Remember how, when I posted the news of the United States’ failed Olympics bid, that the thread was immediately slammed by exultant Obama bashers?

They are not alone in hating America.

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See Paul Krugman’s “Politics of Spite” today. Chicago’s rejection was a teaching moment, he writes.

“Cheers erupted” at the headquarters of the conservative Weekly Standard, according to a blog post by a member of the magazine’s staff, with the headline “Obama loses! Obama loses!” Rush Limbaugh declared himself “gleeful.” “World Rejects Obama,” gloated the Drudge Report. And so on.

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So what did we learn from this moment? For one thing, we learned that the modern conservative movement, which dominates the modern Republican Party, has the emotional maturity of a bratty 13-year-old.

But more important, the episode illustrated an essential truth about the state of American politics: at this point, the guiding principle of one of our nation’s two great political parties is spite pure and simple. If Republicans think something might be good for the president, they’re against it — whether or not it’s good for America.

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And cowardly Democrats can pool and co-op coverage and pander to insurance companies and drug companies and it still won’t matter. Republicans will just say no.

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