Beneath His Dignity, An Epic Fail

George Washington was one day walking down a street in the capital. One of his old friends, Governeur Morris, had just arrived and was anxious to see Washington, but first saw the Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton pointed out the president and encouraged Morris to walk over, slap him on the back, and greet him with enthusiasm. Morris did so. Washington stopped, slowly turned his head to face Morris, and froze him with a stare like pure liquid nitrogen. He then coldly continued his walk.



Washington had a very conscious idea of the image of a president. He strove daily to present the image of simplicity and dignity. He required no uniformed guards, bands, or announcement. Washington believed that if a president was worthwhile, people would know when one entered the room. He also remained very strict about what actions lay beneath the dignity of a president.



I am positive that George Washington would react with rage at the idea of a sitting Chief Magistrate of the United States kowtowing to a group of foreigners to get games played somewhere in America. I do not care if the Prime Minister of Britain or the President of Russia has done it, we should keep high expectations of our head of state. Would Queen Elizabeth beg for Olympic games? I think not!



Let us, though, for one second assume that begging foreigners to allow us to spend uncounted millions and go farther into debt is an appropriate task for an American president. Surely that is a task reserved for when times are good and burdens are light. As a person with family fighting in the Middle East, it insults me that Obama went to Denmark to flash his smile, speak about his dream of a Chicago Olympics, and make an "oh by the way" stop to meet with his generals. A smart politician would have played up the meeting with commanders and made the Olympic stop secondary. Otherwise, people might get the idea you care more about the Olympics than the sacrifices of our fighting men and allies.



Then, if your Olympic pitch fails, you do not look like you spent a lot of money to travel across the ocean and waste everyone's time. Also the IOC doesn't get peeved when you do not stick around to watch all the other presenters who courteously watched you. After all, if you are fighting a war and care about those fighting it as well as the outcome, people understand if you have to leave to meet the generals.



But Obama didn't. As usual his priorities got skewed, he failed to think things through, and ended up looking stupid again. Not saying he is stupid, but he has not learned much political competence since entering office.



As the kids say these days, Olympic campaign 2009 will go down in history as . . .



Epic Fail.

China possibly cheating...No way

I love the investigations from The Fourth Medal on Yahoo! investigating the untold stories at the Olympics. The Chinese gymnast who is underage, the digitally enhanced fireworks during the opening ceremonies, the girl who lip-synced during the opening ceremonies because she was prettier than the girl with the great voice, Chinese gymnasts falling during their event and still winning a medal over an American with a nearly perfect vault, and more.

But, is anyone really surprised that the Chinese would cheat? This is the country that makes children's toys out of lead paint and breaks our patents and copyrights. Want to buy a movie before it premiers in theatres...the Chinese can help. Why would it be a stretch to win at all costs in the Olympics? Sure they have a great medal count, but how many of those medals are in straight forward competitions. Take out the judging which is subject to human error and influence, where do they stand in pure one on one competitions? Not too great at that point. Of course, the judgement sports have always been subject to speculation

Olympic Dreams

Growing up in Texas I was involved in very high level swimming. At age 10 I was a part of one of the countries fastest relay teams. We coasted through the Texas State Championships, swam twice a day in the summers, and really had a great time together. When I moved to Ohio, the swimming program was less focused and I drifted out of the sport. I picked it back up and competed in the Ohio state championships in high school. From there I was fortunate to experience just enough college level training to realize that I wasn't interested in committing that much of my life to the sport. Clearly I am no Michael Phelps. Heck, I wouldn't even have to get into the pool to prove that to anyone, I could be identified as not being anywhere in the same league simply standing by the side of the pool in a swimsuit. Unlike golf where I can dress the part, a Speedo swimsuit quickly betrays my lack of training.

