Well that is fascinating, especially the persistent speculation in the blogosphere that the fix was in, otherwise the President would not be going to Denmark (loss of prestige if denied etc.)
Now, is this as big a blow to BHO prestige as some assumed?
This was widely expected to come down between Rio and Chicago. Tokyo was a longshot due to the recent games in Beijing, and Madrid was unexpected because the next games are in London and the 2014 Winter Games are also in Europe. Plus it hasn’t bee that long since the Summer Games were in Barcelona. On the other hand, in 2016 it will have been twenty years since the games were in Atlanta; and of course they have NEVER been in South America, let alone Brazil.
The only surprise today was that Chicago was eliminated first, even before Tokyo, and Madrid made it into the final vote. Most early speculation (based on the committee’s questions to the Chicago deputation) blames the heightened – some would say excessive – security obstacles for foreigners coming to the US since 9/11. No one wants long lines of athletes waiting to get fingerprinted, detained by OHS, getting visas denied, etc. Travelling to the US for non-European visitors is just too fraught with difficulties. It had nothing to do with respect or lack thereof for President Obama, or lingering resentment for the previous administration, both of which I’ve seen suggested.
Good for Rio. They’ll do a great job, and it’s about time that South America was given the spotlight.
First, it is a minor loss. Victory would have created other headaches. Conservatives would have complained Obama appeased the IOC.
Second, Obama did a favor for his friends in Chicago. Rio, however, had a better case. He stuck his neck out and did what he could.
Third, Chicago didn’t need the games. Lots of Chicagoans don’t want the games there.
By handling loss magnanimously, Obama presents to the world that the US doesn’t have to win. But Obama knows that this is about sport, not nuclear weapons. He can cheer for the White Sox, even though the Yankees will go all the way.
But the media representation of this as damaging to Obama’s credibility says more about the media than Obama’s management of the economy and foreign relations and the military.
Friends in Chicago were having night mares about the negative impact they thought the games would have on Chicago and Chicago’s ability to rev up the infra structure needed for the games.
So my friends are pleased.
Here in Chicago the support – opposition to the games was almost exactly even at about 45%. (Like everywhere 10% never have an identifiable view point.)
Did he have to spend the taxpayers money to fly himself and his whole family over there for the 45 min. he spent to try and convince them to hold it in Chicago? Stop and think about the cost of that trip for him and his whole family for 45 minutes spent. If it had been Bush he would have caught *%#@!
TLDillon, it doesn’t particularly bother me either way, but do we know for sure that his trip wasn’t financed or subsidized by the Chicago bid committee?
Since he has his own plane, the cost of sending his whole family is not any greater than him going by himself. We already pay for his meals, etc, so it’s not like the cost is equivalent to you or I taking our family to Copenhagen.
Congrats to Brazil. They deserved to win. As for Chicago, if I lived there I would be overjoyed. Hosting the Olympics is monumentally expensive, it’s a security nightmare, and we won’t even talk about traffic or parking.
#8, John, I don’t know that this works out well for him, though probably does for Chicago. This is one more nail for Obama in the coffin of “he flits from issue to issue, cause to cause, without getting anything done.” Also, he allegedly went to put Chicago over the top. Not only did he not do that, but Chicago came off last in the cities left in the competition. Also, there is the taxpayer money spent in this time of austerity for everyone else, as #11, notes. In addition, he is subject to the charge (probably true) that he once again used his position to support and advance labor unions, many of whom would have probably been rewarded by the building required by all Olympic games, in heavily unionized Illinois. And finally, from a political perspective. most folks, even those not politicians, don’t like to see the POTUS spend time, money and effort on something in front of the world and not have it be successful. Carter, at least, was politic enough not to bring Begin and Sadat to Camp David until he was sure they had worked out the Accords between themselves. I agree with you that it is a minor loss (most Americans don’t care if Chicago got the Olympics or any other American city for that matter). But it is a loss that combined with others may be pointed to at a later time.
