Former President George W. Bush embraces President Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States, after Obama’s inaugural address at the inauguration ceremony in Washington, January 20, 2009.
REUTERS/Jason Reed

Suck it up, liberals…What’s been good for the goose, is good for the gander.

Democrats have been licking Obama’s Copenhagen wounds by barking at conservatives for “cheering” the political Olympic-sized debacle as a rooting against America. Republicans are now being accused of “being unpatriotic“, because they want the president’s policies to fail.

Some of the Copenhagen criticism against conservatives has merit (I’m glad Obama suffered politically for this ill-conceived trip). Much of it is just plain warped, however, as there are also honest reasons why all Americans should be happy Chicago lost the Olympic bid to play host:

the U.S., dodged a bullet:

The common rejoinder to spiraling costs is that the Olympics make money for host cities. But the record is somewhat spottier than boosters admit. Athens and Beijing lost billions. Montreal, which hosted the games in 1976, took 30 years to pay off its loans. Los Angeles and Seoul made a tidy profit. Atlanta and Sydney broke even. It also depends on how you count: Is building a stadium factored into the cost? How about improving the subway? Expanding the housing stock? All this can leave a city with new and gleaming infrastructure — or a bunch of costly new houses no one wants to buy and stadiums no one wants to use.

Also read this from WaPo.

Chicago’s lucky it lost.

Democrats have been distorting the fierce opposition to their party’s push for healthcare reform (teabaggers and townhall protesters as uninformed scaremongers, birthers, conspiracists and racists…”the mob”…).

Democrats have been lamenting about how “Hope” and “Change” are being derailed because those “mean, racist Republicans” stand in the way as the “if he’s for it, we’re against it” Party.

Isn’t this what Democrats did to President Bush for 8 years of opposition? Personal as well as policy attacks? Distortions and smears?

Democrats are crying foul over the Hitler comparisons to President Obama. Where were they on this obscenity for the previous 8 years?

I agree, though: The Obama-Hitler comparisons are currently, unfair and inaccurate…

….At least Hitler got the Olympics to come to his city. (*Baddum bump!*)

When President Bush exercised, it was deemed “obsessive” and “creepy”:

the fact that Bush has an obsession with exercise that borders on the creepy.

