Obamas Fail in Personal Pitch to Bring 2016 Olympics to Chicago
President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama risked their political capital and the prestige of the presidency on an enormous Olympic campaign that resulted in an early exit for Chicago and the top prize going to Rio de Janeiro.

FOXNews.com
Friday, October 02, 2009


President Barack Obama is introduced by first lady Michelle Obama before he makes a presentation in support of Chicago as the host city for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games, Friday, Oct. 2, 2009, in Copenhagen. (AP)

President Obama's failure to grab gold in his personal quest to send the 2016 Olympics to Chicago was a stunning setback for a president who has enjoyed a pop star reception abroad.

But Obama's stumble may cost him more than the $1.2 million of taxpayer money to make the overnight dash from Washington to Copenhagen.

Obama and first lady Michelle Obama risked their political capital and the prestige of the presidency on an enormous Olympic campaign that resulted in an early exit for Chicago and the top prize going to Rio de Janeiro.

After returning to Washington, Obama said he wished he had come back with better news on the Olympics but congratulated Brazil and thanked everyone who worked on Chicago's bid.

"I'm proud I was able to come in and help make the case in person," he said from the White House. "I believe it's always a worthwhile endeavor to promote and boost the United States of America and invite the world to see what we're all about."

But critics immediately decried Obama's visit to Copenhagen, the first time a U.S. president made such an in-person appeal.

"It demeans the office," said GOP consultant Brad Blakeman, a former Bush administration official. "For the president to be reduced to the effect of the Billy Mays pitchman for the United States to get the Olympics for his home city of Chicago is just not something that presidents do."

Blakeman said Obama spent more time wooing International Olympic Committee officials than he did in his meeting with Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top commander in Afghanistan, before returning to Washington.

"His priorities are screwed up and the American people are seeing that this president just doesn't get the effects and importance of governing," Blakeman told FOX News.

Instead of making a personal appearance, Blakeman said Obama should have sent a delegation led by the first lady and the mayor of Chicago.

"But it does not warrant the participation of the president of the United States, especially when we didn't get the games," he said. "It puts his prestige on the line and we're rebuffed by a bunch...of thugs steeped in fraud and abuse and the president lowered his high office by doing this."

The White House expressed no regret about Obama's effort.

"There was never any guarantee. All the bids were strong; we knew that," senior White House adviser David Axelrod told FOX News minutes after Chicago was eliminated.

"This president was proud to go and represent our country and make the case for the U.S. and make the case for Chicago," he said. "He'd do it again if he had a chance. We're disappointed it didn't work out but life goes on."

Chicago's elimination was one of the most shocking defeats in IOC voting history. It had long been seen as a front-runner and got the highest possible level of support -- from the president of the United States himself.

But the emotional appeals from Obama and his wife Michelle -- they both flew to Copenhagen to fight in Chicago's corner -- fell on deaf ears in the European-dominated IOC. The IOC's last two experiences in the United States were bad: the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics were sullied by a bribery scandal and logistical problems and a bombing hit the 1996 Games in Atlanta.

"I urge you to choose Chicago for the same reasons I chose Chicago nearly 25 years ago -- the reasons I fell in love with the city I still call home," Obama told members of the International Olympic Committee, many of whom he later mingled with as some snapped photos of him on their cell phones.

"And if you do -- if we walk this path together -- then I promise you this: The city of Chicago and the United States of America will make the world proud," the president said.

Chicago, Rio de Janeiro, Madrid and Tokyo made their cases to the IOC for more than a year, with many IOC members believed to be undecided as late as Friday night.

By the time the winning bid was announced, the Obamas were back on a plane to Washington.

The president's whirlwind trip put him in the Danish capital for less than five hours Friday, with Chicago-backers hoping that would be sufficient to give Obama's adopted home town the advantage it needed to win the close, four-way race to become the host city of the 2016 Summer Games.

But the compressed time frame did not shield Obama from Republican criticism that he shouldn't be hopscotching to Europe in Air Force One when there were so many pressing issues to deal with at home.

Both Obamas spoke on deeply personal terms about Chicago, the city at the center of the world's spotlight so many times, including in November when the former Illinois senator won the White House. The president described Chicago as a city of diversity and warmth, a place where he finally found a home.

"It's a city that works, from its first World's Fair more than a century ago to the World Cup we hosted in the nineties," Obama said. "We know how to put on big events."

For all the anticipation surrounding Obama's appearance in Copenhagen, his arrival at the IOC meeting was decidedly subdued.

