Personally, I could really care less where the Olympics are held. I stopped seriously watching them when they started allowing professional athletes play against the amateurs. The Olympics (IMOHO) should be about the spirit of healthy competition and sportsmanship. Neither seem to be a part of it anymore.

That being said, I do think the pile-on is a bit of an over reaction by some of the right. But only to a point. The same level of arrogance can also be seen on the other side of the spectrum where Chicago should have won just because it was the USA.

I think letting the Olympics be held someplace ‘new’ will be a refreshing change for them, and I hope Brazil can pull it off.

On a side note, I wonder if there is any sort of study or report that has gone through the costs versus income with an Olympic event, over a good span of time? I saw something that said the last such event to actually turn a profit for the city was the LA Olympics, but there wasn’t hard numbers to back that claim up.