Cheering against Obama

last updated 8 January 2015

Pay attention, we have just experienced a "teachable moment," said Paul Krugman in The New York Times. Rush Limbaugh, The Drudge Report, and the editors of The Weekly Standard jumped for joy when the International Olympics Committee rejected Chicago's bid for the 2016 Summer Games, because they interpreted it as a loss for President Obama, who had personally backed Chicago's bid. The lesson here is that Republicans are against anything that might be good for Obama—"whether or not it’s good for America."

It WAS good for America that Obama "came home with his tail between his legs," said the New York Post in an editorial, after groveling on behalf of Chicago in Copenhagen. At some point, Obama has to learn that he can't get everything he wants by being charming and appeasing foreigners. "Whether it's the Olympics. Or health care. Or Iran's quest for nukes. At some point, substance matters more than style."

Still, Republicans might want to conceal their glee, said Glenn Thrush in Politico. During the Bush era, Republicans "questioned—in ways both veiled and overt—the patriotism of Democrats who challenged the administration’s Iraq policy, pre-war intelligence and surveillance programs." But the "joyous reaction" from some conservatives at the Olympic snub of Chicago—"coupled with the party’s rapid-fire reaction to bad economic data"—is helping Democrats turn the tables and ask if "Republicans are the ones cheering against America now."