Oh my god! There is an elephant in this room!

In the wake of huge protests in Paris that forced the Olympic Torch to be extinguished several times, and, more recently, protests at the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, it appears as if the torch relay is getting off to an absolutely disastrous start.

On Monday, Hillary Clinton called on President Bush to boycott the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. Clinton said: "At this time, and in light of recent events, I believe President Bush should not plan on attending the opening ceremonies in Beijing, absent major changes by the Chinese government."

Obama also called for changes to be made, but stopped short of suggesting an Olympic boycott.

Danwei reports on a different take from the Chinese press

"Olympic torch marches ahead Against all odds, the Paris section of Olympic torch relay concluded yesterday, "triumphantly". The big photo on the front page shows the heavily guarded Olympic torch passing the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. Along with the photo, an article clarifies that the flame was not "forced" to be extinguished by seemingly ever-present "Tibetan separatists" as some West media wrongly reported. Instead, the flame was turned off by the escort team for safety reasons. The headline has the words triumphant return (凯旋) in quote marks; it's a pun on the Chinese name for the Arc de Triomphe (凯旋门)."