among the disappointed must be certain hard-right members of our Tea Party crowd who have taken a liking to Putin over the last few years.

To them, any sort of weakness is not incumbent of a dear leader, and Putin epitomized (in their neolithic minds) the sort of (white) man who can impose an ideological will upon a country and exert direct and threatening influence over his neighbor countries. Now, Putin is handcuffed by thousands of foreign athletes inside his country and the world’s attention to any sort of provocative action. it turns out these Olympics will be remembered as the start of the downfall of Putin, and the exact opposite of what he had in mind.