It costs millions and millions of dollars to get the president anywhere, especially a long-distance trip like this. In addition to the costs of his own flight, they have to move a full Secret Service team over there with all of their support and equipment, including the president’s bulletproof limousine and all of those black bulletproof Suburbans you always see (which are among other things equipped with a mounted .50 cal. Gatling Gun that can pop through the roof). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkmBH-MjZF4
He also has several Marine helicopters always available that are used as an alternate escape route if he cannot get to Air Force One.
I really hope that you don’t get dizzy from all that spinning, John. Here’s the deal; nobody with a functioning intellect is buying it. The President gambled his prestige on a trifle, he lost and he lost in the most embarrassing way imaginable. If the world won’t listen to him on a matter this trivial, why in the world would anyone care what he thinks about an important issue, Iranian nuclear weapons, say?
Y’know, every time Bush left the White house to go to his own ranch in Texas everybody moaned about how we never got any work out of him.
Obama has been on the Public dole for less than a year and he has already found time to visit England, France, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Ghana, Copenhagan, Italy, Latin America, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt, Mexico, Trinidad and Tobago.
Most of the time he appears to take his kids with.
He has also found time to take his wife to New York just for dinner, and has taken his kids to Martha’s Vinyard, The Grand Canyon, and yellowstone national park.
In this time of austerity when most people have been skipping or cutting way back on nonessentials like vacations, is it too much to ask that he use the phone? Or the Blackberry? How many “vacation days” does a US president get?
#17 Americans will have to work out whether this damages their president’s prestige in their eyes. But as a non-American I’d be very surprised if this had any effect on the esteem Obama is by and large held in outside of the U.S. or adversely affected his ability to exercise leadership on important issues (i.e. almost [i]anything[/i] that doesn’t involve sports). Not saying I agree or disagree with that esteem, just that it seems to be the case.
My impressions as an Aussie living in the UK (both close allies of the U.S.) is that most people are so relieved that the U.S. isn’t torturing suspects any more that Obama has a fair bit of capital to spend before his esteem starts to suffer outside his own country.
I understand that might be a surprising perspective for an American, but those of us outside your country are going to be interested more in foreign affair issues than domestic matters within your country. And losing the Olympics might even help Obama there (marginally if so, however).
Congratulations to Rio. All the finalists had their heads of state, government, or in Spain’s case both, in Copenhagen for the final presentations, so President Obama was just putting the U.S. bid on a level playing field. I’m sure if he had not gone many of the same people would have complained about that.
The fact that there has never been an Olympics in South America, and the fact that Rio de Janeiro is a great location, certainly tilted things in their favor, and the IOC voted accordingly. I think the recognition helps Brazil, but it does not in any way diminish the other finalists or the leaders of those nations, including the U.S. and President Obama.
RE: “Americans will have to work out whether this damages their president’s prestige in their eyes.”
Meh — I think the only way it damages — a little — Obama — is because of all the swooning and the “sure thing” commentary made by the fawning Democrats who call themselves journalists.
RE: “I understand that might be a surprising perspective for an American . . .”
The idea that the President expended much capital on this is… well… interesting, but how many armies does the Olympic Committee have again?
The president is going to lose some battles. Better he loses the ones he should lose. In the end, he’s done his favor for his Chicago friends, satisfied the left who thought it was a huge waste of money, and but the media spin that this is somehow… important… just gives us another meaningless thing to talk about. I doubt that world leaders are saying, “well, I guess we can now push Obama around now. He couldn’t even make the Olympic committee to his bidding.”
I’m not surprised at all. After all, the President trashed the United States at the U.N. and told the whole world we’re a rotten country (except for the 9 months he’s been in office of course). So is it any wonder Chicago was eliminated in the first round?
I think that’s exacly what world leaders are saying, John. If the President can’t bring off something this simple, why should anyone believe he can accomplish something complicated like Iranian nukes or Middle East peace?