The 100-plus committee members, who had already been warned not show bias during the presentations, sat silently as the Obamas walked into the Bella Center with the rest of 12-member Chicago delegation.

Michelle Obama gave a passionate account of what the games would mean to her father, who taught her as a girl how to throw punches better than the boys. She spoke fondly of growing up on the South Side of Chicago, sitting on her father's lap and cheering on Olympic athletes.

The president anchored the U.S. charm offensive,referencing his own election as a moment when people from around the world gathered in Chicago to see the results last November and celebrate that "our diversity could be a source of strength."

Though IOC President Jacques Rogge has said heads of state aren't required to attend the IOC meeting, recent votes indicate their presence can make a difference.

During the 2005 IOC meeting in Singapore, then-British Prime Minister Tony Blair successfully lobbied members on behalf of London's bid for the 2012 Summer Games. Two years later, Vladimir Putin, then president of Russia, helped secure the 2014 Winter Games for Sochi on Russia's Black Sea coast.

FOX News' Eve Zibel and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

What happened? The world is supposed to love us now.

I suppose you were criticizing GW Bush when he spent 4 days at the Beijing Olympics last year, too. Right?

How many of you have ever been to The Olympics?

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BurrysBreak

Inflation caused The BIG BANG...look it up!

Saw some of the soccer matches at Stanford University's stadium during the '84 summer games. It was crazy fun.

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If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph: THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD WAS MUSIC - KV

I haven't been - would be nice to go someday - not that I would particularly go to Chicago in any case.. Atlanta in '96 was a lot closer & I didn't make the trip there..

Definitely a huge economic 'shot in the arm' for the Brazalians; look how China took off with the last one..

About time that South America got one!!

I couldn't beleive that Madrid was in the running - they had the games in Barcelona - '92.. We also had them in '96 - so us getting them again this soon was a real long shot at best..

The games would be a good excuse to visit Rio although going there and actually getting a ticket to an event are apparently 2 different things; my main client is a Brazalian company, but 2016's a long way off - who know's if I'll even be working for them anymore - or alive given our ongoing extortion and rackeetering debacle..

Anyone know any Olympians personally?

Very 'motivated' people.. 'Slouches' need not apply!.

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There are NO white people at all in the Bible... take all the time you need with that...
Please stop feeding the trolls - they will go away if you do...

Attanded a ski camp Billy Kidd taught at Steamboat, and met Bruce Jenner (pre-plastic surgery) at San Jose City College. Although I can't say I know them personally, it was kind of fun being in the presence of a Olympian.

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If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph: THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD WAS MUSIC - KV


Edited: 10/03/2009 at 07:46 AM by Bamboo

Obama failed & wasted taxpayer dollars this cannot be true.

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Not for profits

That's all a load of horseshit. There's nothing wrong with the president advocating for the Olympics to be in the US.

He does so, and we don't get it, and you and Faux news act like the freaking sky is falling.

I guess he should have just taken a vacation like Bush did through most of his presidency.

"It demeans the office," said GOP consultant Brad Blakeman, a former Bush administration official. "For the president to be reduced to the effect of the Billy Mays pitchman for the United States to get the Olympics for his home city of Chicago is just not something that presidents do."


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“It is the heart of US policy to use fascism to preserve capitalism while claiming to be saving democracy from communism “ - Michael Parenti

Edited: 10/03/2009 at 08:35 AM by RustyTruck

Probably shouda gone to Crawford TX. and planned another 911 like the last guy did.. That would have given him more political capital for sure... Maybe even stretch it out to eight years huh ?

FauxSpews would have bitched if he HADN'T been an advocate for Chicago. I'm pretty sure Obama doesn't give fuque what they think about him and neither do I.


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“Are you smarter than a half term governor?"

Payback in action (and ain't it a bitch).

Eight years of censure and railing against Bush and libs expect less for their choice of leadership? You must be kidding.

For a president whose popularity is in free-fall ---80% approval rating when taking office has slipped to the low-forties in less than nine months--- and for a Congress so vexed in debate that they can't agree on what to order for lunch, you can expect more fault-finding going forward.

DISCLAIMER: I do not post this to demean President Obama for pitching Chicago to the IOC. Rather, it is to provide an objective insight into how Washington's political minds view his trip to Copenhagen.

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The agony of Obama's defeat
By: Josh Gerstein
October 2, 2009 04:18 PM EST

What was he thinking?