Given the importance of his job, it is astonishing how much time Bush has to exercise.

~~~

Bush can bench press 185 pounds five times, and, before a recent knee injury, he ran three miles at a 6-minute, 45-second pace. That’s better than I could manage when I played two sports in high school. And I wasn’t holding the most powerful office on Earth. Which is sort of my point: Does the leader of the free world need to attain that level of physical achievement?

Maureen Dowd:

I like to exercise, but W. is psychopathic about it.

When President Obama exercises, it’s a source for inspiration and admiration:

the Washington Post delivered a front-page paean to Barack Obama’s workout habits. The 1,233-word ode to O’s physical fitness read more like a Harlequin romance novel than an A-1 news article.

Sighed smitten reporter Eli Zaslow, “The sun glinted off chiseled pectorals sculpted during four weightlifting sessions each week, and a body toned by regular treadmill runs and basketball games.” Drool cup to the newsroom, stat.

Zaslow imparted us with vital information about buff Bam’s regimen: “Obama has gone to the gym for about 90 minutes a day, for at least 48 days in a row.” The Washington Post enlightened us with more gushing commentary from Obama friends and associates, who explain how, as the subtitle of Zaslow’s opus put it, “Gym Workouts Help Obama Carry the Weight of His Position.”

“Progressives” were fuming over the financial costs of President Bush’s inaugural:

In the days and weeks leading up to the event, the press has largely treated inauguration criticism as partisan and silly, making sure to give Bush backers lots of time and room to defend the unmatched pomp and circumstance.

Yet according to a mostly underreported Washington Post poll this week, a strong majority of Americans — 66 percent, including 46 percent of Republicans — would have preferred a “smaller, more subdued” inauguration, given the ongoing war in Iraq. In other words, Bush’s overblown celebration ranks as one of the few political issues that most Americans agree on — a phenomenon the press ignored.

Gee…give the huge financial crisis our country is in, did Salon also think to criticize President Obama’s lavish inaugural spending? No. But their side rallied around the defense of it.

President Bush was criticized for travel expenses to taxpayers. So then, what’s wrong with applying the same to President Obama?

Bush supposedly “ignored” his generals. And now that it’s Obama in office, it’s now okay to criticize the generals he may disagree with? To the point of arguing what uniform dress McChrystal should have worn in his 25 minute meeting with the president?

When will President Obama get criticized for not attending military funerals?

Prior to President Obama’s “unprecedented” address to the Muslim world, President Bush said much the same, yet received nowhere near the accolades, let alone fawning gushes and swoons. Instead, he was accused of launching a crusade against Muslims because “God told him to”.

Democrats mercilessly hammered Bush on spending and the ballooning deficit; but now that it’s “their guy” in the Oval Office, suddenly, like children in a candy store, it’s cool once again to cheerlead “runaway spending” (note to American voters: The answer to spending control is never NEVER to put more Democrats into office)? If the size of the government spending under 2 terms of Bush was bad, that okays Obama’s quadrupling of it in his first year of office? Whaaa-?! Ok, so we’ll spend our way out of recession- so long as it’s Obama and not Bush. Remember: Democrats are going to own this one (not that they won’t still blame Bush for it, of course).

So much of the opposition to President Bush was about partisan politics over patriotic opposition. And now that the shoe is on the other foot, liberals can know what it’s been like on the receiving end of their hyperbole, their hysteria, shrillness, and partisanly deranged opposition to all things Bush.

Welcome to being in political power. Enjoy it while it lasts.

A sand sculpture in Brazil supports the candidacy of Rio de Janeiro for the 2016 Games, as opposed to the competing cities of Chicago, Madrid and Tokyo.
Natacha Pisarenko-AP

Rio is ecstatic:

Silva called the win a “sacred day” as he was interviewed in Portuguese by Brazilian reporters in Copenhagen.

“I confess to you if I die right now my life would have been worth it,” Silva said. “No one can now doubt the strength of Brazil’s economy, it’s social greatness, and our ability to present a plan.”

He said Brazil’s passion, heart and soul helped Rio win the Olympics against Madrid, Chicago and Tokyo. The Brazilian city had failed in attempts in 1936, 2004 and 2012.

“This is a day to commemorate because Brazil has left its status of a second-class nation,” Silva said. “Today we’re getting the respect that Brazil has been deserving.”

Kanye took time out of his busy schedule to kick over the Brazilian sand castle, by interrupting with the following:

“Hey, hey Rio, I’m really happy for you, I’mma let you finish, but I just want to say Chicago had one of the best bids of all time. OF ALL TIME.”

Brazil is relying on a strong economy to stand behind its $14.4 billion budget for the games — the largest among all bidding cities.

Chicagoans were stunned at the humiliating rebuke (check the update); however, they, along with the U.S., dodged a bullet:

The common rejoinder to spiraling costs is that the Olympics make money for host cities. But the record is somewhat spottier than boosters admit. Athens and Beijing lost billions. Montreal, which hosted the games in 1976, took 30 years to pay off its loans. Los Angeles and Seoul made a tidy profit. Atlanta and Sydney broke even. It also depends on how you count: Is building a stadium factored into the cost? How about improving the subway? Expanding the housing stock? All this can leave a city with new and gleaming infrastructure — or a bunch of costly new houses no one wants to buy and stadiums no one wants to use.

