Bush to US athletes: God, country, gold

It was hard to tell who was more excited -- the nearly 600 members of the U.S. Olympic team or the president who welcomed them to Beijing.

The athletes took photos of the president. The president, a jock and onetime part owner of the Texas Rangers, looked on admiringly.

"Congratulations for representing the finest nation on the face of the Earth," President Bush said at the 2008 Olympic Fencing Hall. The president might be forgiven his hyperbole. As Randy Harvey points out on the Los Angeles Times Olympics blog, the American athletes known around the world -- like Kobe Bryant -- got the biggest cheers at Friday's opening ceremony.

Bush knows something about heightened expectations, and nerves. Son of a president, brother of a governor, he is a politician who defied predictions to win two presidential elections and who keeps prevailing in Congress despite having the lowest approval rating of any president since Harry S. Truman.

"I wasn't exactly sure what to say to you, except to start with, God I love our country and I love what we stand for. And I love being with you," he began. Urging the athletes to "win as many golds as you possibly can," Bush concluded: "I guess all I've got to say is, go forth, give it all you've got and may God bless you."

But, as our friends at the Swamp discovered, Bush did not in fact say "Go forth," but rather "Go for it." White House stenographers quickly corrected their error and we acknowledge ours here.

Go for it.

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo: Eric Draper/White House