It is only once every four summers that we are bombarded with such infectious patriotism and human spirit as those of the Olympians and politicians (as disingenuous and conniving as they may be at times). As Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin tumbled and flipped to solidify themselves as the duo to deal with in Beijing, John McCain stumbled as he raised a few eyebrows about his geopolitical knowledge (how about that Iraqi-Pakistan border with those nuclear weapons sandwiched in between?), and closer to home, the number of houses he owns. Even though we know he owns seven houses, let’s just hope that he knows which one he’ll be residing in this January if, God forbid, he wins yet another house.

But it was the effervescent smile and golden face of Shawn Johnson that put a smile on my face as she somersaulted and flipped herself to a gold and three silvers, reminding us that even tenths and hundredths of a point mean the difference between first and second. If there’s one thing we should take away from the injustices and strange cruelties of that small misstep on the balance beam or the length of a last stroke in the 100-meter butterfly (ask Croatia’s Milorad Cavic), it’s that it’s just the way of the sport. It’s a pretty profound statement considering the looming controversies of age-appropriate Chinese athletes and the ubiquitous Clinton delegates fighting for their president of choice while coming to grips with the prospect of nominating Barack Obama this past week — someone whom they see as being a little too hip, cool and handsome for their political palates.

Even though Nastia Liukin scored the same on uneven bars as gold medalist Kexin He, Nastia was awarded the silver medal based upon the calculation that Kexin He had higher execution scores even though the grand total came out to be exactly the same. And what did Nastia have to say about getting ripped off?

“I know I didn’t have my best routine, but I had the same exact score as she did, which makes it a little harder to take … I still don’t understand how they broke the tie, but that’s just the rules, and you just have to play by them. If it had happened in the all-around, I would’ve been a lot more disappointed.”

She may have not been the Olympic champion in this event, but she certainly handled the disappointment like one, all because in the Olympic Games there can only be one Olympic champion. While you could discredit this idea in this particular setting, I do think it has some (or a lot of) merit in the political arena. In this day and age of being politically correct (or incorrect) and wanting to grant ourselves the grand prize even if we didn’t quite deserve it, or changing the rules of the game if they are not suited to our strategy, we must bring ourselves to the conclusion that the Olympics and the election of the president are not a buffet-style event, where we can pick and choose as we please with the option of coming back for second helpings as soon as we’re done with the first helping, but rather a complex and unforgiving race where we are all stuck together running around: life.

So while Clinton delegates grumble and groan over the reality of not nominating Sen. Clinton, one situation that I hope McCain supporters will have to face come November, just take a lesson from Nastia Luikin: “that’s just the rules, and you just have to play by them.” While the rules state there can be only one Olympic champion, let’s just hope there can only be one president of the United States.