Bring Home the Gold

After the grotesque and sometimes frightening display of excess that was the opening ceremony of this year's Olympics, it's worth pausing to remember that it was on this day in 1936 that a black American, Jesse Owens, stood on the podium to receive his fourth gold medal, a record at the time. That was in Germany, of course, another nation hell bent for world domination despite the human cost. Meanwhile, Bush was there at the party genially chatting up his friend Vladimir, whose troops had just invaded Georgia.