When the dream was gone, I was able to simply walk away with my head held high because it had been a decision not to pursue that interest anymore. In America, we get that choice. There has been some coverage of the Chinese Olympic machine, but much is glossed over. I expect that one brave journalist will come home to write their memoirs about what they observed in the Chinese athletes. I heard some dialog during the gymnastics portion about a Chinese athlete who had been put into the program at age 3. This isn't like in America where you go to football practice then go home to your parents, it's a full-time away from home program. During her early teen years (prime competition age for a Chinese athlete...against the rules, but prime age nonetheless) she desperately wanted to go home and quit. Her parents told her to stay because of what it would mean to her family if she stayed. When I wanted to quit swimming my parents told me I could quit at age 13, but they emphasized that they wanted me to learn the importance of commitment and seeing things that I start through to the end. It was about a lesson.

I am thankful that I was able to make a choice and pursue the life of my choosing. Perhaps being forced to compete could have one day yielded me an Olympic trial, but how many athletes were forced to dedicate themselves to the programs only to fizzle out in the end. I am sure that they were gracefully told they were wasting space in the pool because they wouldn't be one of the top three. I will take freedom and be accountable for my decisions over forced success anyday.

Communist China Exposed By Olympics

Fawning journalists for weeks leading up to these Olympic games tried to convince us that the advent of the Chinese century had come upon us. Too many people, too many resources, too much to compete with.

Not long ago we got a glimpse of what Communist China was about. Tibetan protesters found themselves brutally beaten by Chinese police for daring to question the government. The Olympic shenanigans revealed much more. Chinese Communism suffers from a serious self-esteem problem.

What else explains their strange shenanigans? The lip syncing national anthem singer surprised a lot of people. It shouldn't have. Totalitarian societies from Nazi Germany to Soviet Russia put more of a premium on physical achievements and appearance. Crush a seven year old girl by telling her she is not cute enough to show the world? No problem. The fake fireworks displays were also a sad case of putting on an image to hide insecurity. The cheating in gymnastics reflects a culture accepting and even encouraging of corruption as long as it leads to desired ends. Because corruption encourages law breaking and greed, no society so saturated with it can ever advance too far.

The pollution, euphemistically called "haze" by some announcers, is much worse than one would see in a US city. Environmentalists warn that this is a view to the future if we do not radically change. In reality this is a look back in time. Communist governments do not have the same standards of clean air that capitalist democracies enjoy. We may not be perfect, but free market America produces more goods, more efficiently, with less waste and pollution than Communist China.

Worse for China is the massive amounts of empty seats shown at the games. Due to a fundamental misunderstanding of economics, they allowed scalpers to purchase large amounts of tickets to be sold again at very high prices. Tourists to the games cannot obtain tickets to even the most pedestrian events.

China's Olympic sized image problem has burst through the facade of progress. Any system that stifles individuality and steals from the productive to maintain the non productive will never compete effectively with real capitalist societies.

English at the Olympics

One of the debates we have had and continue to have in our country is whether or not to make English our official language. I have always been intrigued because in the past it has always been assumed by people that I have spoken to and met that English is the main language. I have never begun a conversation asking "Do you speak English?"

Now, as I watch the Beijing Olympics I am amazed to see that the Olympics has no problem with making English the official language, even in a country whose language uses a completely different alphabet. I know that technically the official languages are French, English, and Chinese but what language is posted all over the venues? Everywhere you look you read B-e-i-j-i-n-g 2-0-0-8. I don't know Chinese, but I would be willing to bet that is not written in Chinese. There is no secondary translation, no Chinese version of Beijing 2008 next to the script, just English.

Then there are the uniforms. I was especially humored to see Chinese athletes walking around in white uniforms with big red letters C-H-I-N-A. English has become the most universally accepted language. Yet, we debate that it should be the official language in our country. Athletes from numerous countries are interviewed and fluently speak English.

Olympic Flaming Idiots

I see that both Hillary and BO have now called on President Bush to boycott the opening ceremony of the Olympics. I guess they can't spare the time from their campaigns to go there, and would have to pay the going price, or get some lobbyist to pony up for them, so they don't want the President to go either. Whether or not the President chooses to go is his business, not the business of Hillary or BO.

