[RACooper]

My thoughts... personally I'd have liked to have seen the bid go to Toronto but I'm not disappointed that the Olympics went to China.

The international media and public focus on a "closed" society will continue to raise the pressure on the Chinese government for reforms as well as highlight all of it's failings - all in all a good thing.

As for the Torch Relay - well Vancouver has just announced that it won't be doing an international relay, instead focusing on a cross-country national relay showing off the torch. They cited the security issues of course, as well as a distaste for the torch relay being used as a political tool... but really that shouldn't be a surprise since the whole modern torch relay was concocted by the Nazis for the Berlin Olympics.