I have to agree with John in #25. This is not that big a deal for Obama. I wish he had gone to Copenhagen to argue for Chicago getting the Olympics, but he did. I dont’ think he lost any domestic or international political capital in doing so and I don’t that the the United States is any worse off for not having the 2016 games.
I think the ones who are the most surprised are the journalists who think that Obama can do anything – that he is a “light bearer” as one columnist put it.
In the overall scheme of things, I don’t think this hurts Obama much. Perhaps some of his most sycophantic journalists will start to see him as a mere mortal, but that will only help Obama (and the rest of us too) in the long run.
RE: “I doubt that world leaders are saying, “well, I guess we can now push Obama around now. He couldn’t even make the Olympic committee to his bidding.â€
Right — they were already saying that long long before the Olympic minor fiasco.
I don’t know about Rio being a fantastic city after all I’ve heard about its slums, but I’ve never been there. Another way to look at this decision, rather literally, is that all who come to Rio will be greeted by the Christ statue that towers over their harbor. I guess there wouldn’t be any such thing to see on arrival in Chi-town….pity.
It should be in Rio. The Olympics have never been in South America, or, other than Sydney, to the Southern Hemisphere (of course, doesn’t that make them the Winter Olympics, technically :).
It takes a particularly jaundiced view of the current president as a person to see this as significant one way or the other. He took a shot at it for his adopted hometown. It didn’t succeed. Oh well, he gave it a try. No harm done. As many have pointed out, Rio had some excellent selling points. I do worry that the weather, the pollution ( I once had a taxi ride to the airport there that must have been worth three packs of cigarettes all by itself) and the general difficulty of getting around town will create problems for athletes and spectators alike.
As one for whom the Chicago area is my childhood home, (and where two of my children now live) I was disappointed and annoyed. As one who was born in Rio, with family members there and in other parts of Brazil, I am elated. It is a phenomenally interesting and beautiful city.
Sarah, as usual, a brilliant statement. Yet, as usual, without evidence.
The fact is that Rio deserved to win. That’s a good thing.
Christopher J, I’m not sure how well you follow Olympic Politics, but I am intrigued that you think it’s a walk in the park. Of course, when it comes to Middle East peace, I don’t think a failure would be particularly unusual, even though you might desire it.
RE: “Sarah, as usual, a brilliant statement. Yet, as usual, without evidence.”
No — merely a counter-assertion to your assertion, which was also without evidence.
After all, both of us know that we aren’t trying to convince the other of our various assertions. We don’t share a same starting point on the gospel, the State, private property, the nature of government, the Constitution, humanity, or pretty much anything at all that would make the offer of evidence or actually reasonable debate meaningful or significant.
So the only thing that I do in regards to your assertions based on your antithetical foundational worldviews is merely assert otherwise, on occasion, as I deem appropriate when the mood strikes me to point out just how utterly opposed I am to most of your ideas.
Always good to occasionally point out our differences for the blog to see.
I am thrilled that the Olympics is going to Rio. Their children will benefit and it will be a huge and pleasurable benefit for the people of Brazil.
I don’t think that it is a huge loss for Obama. I am just appalled at the unnecessary and hugely expensive attempt he made to influence the outcome of the OG in favour of Chicago.
Does this mean that Chicago is out? If so then I am so glad to read this.
Well that is fascinating, especially the persistent speculation in the blogosphere that the fix was in, otherwise the President would not be going to Denmark (loss of prestige if denied etc.)
Now, is this as big a blow to BHO prestige as some assumed?
If Chicago lost, despite the presence of The One, does it mean that the rest of the world is racist?
CHANGE!
