Conservative Blogger On The Right Wing's Olympic Glee
Chicago resident and conservative blogger Emily Marie Zanotti made waves last week when her announcement to a room of conservatives that Chicago had lost its bid for the '16 Summer Olympics was met with rousing applause. NationalJournal.com, which captured the moment on video, caught up with Zanotti to talk about the criticism surrounding the right-wing glee.
Q: Why were you pleased to see Chicago lose the bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics?
I initially supported the bid. As time went one, I sort of started to sour on it a bit; we started to spend too much tax payer money. I was not a member of Chicagoans for Rio or anything like that. It would be so great for the city but it was just tough to see it sent through the Daley machine. Watch me get my water turned off for that.
Q: What did you think about people calling you unpatriotic or un-American?
I really hate that term. I really hated it when I guess my side, so to speak, applied it to people who were against the Iraq war. It doesn't make a lot of sense.
Q: Did you expect for people to react that way when you made the announcement?
I didn't expect people to start applauding and whooping. I can't speak to what their individual purposes were. I knew people were happy in a sense that it failed and I knew there were some people in the group and some people who are happy because President Obama failed.
Q: But you weren't happy that Obama failed?
Actually I think that sucks. If Obama fails, then the whole country fails and I think we all looked stupid to be out in the first round. I mean, I'm not Obama's biggest fan. I don't agree with his policies but I don't want to see us look stupid on a world stage.
Q: Would you still have made that announcement if you knew people were going to react that way?
If I knew what kind of response I was going to get, that's probably not what I would have done.
Q: Would you apologize to Chicagoans who wanted the Olympics in their city?
I feel like really what I did was just inform people of what was going on and I'm sorry that the impression was that I was against President Obama, but I feel like it probably shouldn't all be heaped on me.
I mean there's lots of people in Chicago who disagree with it, and lots of people in Chicago who believe in it and it's disappointing not to get it. Even I am a bit disappointed because it's the Olympics. How do you hate the Olympics? How do you oppose the Olympics?
(THERESA POULSON)
I think Jon Stewart said it best: "Conservatives hate Obama more than they love America."
Interestingly, I work in a company pretty much entirely comprised of Democrats, and there was plenty of whooping and hollering when we got the news as well. It's nice to read an interview which reflects the widespread Olympic ambivalence of Chicagoans beyond strict party lines.
How disingenuous Zanotti is. Watch the video and watch her laughing glee at the end of the video.
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1460906593?bctid=43158474001
Meh. I'm a radical leftist and I was ecstatic that Chicago's bid failed. I'm happy for Rio for very separate reasons, but the idea to host the Olympics here was brazenly foolish from the start.
Zanotti can't take back that moment in time though I think she wants to now because she's at the root of creating a huge and useful talking point for the left--conservatives can be labeled as anti-american. She's the current female priestess for the Party of No and she doesn't want the job. People who can't take responsibility for their words are irresponsible.
She doesn't want to be blamed for this--well, too bad.
"Meh. I'm a radical leftist and..."
Yeah right, and I'm a Brazilian supermodel.
Typically I Could Agree with you
I however can't. I'm normally a avid reader of this site however am pretty dissapointed in this posting.