Rachel Maddow Blasts the Right for Celebrating Chicago’s Failed Olympic Bid

Last updated on August 10th, 2014 at 05:07 pm

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow was on NBC’s Meet The Press this morning, and she had some harsh words for those on the right who are calling President Obama a failure and celebrating Chicago’s failed bid to host the Olympics. Maddow said, “For them to be cheering America’s loss here on the right I think is sort of disgusting.”

Here is the full clip:

Maddow said, “Well, the unseemly cheering on the right for America losing its Olympic bid I think is going to be the taste that lingers a long time after this failure. Certainly the president tried to get something and he didn’t get it, and people who hate the president feel like that’s a cause for celebration. But to see, for example, the Weekly Standard post “Chicago loses, Chicago loses, cheers erupt at Weekly Standard headquarters” I think says a lot more about the Weekly Standard, it says a lot more about the right right now than it does about this loss.”

She continued, “In 2012, London got the Olympics after Blair tried for them; in 2014, Russian got them–Russia got them after Putin tried for them; and in 2016 all four finalists had their head of government or head of state to make the argument. Obama did nothing unreasonable. And it would’ve been a shock if Chicago won. For them to be cheering America’s loss here on the right I think is sort of disgusting.”

Mark Murphy said that he was enjoying the hypocrisy of the Democrats now attacking Republicans patriotism, but in this case, I think that there is something unpatriotic in rooting for an American city to lose a bid to host the Olympics just because a Democratic president made the pitch. This situation is nothing like when Republicans invoked 9/11 and flag waving to invade Iraq, win elections, and squash disagreement.

I do think that the extreme politicization of every single issue, big or small, is bad for the country. If we can’t even agree that it would be a good thing for a U.S. city to host the Olympics, what can we agree on? The answer would seem to be, not much. I don’t think this zealot like partisanship is good for the country. Just because both parties are doing it, doesn’t make it right.

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Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

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