Job Description Issues
He was elected President of The United States, not President of downtown Chicago, yet Obama seems to have some confusion over his role. Yes, it would probably be just dandy for Chicago to get to host the Olympics, but what is Obama doing taking time out to stump for them? Dave Zirin writes for HuffPo:
Mayor Daley, rocking a 35 percent approval rating, says that the Games would be "a huge boost to our economy, raising it to a new level. The Games will help us recover sooner from the recession that still grips our nation and enable us to better compete in the global economy."There is only one problem with this argument: the history of the Olympic Games almost without exception brands it as a lie. As Sports Illustrated's Michael Fish - an Olympic supporter - has written, "You stage a two-week athletic carnival and, if things go well, pray the local municipality isn't sent into financial ruin."
...Even without the Olympic Games, Chicago has been ground zero in the past decade for the destruction of public housing, political corruption raised to an art form, and police violence. Bringing the Olympics to this town would be like sending a gift basket filled with bottles of Jim Beam to the Betty Ford Clinic: over-consumption followed by disaster.
It's also difficult for Chicago residents to see how this will help their pocketbooks, given that Daley pledged to the International Olympic Committee that any cost overruns would be covered by taxpayers.This is why a staggering 84 percent of the city opposes bringing the Games to Chicago if it costs residents a solitary dime. Even if the games were to go off without a hitch - which would happen only if the setting was lovely Shangri-La - not even half the residents would support hosting the Games.
The Obamas, former Chicago residents, should be standing with their city. Instead, we have the sight of Barack, Michelle, and Oprah trying to outmuscle Pele and Brazil for a place at the Olympic trough. The question is why. Maybe Obama wants the Olympic fairy dust enjoyed by Ronald Reagan at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles or Bill Clinton at the 1996 games in Atlanta. Or perhaps he is returning favor to the developers and other sundry connected people in the Windy City who will make out like bandits once the smoke has cleared. But his intentions are clear: he wants the glitz, glamour, and prestige of the games and he wants it for the Daley machine. What the people of Chicago want doesn't seem to compute.
Hey, Mr. President: Leave the "Up With Chicago!" work to people, private and public, who live in and work for Chicago -- any who actually want the Olympics there, that is. And, hey, while you're at it, quit the health care experiment and work on fixing the broken economy, willya?
UPDATE: And Chicago is Ouwwwwwt!
I've been proud of LA for not signing up an NFL team for the last however many years.
Crid [CridComment @ gmail] at October 2, 2009 12:01 AM
Of course Barry. What the people REALLY need is circuses.
Ah well, never mind. Back to your fiddle Barry.
gwallan at October 2, 2009 2:03 AM
Well, we can't forget the great "sacrifice" that the first lady is making on behalf of this effort.
I'm with letting the city of CHICAGO decide whether they want to host the Olympics. It will be their baby if they do get it and they'll be the ones dealing with the hassles and expense as well as any potential bennies; it's only fair. Just because BO's *from* Chicago doesn't mean he speaks for the city...
Beth at October 2, 2009 5:34 AM
I live in Chicago and I seriously do not know a single person who wants the Olympics here. Our city is bankrupt, our county is bankrupt, our state is bankrupt, and we have the highest sales tax of any city in the country, but please let's add even more financical burden to our debt. The idea of the Olympics being here is ludicrous.
And why does this have anything to do with Obama? Because he didn't become president without the Chicago Machine and they own him. If Daley and the Machine tell him to get his ass to Copenhagen, he knows he better go.
Fink-Nottle at October 2, 2009 6:12 AM
My friends in Milwaukee want the Olympics to be in Chicago, for economic reasons. People will fill up hotels and eat at restaurants, while the graft and corruption occurs across the state line.
Pseudonym at October 2, 2009 6:28 AM
Of course the Olympics should be in Chicago. Just think: with all that money flowing through, the machine can skim hundreds of millions off the top!
The economic benefit is nonexistent - a few weeks of good hotel bookings is nothing. In return, the city must build absolutely massive amounts of infrastructure, most of which will never again be used to capacity.
Has any city/country ever not lost money with the Olympics?
bradley13 at October 2, 2009 7:00 AM
Who cares if it adds another huge financial burden to the taxpayers (sarcasm)- At least Obama can stroke his ego again by having his name attached to this world wide event.
And after all isn't that what America and the main stream media are about-Stroking his ego?
David M. at October 2, 2009 7:13 AM
The whole thing just makes me ill. I saw on the news that Oprah was in Copenhagen too, for the festivities. Why was she there anyway? Because her good buddy Michelle was? They make me sick, the lot of them. Their bullshit pandering is really getting old.
