An Olympic Embarrassment

Here come the republicans. My official prediction: Bush will get a considerably bigger bounce from his convention than what's been discussed so far. His campaign people are really, really smart. But I hope Americans will take a look at how the world has treated America at the olympics and at least consider how far our international stature has dropped.

Cancelling Secretary Powell's visit to the olympic games wasn't a mistake -- ever considering such an idea was. Colin Powell is a combat veteran -- he's not scared of a few protesters. But the State Department realized just how vehement opposition to the visit to the closing ceremony would be, and they wisely backed out.

This white house has tried to use the olympic games as a branding opportunity. But the olympic games are not supposed to be political. Despite the request of the US Olympic Committee to stop, preznit's campaign continues to exploit the olympics in a commercial.

But of course, this latest act of arrogance is just the tip of the iceberg. This administration has damaged our standing so much in the world that we can't even send a cabinet minister to an athletic event without embarassing our country -- and, most importantly to this administration, hurting the incumbent in those precious opinion polls of his.

Right now, I think the rest of the world still thinks worse of the American president than the American people. At the olympics, American athletes and spectators (save a few) were widely welcomed, while American politicians were not. If preznit wins this election, the rest of the world will take it -- and take US -- personally.