This was widely expected to come down between Rio and Chicago. Tokyo was a longshot due to the recent games in Beijing, and Madrid was unexpected because the next games are in London and the 2014 Winter Games are also in Europe. Plus it hasn’t bee that long since the Summer Games were in Barcelona. On the other hand, in 2016 it will have been twenty years since the games were in Atlanta; and of course they have NEVER been in South America, let alone Brazil.
The only surprise today was that Chicago was eliminated first, even before Tokyo, and Madrid made it into the final vote. Most early speculation (based on the committee’s questions to the Chicago deputation) blames the heightened – some would say excessive – security obstacles for foreigners coming to the US since 9/11. No one wants long lines of athletes waiting to get fingerprinted, detained by OHS, getting visas denied, etc. Travelling to the US for non-European visitors is just too fraught with difficulties. It had nothing to do with respect or lack thereof for President Obama, or lingering resentment for the previous administration, both of which I’ve seen suggested.
Good for Rio. They’ll do a great job, and it’s about time that South America was given the spotlight.
Excellent choice.
I fogot to add – this is a real coup for Duran Duran.
It works out quite well for Obama.
First, it is a minor loss. Victory would have created other headaches. Conservatives would have complained Obama appeased the IOC.
Second, Obama did a favor for his friends in Chicago. Rio, however, had a better case. He stuck his neck out and did what he could.
Third, Chicago didn’t need the games. Lots of Chicagoans don’t want the games there.
By handling loss magnanimously, Obama presents to the world that the US doesn’t have to win. But Obama knows that this is about sport, not nuclear weapons. He can cheer for the White Sox, even though the Yankees will go all the way.
But the media representation of this as damaging to Obama’s credibility says more about the media than Obama’s management of the economy and foreign relations and the military.
Friends in Chicago were having night mares about the negative impact they thought the games would have on Chicago and Chicago’s ability to rev up the infra structure needed for the games.
So my friends are pleased.
Here in Chicago the support – opposition to the games was almost exactly even at about 45%. (Like everywhere 10% never have an identifiable view point.)
This wont have any impact on domestic politics.
One hopes Rio does a great job.
Did he have to spend the taxpayers money to fly himself and his whole family over there for the 45 min. he spent to try and convince them to hold it in Chicago? Stop and think about the cost of that trip for him and his whole family for 45 minutes spent. If it had been Bush he would have caught *%#@!
TLDillon, it doesn’t particularly bother me either way, but do we know for sure that his trip wasn’t financed or subsidized by the Chicago bid committee?
Since he has his own plane, the cost of sending his whole family is not any greater than him going by himself. We already pay for his meals, etc, so it’s not like the cost is equivalent to you or I taking our family to Copenhagen.
Congrats to Brazil. They deserved to win. As for Chicago, if I lived there I would be overjoyed. Hosting the Olympics is monumentally expensive, it’s a security nightmare, and we won’t even talk about traffic or parking.
Not if he took Air Force One…which he did as we tax payers pay for that ode of transportation.
#8, John, I don’t know that this works out well for him, though probably does for Chicago. This is one more nail for Obama in the coffin of “he flits from issue to issue, cause to cause, without getting anything done.” Also, he allegedly went to put Chicago over the top. Not only did he not do that, but Chicago came off last in the cities left in the competition. Also, there is the taxpayer money spent in this time of austerity for everyone else, as #11, notes. In addition, he is subject to the charge (probably true) that he once again used his position to support and advance labor unions, many of whom would have probably been rewarded by the building required by all Olympic games, in heavily unionized Illinois. And finally, from a political perspective. most folks, even those not politicians, don’t like to see the POTUS spend time, money and effort on something in front of the world and not have it be successful. Carter, at least, was politic enough not to bring Begin and Sadat to Camp David until he was sure they had worked out the Accords between themselves. I agree with you that it is a minor loss (most Americans don’t care if Chicago got the Olympics or any other American city for that matter). But it is a loss that combined with others may be pointed to at a later time.
