You know we're in trouble when a major political party openly roots for its country to lose.
Republican congressional leaders denounced President Obama's brief jaunt to Copenhagen (24 hours total) to press the case that the good 'ol USA should host the 2016 Summer Olympics in Chicago. They claimed he should stay home and oversee the Great Recession and two wars handed him by George W. Bush.
Never mind that Bush spent four days in China during the last Olympics while those problems festered, cheering from the stands and holding the American flag backwards for all the world to see.
The conservative talk radio host William Bennett (himself a former "Czar" under a Republican president) revealed on CNN Thursday that he was actually against America and wanted Rio de Janeiro to win. He's not alone. Everyone from Rush Limbaugh to Fox News (Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck et al) has ridiculed the very notion of trying to land the games on our shore.
Never mind that hosting the competition meant pumping an estimated $22 billion (that's billion with a "b") into the economy, starting immediately. It meant, ultimately, 300,000 jobs in construction, infrastructure, sales and marketing. White collar jobs, blue collar jobs, a "jobs machine" as former Labor Secretary Robert Reich told Keith Olbermann Wednesday night on MSNBC.
Forget all of that. And forget that Rio was, in hindsight, probably the favorite since there has never been a South American Olympics. Also forget the fact that some grassroots organizations in Chicago were against the Olympics coming to the Windy City. There are "aginners" in every crowd.
The major takeaway from this Olympics affair -- politically -- is that elected Republicans, and those in the right wing media's echo chamber, really do consider setbacks for the nation and its people (think health care reform) to be good news for themselves.
This is un-American, frankly.
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