Flynne at October 2, 2009 7:27 AM
bradley13 -- If I recall correctly, the winter Olympics hosted in Calgary in '88 did not lose money. We had a huge volunteer core doing a massive amount of the work -- each of whom got a jacket and a hat. I don't think it would work these days though -- between security screening and the entitlement culture, even "volunteers" would cost a fortune.
moreta at October 2, 2009 8:21 AM
It's a moot point now, Chicago has been eliminated.
The headline on Drudge is a classic: "The Ego Has Landed"
Robert W. (Vancouver) at October 2, 2009 8:47 AM
That's the best news I've heard all week. And if there's the slightest doubt about Obama's true motivations, read this excellent article:
http://spectator.org/archives/2009/09/29/obamas-olympic-spirit
It details how David Axelrod, Valerie Jarrett, and a host of other Obama cronies stood to make millions from a successful bid.
Martin (Ontario) at October 2, 2009 8:59 AM
Mayor Daley's father understood that you can be as corrupt as you wanna be as long as you keep the streets swept, the garbage collected, and crime to minimum. Under the elder Daley, Chicago was the "city that works."
Daley famously told John Lindsay (then mayor of New York City), "John, you forget why you were elected – to collect the garbage."
The younger Daley has forgot his father's lesson. He's kept the corruption, but lost the "work."
Conan the Grammarian at October 2, 2009 9:05 AM
and the cries of racism (from the world this time) begin in 3...2...1...
Beth at October 2, 2009 9:32 AM
> The younger Daley has forgot his
> father's lesson.
Times changes, but Richard M. will soon (Dec '10) have been Da Mayor longer than Richard J. If he forgot important things, he didn't forget many of them.
Crid [CridComment @ gmail] at October 2, 2009 9:40 AM
Besides, who knows... They say that vast majority or Chicagoans were against this. Maybe Daley did something to sink it.
Crid [CridComment @ gmail] at October 2, 2009 9:41 AM
After years of White House deadheadism (Bush) we have a president who shows some energy. I like it.
I wish he would get out of Iraqistan pronto, a much, much, much, much bigger issue than Obama giving it the college try for his adopted hometown.
And (I am sure all of you nitwits will agree) his adopted country.
i-holier-than-thou at October 2, 2009 9:50 AM
i-h-t-t your posts are much more enjoyable when you're telling us all how attractive you are and how you like to bang young girls. Stick with that. Your political commentary reads like a copy and paste from old DU threads.
St. Mark the Bovine at October 2, 2009 9:55 AM
My city (Montreal) received the Olympic games in 1976. We paid the interests on this orgy of public spending until these last few years. Now we are stuck with the maintenance of big, ill-designed buildings.
Now, it's Rio's turn. I wonder how they will pull it out....
Toubrouk at October 2, 2009 9:57 AM
>>My city (Montreal) received the Olympic games in 1976....
Yes, I read about the chronic costs during my first ever trip to Montreal recently - still, it's a stonkingly wonderful city. (I'm actually about to visit Chicago for the first time too - can't wait.)
I was prompted by Amy's post today to watch the results on CNN - I've never seen so many sour Spaniards in my life! (But, like Chicago, they'll be feeling much better tomorrow morning, without the future financial hangover.)
Jody Tresidder at October 2, 2009 10:17 AM
hey a-holier, you dont even live in this country, shut the fuck up
ron at October 2, 2009 10:19 AM
@ i-hole
Yeah, we'd much rather hear about your 20-years younger-than-you-wife and, as St Mark pointed out, how hot you are....
Beth at October 2, 2009 10:38 AM
Yeah, i-hole, we'd much rather hear about your 20-years-younger-than-you wife and how hot you are!
Beth at October 2, 2009 10:42 AM
I'd heard a news report this morning, before the results were announced, that said Chicago had been promised federal subsidies to cover all expenses from the Games. WTF? I don't recall signing up for that.
IIRC, the L.A. games turned a profit, thanks to Peter Uberroth. I understand the Atlanta games more or less broke even, if you discount the cost of the Olympic stadium (they were about to have to replace Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium anyway).
Cousin Dave at October 2, 2009 10:47 AM
As trivial as this incident may seem, I think that it's going to go down historically as the beginning of the end of Obama's presidency.
Peter at October 2, 2009 11:27 AM
Peter might be onto something.
I was talking to a strongly pro-Obama coworker (from Chicago) earlier about this topic. He commented that Chicago being voted out in the first round was a real international relations slap to Obama, having put so much effort into getting the games for Chicago.
In the past, he would brook no dissent or doubts about "The One." The cracks may be starting to show.
Conan the Grammarian at October 2, 2009 11:31 AM
Okay, okay, I am hot. Well, I was.
I do live here, halftime.
My wife is more than 20 years younger. She is hotter than me.