It costs millions and millions of dollars to get the president anywhere, especially a long-distance trip like this. In addition to the costs of his own flight, they have to move a full Secret Service team over there with all of their support and equipment, including the president’s bulletproof limousine and all of those black bulletproof Suburbans you always see (which are among other things equipped with a mounted .50 cal. Gatling Gun that can pop through the roof). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkmBH-MjZF4
He also has several Marine helicopters always available that are used as an alternate escape route if he cannot get to Air Force One.
I really hope that you don’t get dizzy from all that spinning, John. Here’s the deal; nobody with a functioning intellect is buying it. The President gambled his prestige on a trifle, he lost and he lost in the most embarrassing way imaginable. If the world won’t listen to him on a matter this trivial, why in the world would anyone care what he thinks about an important issue, Iranian nuclear weapons, say?
Y’know, every time Bush left the White house to go to his own ranch in Texas everybody moaned about how we never got any work out of him.
Obama has been on the Public dole for less than a year and he has already found time to visit England, France, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Ghana, Copenhagan, Italy, Latin America, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt, Mexico, Trinidad and Tobago.
Most of the time he appears to take his kids with.
He has also found time to take his wife to New York just for dinner, and has taken his kids to Martha’s Vinyard, The Grand Canyon, and yellowstone national park.
In this time of austerity when most people have been skipping or cutting way back on nonessentials like vacations, is it too much to ask that he use the phone? Or the Blackberry? How many “vacation days” does a US president get?
$100 million Chicago spent on their bid – all for NAUGHT. Hope and Change we can believe in?
#17 Americans will have to work out whether this damages their president’s prestige in their eyes. But as a non-American I’d be very surprised if this had any effect on the esteem Obama is by and large held in outside of the U.S. or adversely affected his ability to exercise leadership on important issues (i.e. almost [i]anything[/i] that doesn’t involve sports). Not saying I agree or disagree with that esteem, just that it seems to be the case.
My impressions as an Aussie living in the UK (both close allies of the U.S.) is that most people are so relieved that the U.S. isn’t torturing suspects any more that Obama has a fair bit of capital to spend before his esteem starts to suffer outside his own country.
I understand that might be a surprising perspective for an American, but those of us outside your country are going to be interested more in foreign affair issues than domestic matters within your country. And losing the Olympics might even help Obama there (marginally if so, however).
Congratulations to Rio. All the finalists had their heads of state, government, or in Spain’s case both, in Copenhagen for the final presentations, so President Obama was just putting the U.S. bid on a level playing field. I’m sure if he had not gone many of the same people would have complained about that.
The fact that there has never been an Olympics in South America, and the fact that Rio de Janeiro is a great location, certainly tilted things in their favor, and the IOC voted accordingly. I think the recognition helps Brazil, but it does not in any way diminish the other finalists or the leaders of those nations, including the U.S. and President Obama.
The ego has landed. Drudge has it up with this headline, and it is the best way to say something in four words or less that I have ever seen.
RE: “Americans will have to work out whether this damages their president’s prestige in their eyes.”
Meh — I think the only way it damages — a little — Obama — is because of all the swooning and the “sure thing” commentary made by the fawning Democrats who call themselves journalists.
RE: “I understand that might be a surprising perspective for an American . . .”
Not at all surprising — rather expected, in fact.
Brazil has the World Cup in 2014 so this is really a huge day for Brazil going forward in terms of their role in the international community.
The idea that the President expended much capital on this is… well… interesting, but how many armies does the Olympic Committee have again?
The president is going to lose some battles. Better he loses the ones he should lose. In the end, he’s done his favor for his Chicago friends, satisfied the left who thought it was a huge waste of money, and but the media spin that this is somehow… important… just gives us another meaningless thing to talk about. I doubt that world leaders are saying, “well, I guess we can now push Obama around now. He couldn’t even make the Olympic committee to his bidding.”