Monday-morning Quarterbacking became Washington's favorite Olympic sport Friday after President Barack Obama's in-person pitch failed to bring home the 2016 Olympics to Chicago - and in rather dramatic fashion.

Chicago was knocked out in the first-round of balloting - winning just 18 of 94 votes - making Obama's trip to Copenhagen seem not just unsuccessful but entirely ineffective.

A few Democrats were glum, some conservatives were downright gleeful and the White House scrambled to explain that Obama had no regrets about making the trip - despite the fact that it exposed the limits to the power of his high-wattage international popularity.

"I have no doubt that it was the strongest bid possible, and I'm proud that I was able to make that case in person," Obama said after returning to the White House from Copenhagen.

But even before Air Force One made it back to Andrews, political finger-pointing broke out. White House officials insisted that Obama decided to go only after very aggressive lobbying from Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, who offered assurances that the city's bid was within striking distance of winning.

Many political pros said they wouldn't even consider letting Obama put his prestige, popularity and time on the line to go to Copenhagen unless he thought Chicago was a lock, or a near-lock. Some even speculated that Obama must have had some inside information about the strength of Chicago's bid that prompted him to go - something the White House denied.

But at least one Olympics expert said that if the White House aides truly believed Daley's assurances, they were simply naïve.

"Obama and his advisers have proven to be less smart post-campaign than in the campaign," said John Hoberman, a University of Texas professor who studies the International Olympic Committee. "The specter of a smart politician like Obama walking into this is not pretty. The question is whether he took the trouble to consult any sort of expert about what he was getting into.....Really smart people can get swept up in a really ignorant way when it comes to dealing with the Olympic movement. It appears this is what has happened again."

"This is not a huge hit, but I didn't think it was worth the risk," Hoberman said. "At the end of the day, it appears that these crafty Chicago politicians did get themselves in way over their heads."

Obama also faced questions of whether this defeat would tarnish his reputation abroad at a moment when he's struggling with a variety of international issues, and whether he let his hometown allegiance get in the way of cool-headed decision-making as to whether he should have invested the power of his office behind the Chicago bid.

Three of Obama's top advisers - chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and senior advisers David Axelrod and Valerie Jarrett - all hail from Chicago.

Even the on-again, off-again nature of the trip contributed to sense that the White House was making it up as they went along. White House aides publicly raised the trip as a possibility, then Obama's attendance was ruled out, then it was announced that an advance team was scouting for him to go, then the trip was back on. All in the course of a couple of weeks.

Democratic strategist Paul Begala had warned ahead of time that this might be a miscalculation on the part of Obama, already struggling to beat back a growing sense that he's simply overbooked, what with Iran, Afghanistan, health care and unemployment all crowding for his attention.

"If he doesn't get it, he looks bad," Begala said on CNN earlier this week. "You know, he does have a full plate. If I was working for him, I'd say, sir, don't go."

After the vote Friday, Begala reaffirmed his advice, but downplayed the impact of the president's failed pitch.

"As someone who publicly counseled against the President making this trip, I still admire the guts he showed in taking it. This is a stumble, not a fall," Begala told POLITICO.

The Republican National Committee questioned why Obama wasn't focusing on all the pressing priorities at home - prompting a sharp reaction from White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs who faulted the "gnat-like" nature of the attacks from critics.

And some Republican politicians - even some like House Republican Leader Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio), who took a shot at Obama's trip - seemed to realize that more comments today would seem like unseemly piling on, or even downright un-American.

As former Bush White House aide Scott Stanzel tweeted: "Note to GOP officials/consultants - resist temptation to pile on about Chicago losing just [because] Obama made the pitch"

"Taking any sort of glee in Chicago losing its bid for the 2016 Olympics is, in my view, an effort to overreach by criticizing the president," Stanzel told POLITICO. "It looks a bit petty and at times childish."

Republican commentators, however, didn't hold back, painting the episode as a humiliating rejection of Obama's claims to have made a sea-change in America's reputation overseas.

"Hahahahaha. I thought the world would love us more now that Bush was gone. I thought if we whored ourselves out to our enemies, great things would happen. Apparently not," wrote Eric Erickson at RedState.com.

Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh called it the "worst day of [Obama's] presidency" and said the president had "wasted his country's time, and his prestige."

"Obama demeaned the office of the presidency, going on this sales pitch," Limbaugh said.

In interviews just after Chicago was knocked out of the running, White House Senior Adviser David Axelrod denied any miscalculation in sending Obama - but suggested that Chicago may have been outmaneuvered in the byzantine world of IOC politics.