No other senators have called on the President to boycott. I wonder why not? Could it be that only Democratic Senators who happen to be vying for any headline of any sort while they are still locked in a primary battle see this as a battle cry with any valence whatsoever. Look for them to run out the battle cry for Armenian independence next week, and make a ceremonial visit to the Little Bighorn the following one, while stocking up on Absolut Vodka in a play for the Hispanic vote.

So far the White House has dismissed Hillary and BO beautifully, deeming it to be merely a Presidential scheduling issue. For the Repulicans, it certainly isn't much of a campaign issue. There was not much the United States could do when a substantially less formidable Communist China took over Tibet and sent the Dalai Lama scampering with little more than a simple little orange dress to his name. To give him credit, that worthy has made a good living from his status as whatever it is that he is. However, despite his best efforts, and the protestations of Hillary, BO, or many another bleeding heart, there is still nothing much we can do about China's handling of the Tibet issue. Boycotting the opening ceremony would insult the Chinese, of course, but I suppose that the television contracts have long been signed, the coverage will be there, and the people here will mostly be watching what probably will be a magnificent show. If Hillary and BO don't watch any of it, I'd be surprised. On the other hand, they will be busy trying to flip superdelegates, which may prove difficult at that particular time, because the superdelegates will probably be busy eating, drinking and merrily watching the opening ceremonies on really big-screen TV's just like most people around the world will be.

The decision by President Bush to attend or not attend the Olympic Opening Ceremonies is an important one. Fortunately, he is not running for re-election, so he gets to make the decision under circumstances quite different from Hillary's or BO's. His decision is unlikely to have any particular impact on the campaign one way or the other, so he doesn't have to decide before the Pennsylvania primary election, either, not that the Tibet issue is likely to be a big one anywhere but Haverford.

There is actually something to be said for not insulting China over an issue as non-momentous as Tibet, regardless of what the Dalai Lama might say. We do a lot of business with China. We have strategic interests to consider. Do we want to risk worsening Taiwan's situation by some theatrical gesture in favor of Tibet's situation? Do we want to annoy the Chinese, who have sometimes been helpful in trying to get a lid on North Korea and may be needed in that situation in the future?

Hillary speaks of her foreign policy expertise. Yeah, right, she played dress-up in India. BO has played dress up in Africa and he went to madrasa in Indonesia, and possibly he has eaten in a Chinese restaurant or two, but he's no expert on foreign policy by a long shot either. George W. Bush has quite an edge over BO and Hillary in foreign policy, and he has a highly educated and competent Secretary of State to advise him. Fortunately for Hillary and BO, the President is not a cruel man. If he were, he could make a mockery of Hillary and BO's stupid call for him to do as they are telling him in this instance, or for that matter in just about any instance.

Gere Calls For Boycott

Recently actor Richard Gere called for a boycott of the 2008 Beijing Olympics in China. Long an advocate for freedom in places like China and Africa, Gere holds special concern for the people of Tibet. It is one of the few worthwhile causes that you see among the Hollywood crowd.

Would this work? Few will actually abide by this call, although not many sympathize with China maintaining their government of repression. Catholics who acknowledge the Pope as their spiritual leader must hold Mass in caves or face arrest. China claims it alone has the right to name the Dalai Llama.

However it is changing slowly. As a middle class gradually emerges, it will demand more rights and a larger voice in the government. China fears exposure to outside ideas enough to censor internet traffic. The Olympics will bring a flood of Westerners and an avalanche of scrutiny that could help stimulate greater change.

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China also has a problem with the English translations of some of their food. For the duration of the Olympics, government restaraunts will not serve "steamed crap." Coca Cola had similar problems once. A worldwide ad campaign from many years ago that read "Coke adds life" in English translated into Chinese as "Coke brings your ancestors back from the dead."