Also read this from WaPo.

Chicago’s lucky it lost.

Meanwhile, President Obama took the bullet well for the presidency, with sportsmanlike aplomb:

AP:

“You can play a great game and still not win,” Obama said at the White House, shortly after returning from Copenhagen where his in-person plea did not put Chicago over the top. “Although I wish that we had come back with better news from Copenhagen, I could not be prouder.”

Obama expressed no regret at putting so much on the line for the failed effort.

“I have no doubt that it was the strongest bid possible and I’m proud that I was able to come in and help make that case in person,” the president said.

His chief spokesman, Robert Gibbs, told reporters that Obama got the bad news aboard Air Force One as he and his wife, Michelle, flew back to Washington from the Danish capital. He was watching TV alone in his quarters on the presidential jet.

Mrs. Obama had gone to Copenhagen ahead of her husband and had lobbied hard for the Summer Games to be brought to her hometown and his adopted hometown.

Chicago’s early exit from finalist balloting represented a personal setback for Obama and a painful defeat for Chicago, America’s most prominent Midwestern city. The president put his personal prestige and political capital at risk when he decided late in the competition to go to Copenhagen and make a personal appeal.

“Absolutely,” Gibbs replied, when asked whether Obama was glad he had made such a large commitment to lobbying for the Games. He said the president “would never shy away from traveling anywhere, talking to anyone about this country.”

Oh, yes….we all know how well our charm offensive president loves to talk about the country.

Many people had assumed Chicago would be a finalist. But International Olympic Committee members eliminated it only hours after Obama and his wife urged them to send the Summer Games there.

A 7 hour trip, In Copenhagen for less than 5 hours, 25 minute photo-op with General McChrystal, how much did this debacle cost American taxpayers? Not as much as winning the bid, would have cost us.

I blame Republicans and George W. Bush.

Also check out:
Allahpundit
Ed Morrissey

Oh wait….you mean he’s not apologizing for America’s sins? Hope and Change has arrived, finally!

Not only is Canada one of our oldest allies, whose soldiers have done some of the heavy fighting in Afghanistan, but aren’t they America’s biggest supplier of oil? So why piss on them? Especially since, like majority Americans, Canadians were swept up by the siren song of “Hope” and “Change”. Well….“change” is certainly what they are getting:

Canada’s six NHL teams are scrambling to find alternative travel arrangements south of the border after the U.S. Department of Transportation banned Air Canada’s charter fleet from flying between U.S. cities.

In a furious exchange with the Obama administration over the mid-August ruling, Canada has launched its own investigation and will soon close its skies to U.S. sports team charters in retaliation, warns Transport Minister John Baird.

The sticking point is an eight-year-old exemption that had allowed sports and celebrity charters to make several pit stops in American cities. Under existing open skies agreements, regular Canadian airline flights can only visit one U.S. city before returning.

NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly warns the charter ban will create a complicated “patchwork” of travel that could “wreck havoc” with the oncoming hockey schedule, including early league games in Europe, as teams scramble to book flights under the new rules.

“It’s potentially a very significant impact,” Mr. Daly said Friday. “It’s crazy and very destabilizing to our business. We’re operating on a long-standing interpretation and for it to change overnight on the eve of our season is creating a huge problem for us.”

Air Canada executive vice president Duncan Dee predicted the ruling will create “chaos” for teams shuttling across the border. “It’s extremely messy for both American and Canadian teams,” he said. It was a unilateral action imposed without consultation or Air Canada being able to defend itself. It’s obvious the U.S. Department of Transportation doesn’t watch hockey.”

Does Team Obama simply enjoy pissing off our allies? Or is he exacting revenge upon hockey moms? I wonder if this would have happened if it were Hugo’s Venezuela sharing our northern border with us.

Wow! What a game. Eli Manning and the Giants have stunned the “best team in history” (sure thing) and did it with 35 seconds left in the game.

MVP should be the Giants defense, shared with Eli of course.

The Giants had the perfect answer for the suddenly imperfect Patriots: a big, bad defense and an improbable comeback led by their own Mr. Cool quarterback, Eli Manning.

In one of football’s biggest shockers, New York shattered New England’s unbeaten season as Manning hit Plaxico Burress on a 13-yard fade with 35 seconds left in the Super Bowl. Sunday’s 17-14 win was the Giants’ 11th straight on the road, and the first time the Patriots tasted defeat in more than a year.

It was the most bitter of losses, too, because New England (18-1) was one play from winning, but its defense couldn’t stop a 12-play, 83-yard drive that featured a spectacular leaping catch by David Tyree, who scored New York’s first touchdown.

What a great game. Oh, btw, being a long time old school 49er fan I have to point out one fact. Joe Montana went to the Superbowl four times, won four times. So all this talk about Brady being the best ever can now silently fade away…..

As a added bonus Tom Petty played at halftime. Being a fan I figured I would put the whole show up for the readers of FA who also enjoy his stuff….He hit all my favorites.

So click below to watch the whole show:

Now that takes balls of steel.