MSNBC’s First Read expresses fervent wishes in its reporting:
The 25-minute meeting [with Gen. Stanley McChrystal] aboard Air Force One could not have taken place this week unless the president was in the vicinity, immediately insulating him from GOP attacks about the trip.
I don’t know, I think a lot of folks — non-righties like Dana Milbank — are wondering whether this trip mixes up wants and needs, and what it says about the president’s sense of priorities. Hosting the Olympics in Chicago would be something nice to have; but a lower unemployment rate, a health-care bill that makes things better instead of worse, a more stable Afghanistan, a ceased Iranian nuclear-weapons program, a perfect record in catching all of those aspiring terrorists that keep cropping up around the country – those are all things Americans need to have.
Chicagoans are divided on the Olympics — I suspect they would gladly trade the Olympics for an end to honor-roll students being bludgeoned to death in the streets — and the rest of the country seems pretty blah about the chance to host the Olympics in light of everything else on our plate right now.
I think it’s time for another Jon Stewart segment of, “That’s great, now fix the economy.”