Obama, Biden, Top U.S. Officials To Boycott Sochi Olympic Games

As noted recently, top political leaders in France have announced that they will not be attending the 2014 Olympic Games which in many ways are reminiscent of the 1936 Berlin Games as  Hitler rose to power and used scapegoating and bigotry against Jews to label a small minority as enemies in his quest for a total dictatorship.  Now, top American officials have announced that they likewise will not be attending the Sochi Games and thereby giving a rebuke to Vladimir Putin and his homophobic regime.  BuzzFeed has details.  Here are highlights:

WASHINGTON — The United States will not be sending any of its top officials — either President or Mrs. Obama or Vice President or Dr. Biden — to the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, as part of its delegation to the games. 

A former federal official, Janet Napolitano, will instead be leading the U.S. delegation, the White House announced Tuesday, and two out LGBT athletes — Billie Jean King and Caitlin Cahow — will be a part of the delegation as well. 

In addition to the Obamas and Bidens not attending the Olympics, no current cabinet members will be a part of the country’s delegation either. 

The news came with less than two months until the opening ceremony is slated to take place on Feb. 7, 2014, and signaled the continued U.S. disagreement with Russia’s anti-LGBT laws and other human rights concerns.

The delegation announcement was significantly more delayed than had been the case in 2012, when the White House announced First Lady Michelle Obama’s role leading the U.S. delegation to the Summer Olympics in London more than four months before the start of those games. In 2010, both Vice President Biden and Dr. Jill Biden attended the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada. In 2008, President George W. Bush attended the Summer Olympics in Beijing, China.

In recent weeks, both German President Joachim Gauck and French President François Hollande announced that they would not be attending the Sochi Olympics.

Part of the basis for Putin's embrace of homophobia has been his desire to prostitute himself to the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church - a church leadership which has a centuries long history of seeking to subvert science, knowledge and modernity while supporting autocracy and the interests of the rich and powerful over the needs of the poor and needy.   Putin and the Russian people need to decide whether Russia will be a modern nation or a backwards looking second rate nation.  Right now, it appears that they have opted for the latter.