"I don't view it as a repudiation of the President or the First Lady," Axelrod told CNN. 'There are politics everywhere and there were politics inside that room.....There are a lot of factors that go into this."

"The president made a very strong bid," Axelrod said. "It wasn't strong enough to overcome some of the internal currents there.... There are all kinds of cross-currents in the room. There are relationships."

Axelrod said Madrid may have benefitted from the advocacy of a former IOC president, Juan Antonio Samaranch, but the White House aide insisted that he was not intimating that any improprieties had occurred. "I'm not suggesting anything nefarious......I m not suggesting anything untowards happened," Axelrod told CNN.

Axelrod also said the White House realized the success of Obama's mission was far from assured. "We knew it was a very competitive situation," the adviser told CNN. "We had no illusions going in that this was a done deal if he showed up."

Democratic strategist Chris Lehane said Obama's trip seemed to have been driven by loyalty to Chicago rather than a dispassionate analysis of the pluses and minuses for the presidency.

"Your typical politician would not have gone to Copenhagen because the political analysis is that there was little to gain and more to lose - but he did it because he wanted to help Chicago," Lehane said. "At the end of the day it is his non-political brand that is ultimately his greatest source of power and leadership... And with that brand means sometimes you take short term hits for not following the politician's playbook."

Earlier this week, The White House flatly rejected the notion that Obama's Chicago ties played any role in his decision or his support for the U.S. bid for the games.

"If it had been Los Angeles, I think the notion that the President would have done less because it was a different U.S. city just doesn't hold a lot of water," Press Secretary Robert Gibbs insisted earlier this week.

Some analysts find that claim impossible to believe.

"There's no question that this whole exercise would not have happened had it not been Chicago. I can't see him doing the same thing for Seattle or Sheboygan," said Stephen Hess of the Brookings Institution. He noted that Obama's pitch for the city was deeply personal.

"Chicago has a very special meaning to him," Hess said.

The former White House staffer said he sees the episode as unpleasant for Obama, but easily overstated.

"It is sort of a red-faced embarrassment, but if he wins a few big ones for the Gipper like health care or financial re-regulations, nobody will much think about this," Hess said. "This is not going to be in the lead or the end of his encyclopedia entry, but his opponents will have a little fun with it."

Jonathan Martin and Glenn Thrush contributed to this report.

© 2009 Capitol News Company, LLC

Oh...Gerstein, that bastion of clear thinking! Oh please..I've said it before...Barack Obama could single handlely find a cure for all cancers and the wacky rightys would spin it to mean he's crushed the future of the American Economy and demoralized the troops and turned normally level headed Gay men into full on Pederasty machines. There is Zero TRUTH in printed conservo thought.

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The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness -
John Kenneth Galbraith

We railed against Bush on the solid facts. No WMD, no Saddam/Bin Laden connection, NO Yellow cake Uranium, NO training of terro-wackys in terrority controlled by Saddam, secrecy on the talks concerning energy expedenditures (chared by Cheney), the discoveries of the Downing Street memos. Clear thinking people had legitimate reason (based on facts) to "rail" against Bush's Administration. The things Obama is raked across the coals for from the wacky righty talking heads (that people like Beachboner take as gospel), is mostly just made up crap, and the made up up crap is spun up into yet a higher pile of made crap, then the non-thinking conservo nation gobbles up the crap and decimminates it ad nauseum through out the non-thinking world. Rare is the conservo that takes the time to do the due diligence required to get to the truth. They rely on the bought and paid for Faux News type talking heads to do it for them.


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The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness -
John Kenneth Galbraith

52%, but I don't really expect you to post actual facts.

DOH!



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I was right.

Cole---lay off the Acetone!!

http://www.rasmussenreports.co...dential_tracking_poll

(International Bitch Slap)

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Romans 8;18-32 John 3;16-18

The 63% will be crying in their Cialis vials when a public option is passed!

Lame Gray Lady: NYT Scrubs Major Portion of Original Obama-Olympics Article, Inserts Meeting with McChrystal
By Tom Blumer

Those who read the New York Times's coverage of the unsuccessful results of Barack and Michelle Obama's attempt to seal the 2016 Summer Olympics bid for Chicago on Friday afternoon ('For Obama, an Unsuccessful Campaign") might want to read it again.

If it doesn't seem the same, it's because it isn't.

