My only real knowledge of it has been the American coverage of the British coverage. I was wondering if it is a big of deal as the American media is making it out to be. But yeah to me it does seem to be a bit of an overreaction which seems too based primarily on a very disingenuous interpretation of what he said.

First if they want to be offended by him sticking his nose in the issue they need to start with Brian Williams since he is the one who ask the questions. I find telling how many times politicians from both sides are criticized for discussing issues when all they did was answer a question then we turn around and complain that we only get group tested answers that really ignore the question. We can’t have it both ways.

Second he neither said nor implied that the people of London would not be able to come together and get it done he simply said that how well they came together would be what made the Olympics successful. Should he have added a “which I don’t doubt for second they will” on the end? Yeah that would have helped. If people read a prediction of failure into they were projecting their own doubts and fears not to mention political prejudice into things. If they were simply offended that he mentioned some of the problems they had then we are back to the thin skinned thing. As for your argument that NY or really anywhere else in America would get bent out of shape because someone said something that if you squint you can find offense in I would say give me an example. America is one of the most heavily and continuous criticized countries in the world and even our friends seem to think it is OK to take shots at the US so where are the examples of public outrage of imagined slights or because someone pointed out the issues we have discussing for weeks? It isn’t like did what some European leaders have done and gave his opinion on an ongoing political race and even when they did that I don’t remember much uproar.