Mikhail Doesn't Like Winners

Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev doesn't care much for winners:

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev says Americans have a disease "worse than AIDS” – the insistence on imposing a U.S.-style democracy in Russia.

A decade and a half after a coup removed him from power and the U.S.S.R. collapsed, Gorbachev spoke with an ABC News correspondent about American’s criticism of Russian democracy as President Bush prepared to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G-8 conference in St. Petersburg.

"We have made some mistakes. So what?” Gorbachev said. "Please don’t put even more obstacles in our way. Do you think you were smarter than we are?

"Americans have a severe disease – worse than AIDS. It’s called the winner’s complex. You want an American-style democracy here [Russia]. That will not work.”

Well, I suppose if you got your butt beat by Ronald Reagan you'd try to justify losing too. Gorby may not like our "winner's complex", but that hasn't stopped him from having a very nice compound in Crissy Field which is located right on San Francisco Bay near the Presidio. Our tour guide pointed it out last week as we headed up the hill toward the Golden Gate Bridge.

Gorby may have lost the cold war, but that didn't stop him from taking advantage of American liberty and freedom.