There are still about 24 hours of coverage from the Winter Olympics on my DVR and, though I know the results of most of the events, I am slowly going to watch it all. As I watch the US medal count plod upward I can feel a sense of entitlement welling up inside me. It’s the feeling that makes America so loathed around the world. It’s the feeling that says, “Of course we’re leading the medal count. We always lead the medal count. This is America. We’re supposed to be winning.” I don’t have any sense of “awe” or “amazement.” Which is sad, because I should. We ALL should. My goodness people, this is the WINTER OLYMPICS. Historically we—well, why sugar coat it—we suck at the Winter Olympics.
Through my formative years this is how the US has stacked up against the world:
| Year | Winner’s Total | US total medal count | Rank |
| 1968 | 14 | 7 | 8 |
| 1972 | 16 | 8 | 5 |
| 1976 | 27 | 10 | 3 |
| 1980 | 23 | 12 | 3 |
| 1984 | 25 | 8 | 5 |
| 1988 | 29 | 6 | 9 |
| 1992 | 26 | 11 | 5 |
| 1994 | 23 | 13 | 5 |
| 1998 | 29 | 13 | 5 |
But this century has seen marked improvement, (2002: 36, 34, 2nd, and 2006: 29, 25 and 2nd again) though it took our victory by 7 medals in Vancouver for me to notice.
We won a gold medal in four-man bobsled, for goodness sake. We haven’t won gold in that event since 1948, routinely getting crushed—finishing three-quarters of a second behind the winners. That’s a USC/Shippensburg State kind of blow out in bobsled folks.
And now we’ve won gold and all it took was finding the portly kid with the bad eyes and an interest in gravity and reduced coefficients of friction. There was our problem, we kept sending world class athletes like Herschel Walker to the Winter Olympics to compete in bobsled when, in fact, we should have been tapping into America’s well-publicized pool of overweight children. If you’ve got a pre-teen with slow feet and a mid section fashioned by the rigors of Fritos and joy sticks, just move to the mountains and make him a boblsledder. And if little Billy chokes on a Snickers pulling 5 G’s through Turn-6, there are three guys behind him in perfect position to perform the Heimlich maneuver.
I have to believe the inclusion of sports once the sole property of the US/made-for-TV Winter X-Games like Snowboard Half Pipe, Skicross and Free style skiing has helped us pad our medal totals. These sports seem tailor made for another teen demographic on the outside of the athletic mainstream—the spoiled rich kid.
There are still sports where we haven’t broken through for Olympic Gold, despite a growing demographic primed for success. Curling for example, which is really just shuffleboard on ice. When Canada’s elderly retire to the south, they are still in Toronto. When our elderly head south…..suffice it say the best ice around is in Nana’s Vodka Gimlet. But as America’s baby-boomers reach retirement age there should be a ready supply of participants, if only the US Olympic Committee can get together with the AARP and the Chambers of Commerce in Salt Lake City, Minneapolis and Lake Placid to encourage a more northern migration.
Naturally, there’s more to America’s success than snarky generalizations and stereotypes. There is Global Cooling which has increased snow-fall and made traditionally northern sports accessible in more southern states. (No, wait. Someone get me Al Gore on the phone. I don’t think I have that right.)
Truly, though, this is a story more about geo-politics than the inevitable ascendance of America. A real journalist looking into this phenomenon would probably site the breakup of the former Soviet Union, a global economic downturn limiting national Olympic expenditures, and the positive effects of globalization providing increased educational opportunities which take Nordic and Slavic kids off the slopes in search of a better life and put them in the classroom where they belong.
The fact that American Bill Demong became the first American to win a gold medal in any Nordic event (Nordic Combined) might have as much to do with the decline of other national programs as it does with the rise of America’s Nordic training.
Regardless of reason for America’s success, as you reflect on these Winter Olympics we should all be very proud of our athletes. They are finding success where few Americans have before. Our success IS a shock. It IS surprising; and it IS quite noteworthy. Not because America is great, but because these particular athletes are great.
As I thought about that later though, I don't feel that way at all. Honestly, I don't know how Disney delivers as much as they do for so little money. $60 for park admission seems high, yes. But look at the infrastructure, the options, the employees, the transportation. I can't believe they do it for as little as they do. Personally, I think it's a tremendous value and worth every penny I spent. 
But on the more important substantive issues, it was full of contradictions and misleading statements. He talked about being knocked down as a child and how his mother taught him to pick himself up. (Great lesson) Later, though, he lamented that at a time when so many Americans have been knocked down, Washington has done so little to help them get back up. (I thought, Senator, the point was to learn to pick YOURSELF up.)
He talked about how the most important aspect of work is that it provides the benefit of dignity and respect to Americans; but he then prattled on about how the work people have doesn't pay enough.
He talked about how tax breaks for corporations, which McCain supports, send jobs overseas. No, Joe, they don't. Tax breaks for corporations brings jobs home; companies have been sending jobs overseas because it already costs TOO MUCH to do business within the US.
