Mount Olympus: It Never Stops

Chicago's defeat in the Olympics sweepstakes has prompted great silliness. Conservatives mock the presentations made by the Obamas (which were, as George Will noted, preposterous). Liberals blast George Bush for alienating the universe.

We think Rio won because it made the best bid and because South America never has hosted an Olympics and the time has come. Blame it on the bossa nova, in other words.

The Wall Street Journal's Daniel Henninger (one of our favorite scriveners) applied an intriguing spin. In a column that careened from Michael Moore's cinematic assault on capitalism to Barack Obama's leadership and ideology to hockey's "icing" rule (just kidding) to the Olympics, he argued that Rio defeated Chicago because it represents the future while the Windy City does not. After saying that the U.S. needs not less capitalism but more (a sentiment we share), Henninger added that while American politicians seem content with growth rates of 2 percent to 3 percent, "the world of China, India, and Brazil" boasts growth rates "between 5 percent and 9 percent." The discrepancy may have caught the Olympic committee's eye, he implies.

Perspective comes from the Heritage Foundation's rankings of economic freedom. The United States rates as the sixth most free. China finishes at 132, India at 123, and Brazil at 105. Countries whose booming growth rates apparently deserve Olympic gold are classified as "mostly unfree." Oops.