Conservatives have let forth a torrent of glee over President Obama's failure to secure the Olympic games for Chicago despite a personal pitch in Copenhagen.
But on Sunday the Weekly Standard's Bill Kristol took the revelry to a different and odder place -- arguing that Obama's natural disposition should have had him rooting for Brazil to get the bid, before claiming that the president had acted like an imperialist "bully" in making his Copenhagen jaunt.
"There are so many ironies in this," Kristol said, during an appearance on Fox News Sunday. "By Barack Obama's view of the world, he should have been routing for Brazil to get the Olympics."
"'South America has never gotten them, Brazil has never gotten them. It is a rising power, it would help Brazil. We don't need the Olympics, we have had them a million times. Our economy doesn't need the boost of the Olympics,'" Kristol added, mimicking the president. "And then [Obama] in a sort of George W. Bush like way goes and tries to bully the International Olympic Committee... 'Come walk with us. I'm here for America.'"
"Could you imagine if Bush had done this and we hadn't gotten it?" He went on. "'Typical Bush heavy handedness, cowboy unilateralist, hegemonic imperialist action.' Obama falls into that trap and they run for it. So I must say, you couldn't help by being amused by it."