Some Thoughts on the Super Bowl and the U.S. Failed State

It was a rough night last night. A die-hard Seahawks fan, I kept waking up in the middle of the night with a thought as large as a billboard painted on a downtown high rise filling my head, "Why not run Lynch?" With less than a minute to go in the Super Bowl, the ball on the Patriots one-yard line, the Seahawks had three downs to let Beast Mode punch it into the end zone. Then, inexplicably, a pass play over the middle was called. Undrafted cornerback Malcom Butler jumped it, bumped in front of Ricardo Lockette and intercepted Russell Wilson. After a fight breaks out during New England's kneel down, game over. Patriots win.

I've seen Pete Carroll's explanation of the play call. He stands by it; says it made sense since the Patriots had their run-stopping defense on the field. But why throw such a risky pass, one where Russell Wilson is basically tossing the ball into the middle of the scrum? It was a shocking, appalling decision, one that is going to haunt the team for a long time. In that one play Carroll and offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell cost the Seahawks not only back-to-back championships, but first-ballot Hall of Fame status to Marshawn Lynch and Russell Wilson.

Such a gaffe will follow the Seahawks all off-season. More than likely, it will take on a Fisher-King-like status for the players, a wound that won't heal and that will poison the franchise. Winning is mental and so is losing. Ask Tom Brady. It could be a long time before Russell Wilson gets back to the Super Bowl.

A gloomy silence descended upon my neighborhood. Where last year there were drunken cries of ecstasy, car honks, spontaneous rallies on Broadway following Seattle's shellacking of Denver; this year there was a funereal stillness and weighted hush. I put away the leftovers of my Super Bowl meal (Thai red curry with coconut milk, tofu, zucchini and potato) and went to bed a little after 7:30 PM.

Once there I realized that really the Seahawks loss was poetic justice. After improbably defeating Green Bay in overtime of the NFC Championship, they shot themselves in the foot in the Super Bowl. The offense blew it, but it was really the celebrated Seattle defense who couldn't stop Brady in the red zone in the fourth quarter that cost the Seahawks their second championship. Seattle's one red zone stop -- Jeremy Lane's interception of Brady in the first quarter -- is probably the real reason the Seahawks lost. Lane injured his wrist running back the interception, and Brady ended up skewering his replacement, Tharold Simon, for the rest of the game. Simon gave up two touchdowns, one the game-winner to Julian Edelman. So, as I say, some poetic justice.

I tried to take my mind off the game and fall asleep. I thought about a story, "G.O.P. Campaigns Scramble to Add Romney Donors," by Nicholas Confessore that appeared on Saturday. It used to be that campaign stories having to do with a presidential race were about building organizations in early primary and caucus states like New Hampshire and Iowa; that, and positions on issues and policies, and maybe endorsements. Now it is about who has the most bundlers and billionaire donors. Issues are an afterthought. The voters -- their desires -- aren't even mentioned. This is what it has come to post-Citizens United, and we pretty much have grown to accept it.

The position of this page is that such a situation cannot be maintained for too much longer without a serious shock to the system. The planned Netanyahu appearance before Congress in March is one indication that the system is breaking down. It is completely unprecedented for Congress -- in this case, Speaker of the House John Boehner -- to invite the leader of a foreign country, Israel, to address it against the wishes of the White House.

If Netanyahu goes ahead with the appearance, it will be something of a soft coup. Congress will establish the precedent that it can conduct its own foreign policy separate from the executive branch. The issue at stake here is no less than a war against Iran.

In "A Strained Alliance: Obama-Netanyahu Rift Grew Over Years," by Peter Baker and Jodi Rudoren, Richard Haass, head of the Council on Foreign Relations, acknowledges that Netanyahu, who knows U.S. politics very well, has written off Obama:

Richard N. Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations and a former senior State Department official, said it looked like Mr. Netanyahu has concluded that he would rather take his chances with the Republican Congress even at the expense of his already tense relationship with Mr. Obama. 

“I really do think it represents a strategic calculation that from Israel’s point of view, this president and this White House have essentially been written off,” Mr. Haass said. “Particularly since the midterm elections, they have made the calculation that to the extent possible, they will use Congress as the channel to conduct their relationship.” 

Efraim Halevy, a former head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, said that calculation was made clear in December when Israel offered no public support for Mr. Obama’s decision to resume diplomatic relations with Cuba, a move he attributed to a desire not to alienate Republicans. “Israel is now placing its bets on one side of the aisle,” Mr. Halevy said. “I think it’s a mistake.”

Israel is not even bothering with the White House anymore. Obama is the lamest of lame ducks. When NBC's Savannah Guthrie chatted yesterday with Obama in the White House kitchen prior to the Super Bowl, he looked like a guy merely marking time getting ready to clock out. Pale, frail, juiceless, Obama delivered his lines as if he didn't care whether people believed them or not. He'll probably maintain a residence in Chicago and one in Hawaii once he closes out his term, free to read and write and watch his daughters marry and raise families.

In the meantime, things will continue to deteriorate in the United States. Dollarocracy will reign supreme. Voter turnout will continue to drop as income inequality soars. Eventually, actively fighting wars in too many countries -- Iraq, Iran, Syria, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Ukraine, Yemen, Venezuela, you name it -- will be the country's undoing.