Hillary Clinton just sent out an email praising Gordon Brown for pledging to not attend the Olympic opening ceremonies in Beijing. She called upon Bush to follow suit, and wants the other presidential candidates to join her:
I wanted to commend Prime Minister Gordon Brown for agreeing not to go to the opening ceremonies of the Olympics in Beijing. That was an important decision by Prime Minister Brown and I am calling on Senators McCain and Obama to join me in my request that President Bush also not attend the opening ceremonies.
Obama has been hesitant to tell Bush to do so, though he says he's conflicted about U.S. participation. And Clinton herself has stopped short of calling for an all-out boycott of the games. I'm of the mind that a boycott should be all or nothing -- if you think the issue is important enough to skip the opening ceremonies, it should be important enough to skip the whole thing. Regardless, good for Clinton for taking up the issue.
--Kate Sheppard
