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RedState's Erick Erickson took glee in Chicago - and, by extension, Obama's - rejection.... "Hahahahaha," he wrote. "I thought the world would love us more now that Bush was gone. I thought if we whored ourselves out to our enemies, great things would happen. Apparently not. So Obama's pimped us to every two bit thug and dictator in the world, made promises to half the Olympic committee, and they did not even kiss him.".... Conservative commentator Michelle Malkin, meanwhile, wrote that the news effectively ended the Obama campaign motto of "Yes We Can" by dawning in a new slogan: "No, You Can't.".... "This is a big win and a massive relief for taxpayers," she wrote. "But Chicago cronies are not going to take this well. Gird your loins."
So Barack Obama went to Copenhagen to bolster's Chicago's bid for the 2016 Olympics. So Rio de Janeiro ended up the winner. What I'm having trouble understanding is how this can even remotely be construed as Obama's "failure". What troubles me even more is that so many Right-wing nutjobs are celebrating Obama's "failure", even at the expense of American success. So many are so consumed by their abject hatred of Barack Obama that they'd prefer for America to come out on the losing side of a decision if they can use it to disparage the President.
Part of the job of any President is to support American aspirations. The fact that Barack Obama hails from Chicago can certainly be seen as putting a personal spin on his trip to Copenhagen..but it's not as if this was a pleasure trip. All told, Obama was on the ground in Denmark for something like 18 hours. He went, he gave a speech...and then the IOC voted to award the 2016 Olympics to Rio de Janeiro. It's like Wayne Gretzky used to sa- 100% of the shots you don't take don't go in. What, really, was the harm in trying, in making the effort to support the aspirations of Chicago's organizing committee? You don't always get what you want...but why not applaud the President for at least making an effort on the behalf of an American city? How is it that Right-wing blowhards are able to twist Obama's trip into some sort of taxpayer-funded ego trip?
Those who can, do. Those who can't kibbitz and piss and moan.
In reality, this says far more about Conservative motives than it does about Barack Obama. Obama at least made the effort. He showed up, he gave a speech, and did the best he could to persuade the IOC. That so many are celebrating Chicago's loss can and should be seen that some Conservatives are so eager to see Obama fail that they'll take that in whatever form they can get it. Even if it means rooting against the interests of their own country. Even if it means proving themselves to be ignorant, mean-spirited blowhards far more skilled at tearing someone down than in making ANYTHING resembling a positive contribution. When all you have to offer is fear, ignorance, and overly simplistic self-righteous...well, you get wingnuts rooting against their own country. These fools wouldn't recognize patriotism if it arrived at their front door with a pair of kneepads and a tube of AstroGlide.
To turn a Conservative mantra against them: "Hey, how about rooting for America for a change?"
Yes, this is about ego...only it's not the President's ego. It's about the egos of those so addled by their hatred and their inflexibility that they would do or say anything that they think would serve their cause. In this case, their cause is seeing the President fail. What they don't realize is that, by rooting for Obama to fail, they're rooting against the country they profess to love. Not even those of use who detested George W. Bush and everything he stands for wanted him to fail, because we knew that if he did, America and Americans would be the poorer for it. In the case of Iraq and Afghanistan and the Never-Ending Global War on Terror ©, Americans would die as a direct result of that failure. Would that those on the Far Right were capable of recognizing that immutable truth.
Then again, the only thing the wingnuts love more than the idea of Obama failing is the self-professed brilliance and unassailable correctness of their political beliefs. How else could you explain rooting against an American city? It's not about America, or their vision for it, or their ideas for making this country a better place (they have none). It's about feeding their all-consuming hatred of Barack Obama, which fattens their wallets, feeds their considerable egos, and gains them readers and ratings. Ultimately, it's about their own narrow self-interest. Same as it ever was
The attacks were far more vicious from the media, whose conservative members used reports of gang violence in the streets of Chicago to paint the city as a cesspool of street thugs and political corruption. Fox News' Glenn Beck adopted a pained Italian accent to paint the Windy City as ruled by mob control. Beck's colleague, Sean Hannity, meanwhile, asked rhetorically if Chicago was really where "we want the Olympics taking place." On September 29, The Drudge Report ran a headline linking to an article about the death of a 16-year-old honor student in a gang fight: "OLYMPIC SPIRIT: VIDEO SHOWS BRUTAL GANG MURDER IN CHICAGO."
So any effort, any sort of rhetoric, no matter how ugly, mean-spirited, or anti-American, is acceptable as long as it achieves your stated goal of bring down a democratically-elected President? How cravenly partisan do you have to be in order to place your petty political goals and blind hatred and rage over the interests of your country? And how did the President reaching out to the IOC on behalf of Chicago have ANYTHING to do with ego...other than the collective egos of those cackling in their beer?
I don't begrudge those who didn't support Chicago's efforts to secure the 2016 Olympics. There are always going to be those on both sides of the political aisle who for any number of reasons think that bringing the Olympics to an American city is a bad thing. Could the money necessary to create the infrastructure for the Games be better used to create affordable housing, economic opportunities for the poor and the middle class, or create more lasting change for a community? Perhaps. If this had been what the discussion was about, I'd be writing about something else right now. The problem is that this hasn't been about debating the merits of pursuing the 2016 Olympics. More than anything, it's been about the all-consuming blinding hatred that too many on the Far Right feel for Barack Obama. Their heart's desire is to see this President fail...even if it means their country fails right along with him. In the end, it's about politics, about the desire of ideologues to do whatever it takes to impose their will on this country...whatever the cost might be.
If you found yourself celebrating Chicago's defeat because it represented a "defeat" for Barack Obama, you really should be ashamed of yourself. Then again, if you can feel this way about your President and your country, then you really have no shame. You might call this "patriotism", but in reality it's just common, garden-variety partisanship and self-interest. Who hates America now??
Y'all lost the election last year- badly, if memory serves. You might just want to take a lesson from that. You could start by presenting actual, honest-to-God ideas, alternatives to programs and policies that you disagree with. You could try to impress Americans with your cogent, well-conceived, and thoughtful plan to set America back on the right path. You could do that...if you actually HAD any ideas or alternatives. Unfortunately, while your alternative consists of saying "NO!!" to anything proposed by Barack Obama, you have no plans, no proposals to move this country in a direction you could be comfortable with. Your ideas seem to revolve around creating a climate conducive to fear, reaction, rage, and failure. When some of your members can advocate for a coup, when others can actively propagandize the masses, and when elected representatives from your party openly advocates positions that are demonstrably false, what have you really done but demonstrate your disdain for this country?
THAT'S your idea of patriotism?? That's all you've got? What a sorry, miserable lot of ineffectual, rage-addled misfits. I might actually feel sorry for you...if y'all weren't so incapable of appreciating and returning the compassion I'd clearly be wasting on y'all.
WE DESERVE BETTER.
