Posted by
aurorawatcher on Saturday, October 03, 2009 12:41:13 AM
While I'm the first to admit that I'd love to go to the Olympics without a passport, I think I see Chicago's failed bid for the Olympics a little different than some do.
In Olympic terms, we just hosted them not so long ago. Remember Salt Lake? That wasn't even a decade ago. So why would we assume it was our turn so soon? Also, South America has never hosted the Olympics. It seems fair that they would get to. I expected us to be turned down in the first elimination round. Seems fair. Tokoyo made sense too, because the Olympics were in China last time. The IOC should be about spreading the Games around a bit, since they're intended to bring harmony to the world.
I think the people of Chicago should be relieved that they don't have the huge bill that comes with the Olympics. They'll find another reason to tear down those projects and building something else -- probably more projects, which is what the Olympic Village would have become anyway.
I don't think the Chicago bid being turned down was a PR disaster for the US, President Obama or Chicago. I think it just wasn't the right time and things worked out the way they should.
What I am embarrased about ... yes, embarrassed ... is not that we campaigned for the Olympics and lost, but that our President personally involved himself in this process and that he did it at such an enormous cost to his constituents. I'm somewhat okay with Michelle Obama and Opra Winfrey hopping the pound to make the pitch. I think Mrs. Obama and Ms. Winfrey should pay their own travel expenses or ask for reimbursement from the organizing committee of the now-defunct Chicago Games. Neither of them is a representative of the United States government and this was not -- I repeat, NOT -- a state function. This was a bid to enrich (questionable whether Chicago would have made any actually money off the Games, Melbourne didn't, I hear Salt Lake broke even) one city in our nation, rather than something with an economic or political benefit for the entire United States. Therefore, the ladies should not be flying on federal taxpayer expense. That said, what does it cost to take Air Force 1 across the Atlantic? I'm thinking more than my mortgage for a year. Whether he suceeded or failed is immaterial. It's that the taxpayers' money was spent on this trivial matter.
I am not embarrassed that Obama failed, but I am embarrassed at the attempt, because I really think the President of the United States should concern himself with more important issues -- a nuclear Iran, a crazy N. Korea, the economy -- hey, how about giving the general in command of our troops in Afghanistan more than 25 minutes to discuss the situation. I'm embarrassed that our current President doesn't seem to know what presidential priorities ought to look like.
As I've explained before, I work in the community behavioral health field and some of my coworkers believe that Mr. Obama suffers from narcissistic personality disorder. As I am not a certified therapist and they are, I'm included to believe their diagnosis. Narcissists believe that the world will automatically bow at their feet. Until very recently, Mr. Obama had experienced nothing that would dislodge that belief. I don't think the townhalls have fazed the Narcissist-and-Chief one bit. He honestly believes that anyone who actually enters his presence will change their minds. However, the IOC seemed unimpressed. That's got to be really hard on Obama's ego. I imagine there was sulking this evening at the White House. It takes a lot of convince narcissists that they aren't the center of the universe, but I believe Mr. Obama's training is well underway. The final blow should come with the 2012 election, but he'll start to wonder what's up around November of 2010.