Bringing The Olympics Home… By Any Means Necessary!
Sep 28th, 2009 | 17 responses
Image courtesy of Chicago Ray Report - http://chicagoray.blogspot.com
Ok… Ok… The title is a bit over the top but President Obama is going to be the first U.S. President to appear before the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to lobby for the Olympics (via The Huffington Post):
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama’s decision to fly to Denmark to support Chicago’s Olympics bid elevates the Games to an issue of national importance – and exposes him to political risks as well as rewards at a critical point in his presidency.
Obama’s presentation in Copenhagen on Friday will be the first time a U.S. president has appeared before the International Olympic Committee to lobby for an Olympics. Obama initially had said he couldn’t make the trip because he needed to tend to the health care debate at home.
As the White House announced the change of heart on Monday, there seemed to be increasing confidence that the votes could be stacking up Chicago’s way to host the 2016 Summer Games. If Chicago does come away the victor in the four-way race – Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo are the other contenders – Obama could get a political boost for helping to deliver the Games to his adopted hometown and for handing the U.S. a fresh source of national pride.
If the U.S. loses, he still might get points for trying. But he would be visibly tied to a failed effort – and to the spending of political capital on an endeavor many Americans might consider unworthy of so much of a president’s time and energy.
Sometimes you can smell the bloody political red meat from 100 miles away. Our good friends in Right Blogtopia are all over this one via Memeorandum. Byron York has a particularly explosive title that say “Iran smolders, Afghanistan burns, and Obama heads to…Denmark“. I had a particularly juicy reply to that but Jim Geraghty at National Review steals my thunder:
The fact that Obama is going signals that Chicago is getting the Olympics, right? Would Obama go if he hadn’t been told that his attendance was the difference-maker? Would the IOC have the nerve to reject the hometown of the president, after every international elite spent the last two years telling Americans to elect this man?
And with allied reinforcements in Afghanistan few and far between, Iran shooting off missiles, trade wars brewing with China, Mexico, and Canada, and Russia ignoring the “reset button,” doesn’t Obama need a big foreign win right now?
If Chicago doesn’t get the Olympics, we’ll hear a lot of people noting that Obama can’t find time to meet with General McChrystal to decide on his Afghanistan plan, but he could find the time to go Denmark to get rejected . . .
OF COURSE! The Olympics 2016 (Chicago Edition) is a done deal. President Obama goes to Denmark, spreads a little joy and cheer, takes some pictures with the Denmark leadership and their families, and PRESTO! Chicago deep dish pizza anyone?
Look, I know folks on the Right like Michelle Malkin, Don Surber, and our really good friend but necessarily all the way “Right Wing” Rick Moran have to drop bombs on this but friends, the “President Obama has too many issues to waste time with a Denmark visit because he must stay heads down 24/7 in all things Afghanistan, Iran, and Domestic” just doesn’t fly. This is the 21st Century. President Obama is linked into everything he needs to know on the dime. Air Force One isn’t a Cessna ya know. He will be briefed, re-briefed, side-briefed, and back-briefed all the time. So don’t you worry, President Obama knows what’s going on.
Now speculating about the corruption Chi-Town style when it come to the Olympics (and corruption follows The Games wherever they are) is fair game. I’m already wondering what juicy scandal future President Sarah Palin will have speak to in some press conference… Oh! Did I just say President Palin? Sorry for letting the cat out the bag. The Almighty, and Most Majestic Future Seeing Luck Dragon told me.
Forgive me please!
FOR THE RECORD: The last paragraph is not a knock on Sarah Palin for all you Palin fans and supporters. I just couldn’t resist the vision (and irony) of a Chicago Olympics with a President Palin there.
17 Responses to “Bringing The Olympics Home… By Any Means Necessary!”
Palin? Palin couldn't get elected mud-dobber.
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LOL, anything to get the Olympics, or anything to get on TV again?
I don't mind one bit that the world loves Obama, nor that he may land us the Olympics. Of course it would be a shame if Afghanistan fell apart because he wasn't at his desk
Honestly, I'm not sure that Obama will be a plus here. maybe he would be, but on the other hand the IOC might feel it was being unduly pressured by his presence and consider that a strike against.
So… Bush went to the Olympics in China, at a time when our economy was in recession, stock market was plunging, there had been bank failures earlier in the year and it was about to get worse, there were two wars going on, Russia was invading South Ossetia, etc…. And Bush wanted to spend a few days watching sporting events…. And I might add, since conservatives criticize Obama for spending time not attending to what they consider pressing issues… I don't recall these conservatives attacking Bush for spending nearly three years of his time in office on vacation in Texas.
Maybe Obama should have scheduled a vacation to Denmark, with a side trip to push for the Olympics.
Besides, the money, job creation and international attention the US will receive for hosting the Olympics is great. If Obama didn't go, these conservatives would probably attack him for not being patriotic enough to boost the image of the US and not doing everything he coudl to help create jobs for Americans….
Chicago could be the only city that could make Atlanta look competent while running an election. Chicago claims to not have enough funds to keep the city running now. Yet, the are willing to lose a ton of money on sponsoring the Olympics.
I really don't fault Obama for trying to get the Olympics here. If he can do it, then great. Never been big on the Olympics, but I have a better chance of watching them in this country live then 12 hours after the fact on tape delay.
Bring the Olympics home? To Greece?
It is a good idea, IMHO. I cannot see what is wrong with the President trying to help secure a prestigious, world-wide event for the US.
I second third forth that….it is a good idea. Obama is still superman in Europe…the people just love him. The IOC is probably just as inamored. All it will take is a couple autographs and fist bumbs and it's ours.
I have no problem with him going to push for it.
But I suspect if Bush had gone to push for Houston or Dallas, quite a number of people would have raised a fuss.
Patrick, I really doubt there would be any such pushback.
SD, you're almost 30 years out of date with your comment. I think it was 1980 when cities started profiting handily from the Olympics v.s. spending and losing a lot.
That's right, Green!
Obama for President of the World!
Oh wait. That's not what you meant, is it?
He could have just saved us all some hassle and ran for Secretary General.
LOL
The cities don't make money, but the city businesses BOOOOOM big-time. And with a well-placed city-wide tax on most of that, the cities typically recoup in the long-run.
[shrug]
Consider the full context, the “big picture” related to this situation, not only with Obama's shameless lobbying, but more importantly, the city: Chicago:
Blue Nation, problem-ridden, a city and place (like Blue Nation) in decline (largely of its own making), someplace which has to struggle not to be left behind routinely by more modern, vital, growing, having-a-bigger-future-still big cities and metro areas, like Los Angeles and Atlanta.
“Yet, the are willing to lose a ton of money on sponsoring the Olympics.”
[snicker] They want a one-shot economic injection (and probably federal money, i.e., ours) to have a chance to relive, in modern times, a brief piece of decades-in-the-past former glory, while still in great decline (with kids slaughtering each other so much that the lib media is currently obscessed with it as a sensationalism item, and with notorious gun control that has landed the city and some of its suburbs in court).
Old Blue Nation (Cyanide Nation brain death) self-mismanaged cities, typically with not only bloated, corrupt, dysfunctional (“BCD”) local governments, but city income taxes(!) and gun control(!) along with high crime. [snicker] The Olympics are being sought for what in the USA is JURASSIC PARK.