Blogger Weasel Zippers (HT Hot Air Headlines via Instapundit) caught the Times committing a major scrub of the story. But it's really worse than that.

An excerpt of the item's first five paragraphs posted at FreeRepublic at 4:44 Eastern Time on October 2 shows that the article was apparently originally published under the same title with Peter Baker's byline sometime Friday afternoon.

There are even more substantive differences noticed by Weasel Zippers I will get to shortly, but the first five paragraphs alone were obviously worked over, while Jeff Zeleny's name was added to the byline.

After the jump, on the left you will see the original as excerpted at FreeRepublic; on the right are the first five paragraphs currently at the Times web site (saved here at my host for future reference; click here or on the graphic to view a larger side-by-side version in a separate window):



It's not too difficult to determine that the revised coverage waters down Baker's original on-the-scene observations.

Here are other items Weasel Zippers noted:

theyThe reference to other politicians on the journey in the original ("On Air Force One with him Friday, Mr. Obama brought a couple cabinet officers from Illinois, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Education Secretary Arne Duncan, as well as Senator Dick Durban") went away.
An entire paragraph that referred to an Olympic allusion in an Obama campaign speech last year ("And the prospect of winning was too irresistible. After all, Mr. Obama has already envisioned the day when he could welcome the world to his hometown, never mind that small matter of reelection. 'In 2016, I'll be wrapping up my second term as president, he told a rally in Chicago in June 2008. 'So I can't think of a better way than to be marching into Washington Park ... as president of the United States and announcing to the world: Let the Games begin!'") was flushed.
An arrogant, victory-lap jab at critics from Rahm Emanuel ("'They shouldn't try to make politics of this,' Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff and a Chicagoan himself, told ABC News. 'I think they should take some pride in the U.S.'s win, and you know, we'll make sure get some good seats once Chicago does host the games.'") was deep-sixed.
But the Times did find room to note the existence of the president deigning to do his real job for a bit by meeting with the general in charge in Afghanistan ("Mr. Obama also used the opportunity to meet for 25 minutes with his Afghanistan commander, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, who flew to Copenhagen from London, where he was on business. 'The biggest loss of anything on this trip was sleep,' Mr. Gibbs said.")
I should also note that a supposedly heroic Michelle Obama quote in the original ("'Take no prisoners,' she vowed") also got the memory-hole treatment.

The change in the dateline location is important to the point of this post. The Washington story is not an hours-later update of an older story; the location change means that it is a new story. Yet it carries the same URL as the older one out of Copenhagen (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/03/sports/03obama.html). There is no journalistically defensible reason for deleting the Copenhagen-based story. Yet it has indeed disappeared. Times searches on word strings deleted from the older item come up empty.

As if the Times needed any more blows to its allegedly still-existing journalistic integrity, this one can't help but beg the question of who at the White House put pressure on the Times to do what it did. Why would any journalist put themselves in the position of making people wonder if they bow to the wishes of the politically powerful? The answer may be that journalism, once thought to be at least lurking occasionally in its Manhattan hallways, is officially dead at the New York Times.


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Romans 8;18-32 John 3;16-18

Pay attention (and without those special Obama Decoder Blinders his true believers were issued nearly two years ago).

You'll note that Obama's gaffes, fumbles, and sometimes outright lies, are always dismissed by White House spokesmen. At the least, they are mitigated by a compliant and fawning pro-Obama media as being "inconsequential" or "a momentary setback."

All explanations are accompanied by the rejoinder of "We/the President/our Administration must move forward and focus on the really important things."

Always the shifting of blame by this White House, the laying-off of fault, the rejection of personal responsibility on the part of this President.

According to the White House and spokespeople for Team Obama, "The President gave it his best support, and now it's time to focus on health care reform, the war in Afghanistan, the economy. . . things vital to the future of America."

Currently, the fault with Chicago's failure to win the Olympics bid is being blamed on discord, political in-fighting, and confusion within the IOC Selection Committee. A few words are given to Chicago's sorry financial condition, or to North America having already been selected to host perhaps too many Games (Lake Placid, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Salt Lake City, Montreal, and, next year, Vancouver).

Of course, neither of these two issues were addressed prior to the runup to the selection for the location of the 2016 event. Before Copenhagen, it was "We are ready!" and "It will be a financial windfall for the City of Chicago!" Corruption (personal, political, and corporate), crime, poverty, unemployment were (and still are) topics not to be discussed.

So be it. It's time to leave Team Obama to licking its wounds. One can only hope they aren't too deep.