another Bush first: politicizing the Olympics

[Cocoa]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0408150281aug15,1,5787810.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed

Political historians and strategists from both parties said they could not recall a time when a presidential candidate had tied a campaign ad directly to the Olympics, which are intended to be a haven from national disputes or blatant politicking.

While some Democrats suggested the president was politicizing the Games, Bush campaign advisers defended the strategy and praised Iraq and Afghanistan as models of the administration's vision.

"It shows that the world is changing. It really is a remarkable change in a very short period of time," said Karl Rove, the president's top political adviser. "It's heralding the optimism and changes happening in the world."

Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe disagreed, saying: "George Bush is desperate. He politicizes anything. He will try to take advantage of anything politically."

[MallRat]

1. If Bush is hitching his campaign to the Olympics...

...then what conclusion are we draw from the US Men's Basketball team's performance today?

Miserable. Failure.

-MR

[NMDemDist2]

2. kick n/t

[jeff30997]

3. Can he sink even lower ?

(Rhetorical question)

[donco6]

Always. eom

[Dogmudgeon]

4. Actually, Hitler did it

For real.

He used the 1936 Olympics (in Munich, IIRC) to promote his mythos of Aryan Supremacy. Which Jesse Owens promptly destroyed.

--bkl

[Feanorcurufinwe]

8. That's what I was gonna say.

Doesn't anyone know history?

[Pachamama]

15. Ah....another similarity to another fascist....

George W. Bu$h....the ugly American...

[Snoggera]

17. Sorry, missed your post

and repeated the analogy. What a striking analogy it is, though. Much like a dozen other analogies that may be drawn between the two, though many still feel it is not "politically correct" to express this.

[bullimiami]

20. Hitler. First thing that I thought of too.

Another move right out of the nazi playbook.

[Pachamama]

5. When the whole point of the Olympics is to put aside politics.....

...leave it to stupid pathetic George W. Bu$h to try to change that too....

What an asshole him and Rove and the rest of their cabal are...

:grr:

[DeminDC]

6. Kerry Needs to Make This a Campaign Issue

Much like Obama's red state/blue state comparison, there needs to be a Kerry ad that says "It is not your Olympic team, it is the United States of America's Olympic team." It should conclude with Kerry wishing our athletes luck in the competition.

[Cocoa]

9. I'd love to see that

and the Obama reference is right on, and it looked like Kerry picked up that point from him in his own speech.

And wasn't Howard Dean the one that first made the point, saying the American flag doesn't belong to Rush Limbaugh and Jerry Falwell?

[DeminDC]

14. Dem Olympic Advertisement---CALL FOR DU ACTION

I would suggest a text like this:

"(Footage of the mosaic of nations on the infield in stadium during opening ceremonies) Billions of our global neighbors are tuning in these weeks to witness an extraordinary celebration of culture, athleticism, and spirit.(Footage of lighting the torch to coincide with end of sentence) (Start of picture of Kerry looking into camera) I would like to join my fellow Americans by wishing our Olympians luck during these games and congratulations to all who join them in competition. These games, long victim to politics, do not belong to any ideology. Our Olympians do not represent any party but the United States of America."

Anyway, that is merely a draft. Please edit for verbosity and content. Then, we could send it to Dem_Strategist and the Kerry folks.

[Pachamama]

16. Oooooh....I like it - send it to them!

:bounce:

[Pachamama]

19. BTW - Welcome to the DU!

:hi:

We love Newbies in our freethinking forum....:toast:

Love your counter-advertising idea....send it off to the Kerry campaign....

[Kurt Remarque]

22. yes, it was howard and it was very powerful

[MidwestTransplant]

7. ""It's heralding the optimism and changes happening in the world.""

These people are ill.

[Snoggera]

10. I remember reading that Hitler

politicized the Olympics. Another page from the book.

[Democat]

11. The press would have crucified Clinton for doing the same

But other than a few small articles, this will probably be ignored.

Someone on the left needs to make an organized effort to bring this to the press. Cause some sort of controversy, threaten a boycott of something, whatever it takes to make this into a news story.

This is a terrible thing for Bush to do and he will probably get away with it because of the media and our side's inability to launch effective attacks.

[wildeyed]

13. We should all

sit down tomorrow and write our LTTE's on this topic. They would probably be widely publish since they hit on two issues people are interested in right now, the presidential race and the olympics.

[Cocoa]

18. my email to NBC

a little lie at the beginning. I've never been all that interested in the Olympics. :-)

Dear NBC,

I've been looking forward to the Olympics, but now that I know that George W. Bush is using them in his ads, and running those ads during the Games, I can't possibly watch them this year. As soon as I heard about the Bush ads, it ruined the Games for me.

NBC should have kept the Olympics from being politicized, by refusing to air the Bush ads. There's a precedent for this in CBS's refusing to air MoveOn.org's ads during the Super Bowl, and it's even more important for the Olympics, which has a tradition of being non-partisan.

[ronnykmarshall]

21. Clinton didn't in 1996.

Reagan did in 1984.

You can bet your bottom dollar, the Repugs will trot out any metal winner that will allow themselves to be whored out.

[wildeyed]

12. I LOVE the olympics.

It's bad enough that they try to own family values and religion, but now they are trying to steal the olympic spirit as a repuke value? Gimme a break! I am sure many of the olympic athletes will not be pleased to see a lifetime of hard work and sacrifice co-opted to the republican cause.

[Democat]

23. Why are they allowing political ads during the Olympics, but not Superbowl

Does this seem right?

[Cocoa]

24. the Super Bowl is hallowed ground

it's like the Najaf of TV advertising.

[kwolf68]

25. PIGS

Flag, Freedom, the Bible, our Military and now this. November 2nd CAN NOT get here soon enough.