Still, it is nice to have a President not on vacation Fri-Sun, summers, four weeks at Xmas, and two weeks at Easter, and after 5 pm.....oh, and other holidays, Thanksgiving is a couple of weeks too....
And yes, this is an extremely trivial incident, as Peter notes.
Obama inherited a train wreck. Afghanie had melted down into a drug state. Iraq has become an Islamic-Shiite state, (not like Turkey, a secular state), happy to make pals with Iran, which was happily building nuke plants on Bush's watch.
The economy was in a free-fall, and the financial system all but collapsed.
On nine months, Obama has saved the financial system, I think the economy is turning positive. Afghanie may be hopeless, unless we spend another 8 years and 500 bil, and I don't think we should do it. Bush screwed it up, but we can't get the money from him. Too bad, lost cause.
In brief, it is hard to remember a President who inherited such a bad hand. With what he's got, he has played that hand well. Give it another year or two, before judging.
i-holier-than-thou at October 2, 2009 12:09 PM
We don't have a year or two. He'll be out by the end of 2010. When the Democrats lose the house and senate, he won't see any reason to stay and he'll resign in a fit of pique.
Oh well, at least President Biden won't be able to fuck things up too badly.
brian at October 2, 2009 12:41 PM
On nine months, Obama has saved the financial system
Your memory is off. The critical restructuring and mergers were engineered by Paulson's team. They occurred at the beginning of the crises, before Obama came into office - remember?
Geithner's team oversaw the execution of these arrangements and assisted in negotiations among the participating institutions. But they didn't design them. In fact it was Geithner who took so much heat for not being able to come up with a consistent policy for clearing bad assets from TARP participants - remember?
Though it turned out that Geithner's ad-hoc approach was probably best. The participants eventually threw up their hands and defined their own arrangements, among themselves. At this point Treasury is simply facilitating the resolution of these deals.
Moo at October 2, 2009 12:47 PM
"Your memory is off"
Moo, I can assure you - it ain't eye-holies memory. Ask him what he does for his day job... (whistling...)...
Feebie at October 2, 2009 12:52 PM
Just for balance - this link has been coming up elsewhere.
It's no real biggie -it simply proves then President Bush visibly lobbied for Chicago getting the games (back in Jan 2008).
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_10/020234.php
Jody Tresidder at October 2, 2009 1:03 PM
"In brief, it is hard to remember a President who inherited such a bad hand ***(uhhh Reagan?)***. With what he's got, he has played that hand well. Give it another year or two, before judging."
*** insert mine.
And here is the problem with sophists like eye-hole and Obama, they never fucking create squat for themselves yet, ask for the rest of us to be patient while they rob us blind.
We that value the wisdom contained in our US Constitution, don't really care much for your type of folks, eye-hole. Perhaps you should consider living in Thailand FULL time.
Feebie at October 2, 2009 1:07 PM
>>In brief, it is hard to remember a President who inherited such a bad hand.
Hmmm...Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter come to mind, for one.
>>On nine months, Obama has saved the financial system
Has he? That's certainly up for debate.
...by the way, BO's quest for the Olympics in 2016 might not meet the strictest definition of the word "vacation" but it certainly qualifies as a "boondoggle."
The point of this post was that, with ALL the other stuff that BO should be attending to and worrying about, trying to bring the Olympics to Chicago, despite what the city's residents actually wanted, was foolish at best.
Personally, I'm with Brian. Don't know how he's going to last a full four years.
Beth at October 2, 2009 1:21 PM
That's because your sense of history extends back only a few months, i-hole.
Roosevelt wasn't too thrilled with the hand he inherited from Hoover.
I'm betting Lincoln wasn't writing any thank you notes to Buchannan.
Johnson couldn't have been thrilled with the hand he inherited from Kennedy (ever hear of Vietnam?). Nor Nixon with what Johnson left him (again, Vietnam). Nor, in fact, Ford with his inheritance (scandal, inflation, Vietnam), Carter with his (inflation), or Reagan with his (inflation, hostage crisis, energy crisis).
GW Bush inherited a recession and the wreckage of the tech bubble burst from Clinton (and had 6 years of ecnonmic growth before his own housing bubble burst).
Yet, all these presidents dealt with the issues they inherited instead of whining about how they got dealt a bad hand. Obama volunteered for the job. Now he needs to do it instead of whining and trying to vote "present."
Conan the Grammarian at October 2, 2009 1:24 PM
"Now he needs to do it instead of whining and trying to vote "present.""
Nice!
Feebie at October 2, 2009 1:27 PM
Not really. Bush met with the committee and mentioned in a speech that the country supports the city's bid. That's not lobbying.
There is a big difference between making a speech and using meetings with foreign dignitaries to discuss the issue, dedicating time and effort at the G-20 meeting to actual lobbying for the games, and travelling as president to Copenhagen to lobby in person for Chicago to get the games.
