• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, August 14, 2008

Michael Phelps is getting all the buzz. But quite simply, it's Jason Lezak who may have saved the Olympic Games for NBC. Not just over the next week, but for another decade to come.

Lezak's heroics are now well-known. How on Sunday he swam the anchor leg of the 4X100 freestyle relay and somehow overcame a Frenchman who had a commanding lead.

The jaw-dropping finish kept relay-mate Michael Phelps' pursuit of a record number of golds in a single Games alive. Had that cratered, the strong ratings NBC has experienced over the ensuing three nights - and should into the weekend -- might have also fallen off. Instead, Americans have tuned in night after night for the drama of whether Phelps can continue his perfect streak.

Much is on the line for NBC in Beijing. It lost $70 million on the Winter Games in Italy two years ago. Lackluster ratings and an attendant financial hit this time would likely give parent General Electric pause about ponying up the type of funds needed to keep the Games on NBC past 2012 (it has the next two).

Bidding for 2014 and 2016 is expected to begin sometime after the torch is extinguished in China. Fox and ESPN are said to be ready to jump in the process. In ESPN's case, it has so many billions that its participation could simply force NBC to pay even more through the nose than it's used to.

On a more immediate level, the significant Lezak-assisted and Phelps-driven ratings could save NBC from having to offer loads of make-goods to advertisers this fall, which would lower revenues over the next several months.

Once Phelps exits the stage in the coming days, will the Olympics continue to draw an average of 30-million-plus a night? Probably, providing Americans have an explosive start in track and field.

The Olympics are often about momentum. If a captivating storyline a la Phelps or sterling moment such as Lezak's dash comes early on, Americans hear about it, tune in and begin to feel patriotic. There's no question that creating a swell of patriotism propels Olympic viewing.

The opposite may have happened in Turin's Winter Games two years ago. The would-be Phelps -- skier Bode Miller -- could have helped bolster ratings by winning an early gold, and then drawing more viewers as he chased the four more he was expected to win. Instead, he failed horrifically in his five events.

Allegedly, it was because he spent too much time partying in the Italian Alps. Not exactly the kind of behavior to make Americans swell with pride.

Neither is what Presidential candidate John McCain has done during these Olympics. If the 32-year-old, mellowed Lezak represents the best of the Games, McCain hasn't come close to joining him.

And his questionable judgment contributed a cringe-inducing moment Sunday night -- just as Lezak, Phelps and teammates were basking in the post-race glow, while NBC was doing a fine job of capturing the drama.

But as the excitement continued to build, a McCain ad appeared. Had the candidate taken a different strategy during the Games, the moment might have presented an unexpected opportunity to draft off the American team's success.

Instead, his spot was a hatchet job on Barack Obama. It started by accusing him, with grainy footage, of being not much more than an empty-suit celebrity. Then came the decades-old linchpin of Republican attack ads: charges that the Democrats will tax you into oblivion. "Obama voted to raise taxes on people making just $42,000," the voiceover said. "He promises more taxes on small business, seniors, your life savings, your family."

It felt exceedingly out of place. The last thing viewers fresh on an Olympic high wanted was a reminder that three months of unbridled, no-holds-barred negative campaigning was soon coming their way.

The following night NBC had the good sense to bury a McCain ad just a few minutes into prime time, way before Phelps was anywhere near the pool.

But NBC deserves blame for allowing McCain to run negative ads during the Olympics at all. What was Standards & Practices thinking?

NBC would never let liberal advocacy group MoveOn.org run a spot blasting McCain, nor give the NRA a forum to accuse Obama of planning to let U.S. Marshals go door-to-door to confiscate hunting rifles.

By allowing McCain and Obama to buy the Olympics, NBC should have insisted they stick to ads promoting their own biographies and candidacies -- if for no other reason than to prevent the type of imbroglio that happened in the wake of Sunday's magic.

Forget about the buzzkill factor. But from a business perspective, do advertisers with their anthematic, feel-good Olympic creative want their spots to run anywhere near a voiceover offering thus: "Not ready to lead -- that's the real Obama."

Count Visa with its Morgan Freeman-narrated spot in that group. And Coke promoting its funding of Olympic athletes' dreams for decades. Or, for that matter, Johnson & Johnson featuring Cullen Jones, a member of the Lezak-Phelps miracle team.

A day after the Lezak-McCain juxtaposition, NBC's Andrea Mitchell and Howard Fineman were debating McCain's go-negative approach on MSNBC's "Hardball."

Bad move, Mitchell said: "It is a feel-good moment. It is an All-American moment ... This is not the place to put a negative ad." Fineman said McCain was paying to take advantage of a "huge, huge audience" and simply put, negative ads work.

Maybe. But not this time.