You were distressed that the Republicans have been captured by the net of corruption and pork barrel spending personified by the Alaskan Bridge to Nowhere? Well, Ted Stevens was indicted. You were outraged that the IOC  banned the Iraqi team? Well, the IOC relented. You fumed over the Obamapalooza media love fest? Well it may not have done any good and the public is on to the media bias.

What do all these have in common? Well things have a way of catching up with people. As the Republicans learned in 2006 (some by defeat and others by investigation), you can only scam the system so long before someone blows the whistle. The IOC can only tie itself in knots for so long before there is some reaction, and it must cave to overwhelming public outrage. And you think your candidate has already won, you can take a victory lap and the press with be your ad team? The overreach gets you every time.

That is not to say these things just fortuitously happen. Prosecutors do their work, protesters rail at the IOC, and analysts and the McCain team have to do their job to expose media excess. But the root of these errors is hubris. The protagonists thought  the little people can be fooled or don’t matter or can be flim-flammed. Sometimes that’s true. But it sure is nice when it’s not.