I’m not surprised at all. After all, the President trashed the United States at the U.N. and told the whole world we’re a rotten country (except for the 9 months he’s been in office of course). So is it any wonder Chicago was eliminated in the first round?
I think that’s exacly what world leaders are saying, John. If the President can’t bring off something this simple, why should anyone believe he can accomplish something complicated like Iranian nukes or Middle East peace?
I have to agree with John in #25. This is not that big a deal for Obama. I wish he had gone to Copenhagen to argue for Chicago getting the Olympics, but he did. I dont’ think he lost any domestic or international political capital in doing so and I don’t that the the United States is any worse off for not having the 2016 games.
I think the ones who are the most surprised are the journalists who think that Obama can do anything – that he is a “light bearer” as one columnist put it.
In the overall scheme of things, I don’t think this hurts Obama much. Perhaps some of his most sycophantic journalists will start to see him as a mere mortal, but that will only help Obama (and the rest of us too) in the long run.
YBIC,
Phil Snyder
RE: “I doubt that world leaders are saying, “well, I guess we can now push Obama around now. He couldn’t even make the Olympic committee to his bidding.â€
Right — they were already saying that long long before the Olympic minor fiasco.
This is intended to be a thread on the Olympic bid and the results thereof; if that could be kept in mind I would be grateful.
Rio is a fantastic city, and they deserved to win. Congratulations to our Brazilian friends! BRAVO!
I don’t know about Rio being a fantastic city after all I’ve heard about its slums, but I’ve never been there. Another way to look at this decision, rather literally, is that all who come to Rio will be greeted by the Christ statue that towers over their harbor. I guess there wouldn’t be any such thing to see on arrival in Chi-town….pity.
It should be in Rio. The Olympics have never been in South America, or, other than Sydney, to the Southern Hemisphere (of course, doesn’t that make them the Winter Olympics, technically :).
Kendall, I didn’t know the World Cup will be there in 2014. I can’t even fathom how festive that will be.
It takes a particularly jaundiced view of the current president as a person to see this as significant one way or the other. He took a shot at it for his adopted hometown. It didn’t succeed. Oh well, he gave it a try. No harm done. As many have pointed out, Rio had some excellent selling points. I do worry that the weather, the pollution ( I once had a taxi ride to the airport there that must have been worth three packs of cigarettes all by itself) and the general difficulty of getting around town will create problems for athletes and spectators alike.
As one for whom the Chicago area is my childhood home, (and where two of my children now live) I was disappointed and annoyed. As one who was born in Rio, with family members there and in other parts of Brazil, I am elated. It is a phenomenally interesting and beautiful city.
Sarah, as usual, a brilliant statement. Yet, as usual, without evidence.
The fact is that Rio deserved to win. That’s a good thing.
Christopher J, I’m not sure how well you follow Olympic Politics, but I am intrigued that you think it’s a walk in the park. Of course, when it comes to Middle East peace, I don’t think a failure would be particularly unusual, even though you might desire it.
RE: “Sarah, as usual, a brilliant statement. Yet, as usual, without evidence.”
No — merely a counter-assertion to your assertion, which was also without evidence.
After all, both of us know that we aren’t trying to convince the other of our various assertions. We don’t share a same starting point on the gospel, the State, private property, the nature of government, the Constitution, humanity, or pretty much anything at all that would make the offer of evidence or actually reasonable debate meaningful or significant.
So the only thing that I do in regards to your assertions based on your antithetical foundational worldviews is merely assert otherwise, on occasion, as I deem appropriate when the mood strikes me to point out just how utterly opposed I am to most of your ideas.
Always good to occasionally point out our differences for the blog to see.
I am thrilled that the Olympics is going to Rio. Their children will benefit and it will be a huge and pleasurable benefit for the people of Brazil.
I don’t think that it is a huge loss for Obama. I am just appalled at the unnecessary and hugely expensive attempt he made to influence the outcome of the OG in favour of Chicago.
[i] Slightly edited by elf. [/i]