He talked about a "promise that their tomorrow will be better than their yesterday." Who is making that promise, Senator? Only we can make our tomorrow better. Government can't and if government is promising that, and Americans want that, then this is the discussion that we should be having in America.
He quoted John McCain on Afghanistan from 3 years ago and Barack Obama on Afghanistan from 1 year ago. Why not break out a quote from McCain on Georgia from years ago and a quote from Obama on Georgia from last week?
Viewers of this speech who pay attention to his words, will not have been impressed with the content or the medium. 
However, the speech itself probably did little. She certainly had nothing to say that might sway Republicans to rethink their party affiliation. Furthermore, absent too were talking points that independents might find attractive. The speech seemed to have two purposes. First, convince her supporters to vote for Obama. But who else were they going to vote for? Those people involved enough in politics to be at or watch on tv the DNC convention are also likely to be people who will value their vote and not stay at home. Those who might elect not to vote at all, certainly were not in attendance and might well have been watching America's Got Talent and missed the speech completely.
Secondly, and more importantly to Mrs. Clinton, the speech was littered with reminders of why she should remain relevant in the Democratic Party. This was a "You Picked the Wrong Guy" speech.
Will we remember her or this speech in 4 or 8 years? I suspect not. The speech didn't brand itself with any tag lines that might survive the next few years. But it was a hell of an effort.
I believe not attending to these differences is the cause of the apparent divide in American thought. True conservatism (not that practiced by the Republicans) understands the importance of relationships between people and values those relationships over the individual. The whole is indeed greater than the sum of the parts. Liberal ideology seeks to raise the needs and desires of the individual above the collective good. This is where the Libertarians lose most Americans. Intuitively, Americans sense the error of the "my liberty is more important than the collective good" ethos and shun the movement. Neither the modern Democratic Party nor the Republican Party has found a way to tap into the American belief in Freedom while simultaneously bonding us to society. This is the time for Democratic and Republican ideologies to be replaced by less "me" centered thinking and our nation should return to its ideological roots, which means that we understand our obligation to each other to value and defend each other's freedom, not just our own.
The Democratic support that the super delegates are so keen on being a part of should be viewed as something of a mirage. What would the delegate count be if the events of the last month had taken place in December? Would Obama have as much support as he does now? Would he be the presumed candidate? And yet the Obama of today is the one the Democrats are likely to insist represents their party. The Obama that sees middle America as "clingers," the Obama that wouldn't repudiate Wright but is now quite right to repudiate, this is the Obama that will face McCain in November. For a party as down on America as this one, an Obama nomination seems awfully optimistic. Perhaps, it's not just Michigan and Florida that need a do-over: perhaps the Democrats ought to have a national do-over.
Sure he's liberal. Liberal we can handle. Heck even socialist we can handle. We have systems in place to deal with presidential initiatives which we ultimately don't approve of. But relinquishing any control to any kind of world organization is very troubling. Being outside of our borders and constitution, we could find ourselves subject to a body we don't agree with and yet have few ways to get out from under its jurisdiction. This is a slippery slope. I fear Obama's need to be liked and validated will prompt him to try to enter the U.S. into many global initiatives.
Hillary, despite her belief that her ascension has been preordained, has a low ceiling and a high floor. Obama continues to manifest himself as a divisive candidate, creating his own new voting demographic within his party, one that surely will never be as influential as, say, the evangelicals have been for the GOP. It is no wonder that Clinton supporters would sooner vote for McCain, the two have significantly more in common and, to their credit, Clinton supporters can see through the audacity of hype. The sad fact for the democrats is that these two represented the best the Democrats had to offer. Perhaps it is a tacit admission of poor policy that the Democrats chose two candidates who are best known for their celebrity status and not their policies or experience. If the policy postulates of the democrats had more merit, a "celebrity" wouldn't have be needed to endorse those policies.
I'm afraid I just don't believe that her feelings are the result of poorly timed contemplation. My understanding is that the family was present for the photo shoot and got to see the picture in advance. They liked it and moved on. NOW all of a sudden Miley is embarrassed? These are smart people familiar with the media. I, of course, have no inside information, this is just my opinion, but it would appear she wants to have her cake and eat it too: do the photo shoot (be edgy, become known to new demographics) and then make a heartfelt apology to appease the core fan group.
Is Obama smart enough to see the error of his proposal to meet with such foreign leaders? Probably not. Too impressed with his own palaver, he'll stand by his words. But can McCain and the GOP make the same connection and exploit Carter's follies as empirical evidence that they were correct in postulating what such visits from US dignitaries would bring about?
His words address the inherently conservative values (not republican--conservative) most Americans believe in. But he also points out that while we believe in them, we don't LIVE them. His article can be, and should be, a call for personal change. It will be an exciting read for the number of times you exclaim (too loudly for those sipping coffee nearby) "Yes!" Although, if I'm honest, it is depressing on a national scale because I know most Americans act on their immediate desires and not on the values they hold most sacred. But, in the end, change starts at home.