Obama put too much of his international prestige into lobbying for the games - instead of using it to pressure Iran, increase Allied assistance in Afghanistan, resolve the situation in Honduras, or other more pressing needs. His priorities are skewed.
Conan the Grammarian at October 2, 2009 1:50 PM
If you want to see how far CNN will bend over for this President, just look here.
Radwaste at October 2, 2009 4:03 PM
> hey a-holier, you dont even
> live in this country, shut
WHAT? This guy's not even from the United States?
Crid [CridComment @ gmail] at October 2, 2009 4:33 PM
Obama put too much of his international prestige into lobbying for the games
That's right, and that's the real issue here.
What's interesting is that the savvier Liberal television pundits got it. George Stephanopoulos was the most candid commentator of the one's I'd seen. He came on from Chicago looking like he'd just seen someone shot.
His first statement was that no one expected that the president would be sent if the selection of Chicago wasn't locked up. You don't send the President of the United States into a situation like this without knowing the outcome first.
That's why the camera pools were set-up for crowd shots, rather than reaction shots. And that's why the set-up of the story by all of the news organizations assumed that Chicago was going to be nominated.
Statecraft 101 tells you that you don't put the leader of the free world into a situation where he's going to be ignored and humiliated. This isn't for PR, or 'national pride', it's because the standing of the President redounds to all of the treaties, and institutions, and nations that rely on the international status of the United States. If this declines, chaos ensues and people die.
I think that the look on George Stephanopoulos' face came from the realization that Obama and his people genuinely don't understand the gravity of their role in the world.
Moo at October 2, 2009 6:23 PM
...the realization that Obama and his people genuinely don't understand the gravity of their role in the world.
That's because Obama's organization hasn't really been constructed to govern, but rather to remain in permanent campaign mode. He's never stopped campaigning. It's the only thing (along with "community organizing", whatever that is) that he's really ever done, and thus is the only thing he really knows how to do. Every time he and his cronies want to sell something (be it health care, stimulus, cap and trade, Chicago to the Olympic committee, or whatever), their tactics are indistinguishable from campaign tactics -- constant presence on TV, every day, frequent speeches that have no substantive content, carpet-bombing of intended message targets through sympathetic media, and mobilization of his netroots and his activists on the ground to press, or even use coercion or suppression, to advance the message. While at the same time his administration leaves details to underlings or even third parties, as witnessed by his willingness to let Pelosi, Reid, and the Democrat committee chairmen, who have no more knowledge of economics or the industry involved than you or me, write the bills that would nationalize our health care system.
This is not what a president does -- this is what a candidate does. He may as well be running the 2012 campaign already. The appearance is indistinguishable.
This perspective isn't original. Several pundits have already pointed this out, and have wondered out loud when this guy is going to finally assume the role of the President.
cpabroker at October 2, 2009 10:28 PM
To use a crude sexual metaphor, he's shot his wad on the Olympics. After being totally owned by the IOC, nobody is going to take him seriously again.
Thanks to Barack "The One" Obama, the United States is no longer the de facto leader of the world. And I suspect that he's just fine with that.
brian at October 3, 2009 6:12 AM
I agree with cpabroker. Also, the blame Bush approach is getting real old. I saw it again around the job rate. It wasn't Bush who predicted the unemployemnt rate with his recovery plan would be at 7.9%. President Obama owns that estimate. Instead, it is at 9.7%. Your recovery plan was passed Mr. President. Where is the recovery? Where are the jobs?
He better start scaling back and picking his battles or else this will be a long season of discontent just like Jimmy Carter's presidency. Lectures and slogans aplenty but no real execution of effective plans to actually solve problems.
LoneStarJeffe at October 3, 2009 6:20 AM
This was his pitch..
“Nearly one year ago, on a clear November night, people from every corner of the world gathered in the city of Chicago . . . to watch the results of the US presidential election,” Mr Obama told the Olympic committee. “Their interest wasn’t about me as an individual . . . Rather, it was rooted in the belief that America’s experiment in democracy still speaks to a set of universal aspirations and ideals . . . And so I urge you to choose Chicago!”
He really can't help himself.
Maurice at October 3, 2009 8:34 AM
The reason that Obama appears black is that his ego is so massive that not even light can esccape.
Marko at October 3, 2009 12:04 PM
That's a weird thing to say. Have you ever said it to anyone out loud, using your real name?
Crid [CridComment @ gmail] at October 3, 2009 2:27 PM
Tweet from Mikemurphy via Kaus:
Brazilians wax Chicago.
Crid [CridComment @ gmail] at October 3, 2009 3:16 PM
Watch his pitch in full. Words fail me.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/10/02/olympics.2016/index.html#cnnSTCVideo
Conan the Grammarian at October 3, 2009 5:34 PM
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