that “Obama was rejected on the world stage” and quoted, as usual without attribution, his idea man/writer Drudge. Fox News spewed forth their favorite two word combo in their headline of “Obamas Fail in Personal Pitch to Bring 2016 Olympics to Chicago.” Malkin gloated and dissed the First Lady like a jealous junior high school bitch would.
Cheers broke out at the Weekly Standard Treehouse Of Doom. Meanwhile, nothing from these puny little minds about 350,000 jobs that would have been or almost were. So people could have used a job, so what. There’s their priorities for ya. Many Americans, however, would like to thank the President for making the extra effort, for trying, trying to do something positive. Perhaps Republicans would like to look up that word. They seem to have lost contact with it.


What could be the possible real reasons for Chicago being rejected?
 
1. The bombing at the Atlanta Olympics?

2. The bribery scandals involved in the Salt Lake City Olympics?

3. General ill will based on recent American foreign policy?

4. Maybe Chicago’s presentation wasn’t as good as others?

5. South America has never before been chosen.

6. Rio came oh so close in their bid for both the 2004 and the 2012 Olympics?

7. Fox News is received in 40 countries around the world and those involved in the decision, the International Olympic Committee (IOC), saw the negativity towards the Olympics by allegedly American pundits like Sean Hannity and Bill-O?

8. The world knows that America doesn’t particularly like foreigners these days. It can be hard to enter the country at all.

9. The Untited States’ lack of standing with the IOC ever since our boycott of the 1980 games in Moscow?

10. Dubya “fell asleep” at the 2008 Olympics? Remember when he took four days off to go? Did the Repugs complain then? I guess Bush didn’t have any pressing matters at the time.

11. Fear on the part of foreign Olympic officials and journalists about getting injured or sick in America and being thrown into the American health care system?
 
12. The old men on the International Olympic Committee saw the movie “Hard Bodies” and longed get an up close eyeful on the Rio beaches for themselves?

13. All of the above? I happen to think that the first 7 or 8 carried particular weight. And, let’s face it. If Obama couldn’t close the deal there was probably never a deal that could be closed.
 
Ah, but to Republicans, it’s all “that one’s” fault and they are rabidly foaming at the mouth to tell you so. You betcha! Today, they are happy. Americans lost out and they are happy. Since the campaign and even with announcement about Chicago losing out, we’ve heard that the crime in Chicago, which to them is also Obama’s fault, might be to blame. That ain’t the reason. The crime stats in Chicago aren’t even top echelon in our own country, let alone when compared to Rio, where kidnapping for ransom is both a profession and a lifestyle, and police assassinations of homeless children are routine. You can bet that there will be more of that as a lead up to the 2016 Olympics, but, some who walk among us and pollute our airwaves and pollute the halls of Congress aren’t about to give a damn about that.

Homeless kids? Trash. Low class trash. Just make sure we don’t see it. You want to see death panels? Open your damn eyes! Pro-life isn’t just a slogan.
 
The loss for Chicago and America is a short term blow to President Obama’s charisma, and, a somewhat long term dividend to the Repugs. What they might have feared even more that a 2009 victory for America and its President would be, assuming that Obama gets two terms, is a scenario in which it’s 2016, American lives are better, and the feel good vibes engendered by a successful Olympics lead into the 2016 Presidential election and the Dem nominee wins. That’s not a happy day for little Repugs, but, the way they are going, they might very well have disintegrated themselves into a pile of charred dust by then.

President Obama was willing to risk a dent to his cred. He lost on Friday. Instead of celebrations, the Repug sideshow carny freaks ought to worry about his next winning streak or they’ll just end up at the end of the carny row, where they belong, biting the heads off of chickens for a living. Guys like Obama win the great majority of their battles. Republicans are gleeful for the moment but is this the battle out of all the battles that they preferred to win? Are they that crazed? Judging by their reaction the answer is yes. As Obama, himself said, “One of the valuable things about sports is that you can play a great game and still lose.” That works for either side. Only the timing of the loss is different.
 
Maybe Senior White House Advisor, David Axelrod, summed it up best when he said:

“This President was proud to go and represent our country and make the case for the U.S. and make the case for Chicago. He’d do it again if he had a chance. We’re disappointed it didn’t work out but life goes on.”