Posted on 10/04/2009 9:04:12 AM PDT by mkboyce
“It’s the world’s loss,” said David Axelrod, senior advisor to President Obama, in regards to Chicago not being selected by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as the Host City for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games.
So instead of admitting to a serious miscalculation by his boss and offering a modicum of a mea culpa for time lost and resources wasted, David Axelrod, with mind-numbing condescension, chose to double-down on President Obama’s fool’s errand to Copenhagen.
Sadly though, this once again finds us at yet another “teachable moment” for our woefully under-experienced President and his staff of stubborn political toadies.
As the supposedly “smartest man” to ever occupy the Presidency, does Obama not realize that people do not respond well to a perception of being big-footed into a decision -- particularly the self-entitled, elite-minded internationalists of the IOC? Does he not realize that the Office of the President of the United States is the ultimate political big-foot?
On one hand, it’s an immensely powerful tool that can do amazing things the world over. Though on the other, this power is derived, in part, from its selective and sparing usage and only then when it’s discharged on matters of great importance and consequence.
So it can be sufficed to say that an attempt to garner the Olympic Games, as political payback for his cadre of shady Chi-town cronies, is not even of remote importance given the current state of affairs on Obama’s Presidential plate.
Though does this come at any surprise?
After all, Obama has consistently decided -- in his infinite amateurism-- to misuse the President’s bully-pulpit like an out-of-control hallway monitor at your local elementary school (the Cambridge Police acted “stupidly”, “we’re gonna call you out”, “don’t get all wee-weed up”, Kanye’s “a jackass”) rather than bite his tongue and act…Presidential.
Not to mention Obama’s previous international mishaps of un-sophistication when he bowed, servant-like, before the Saudi Arabian monarch, bestowed upon Queen Elizabeth II an I-POD filled with his speeches -- oh, the honor -- and gifted Prime Minister Gordon Brown a boxed-set of unplayable DVD’s.
Don’t mistake my not wanting Chicago to host the Olympics out of spite for President Obama. As a matter of truth, I’ve always greatly admired “The Second City” and its world class architectural wonders, cultural splendor and professional sports teams.
After all, it’s the city where some of my paternal lineage chose to settle in the 19th Century after immigrating from Alsace-Lorraine, Prussia and…Missouri. It’s where my father grew up as a child. And it’s where -- at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago -- my parents first met, fell in love and were married.
However, if this great American city that I deeply care for was to host the Olympics, I’d want it to occur, like all Americans would, under the most justifiable and wholly legitimate circumstances as possible.
Given the current grave economic situation in Chicago and the continued systemic culture of corruption that pervades City Hall under the Daley Administration -- “tenticalized” throughout the city’s fifty Wards like liberty-sucking leeches -- such an Olympian undertaking seemed to be an undeserved bridge too far at this moment in time.
But don’t just take my word for it. Despite promises made by the Chicago Committee’s oligarchs, nearly half the citizens of Chicago, as polled by the Chicago Tribune, still did not want the Olympic Games in 2016.
So one would think, with such lukewarm support, in addition to the circumstances described above, that our President -- the President of all the cities in America, not just Chicago -- would have wisely deemed his deep involvement in the Olympic selection process to be unnecessary.
I would even have gladly accepted the excuse that it was beneath him!
In track and field, it’s not the fastest man on paper who wins; it’s he who runs fastest on the track during the actual race. In the sport of politics, Obama lost to his very own hubris in an Olympic race he should never have entered.
While it was reported by some that Chicago had a superior proposal on paper or even, was favored to win solely based on the city’s connection to Obama. Given the historic finicky nature of the IOC, any pragmatist would have advised that a positive outcome was far from certain.
Once Obama belatedly decided to drop-in on the final presentation, put his personal prestige and the Office of the Presidency on the line and close with his now overplayed personal story, did anyone warn him that perhaps quite a few IOC members might bristle at the unctuous, heavy-handed presumptiveness of it all?
Yet, by being such a cock-sure, smiling egotist -- puffed-up by a lifetime of one-way fawning adulation reverberating inside the echo chamber of his Hyde Park bubble -- Obama lurched ahead with a foolish, ill-advised gamble into what his army of blind sycophants incompetently thought would be a slam-dunk victory.
Which is a mindset that this quote from last year more than aptly captures:
"In 2016, I'll be wrapping up my second term as president, so I can't think of a better way than to be marching into Washington Park alongside Mayor Daley, alongside Rahm Emanuel, alongside Dick Durbin, alongside Valerie Jarrett as President of the United States, and announcing to the world, 'Let the games begin!'" - President Obama, June 6, 2008
But oh, how wrong they were! For the first round vote tally of Madrid - 28, Rio de Janeiro - 26, Tokyo - 22 and Chicago - 18, says it all. A landslide loss for the presumed favorite.
Remember how our youngest ever President, Theodore Roosevelt, sworn in at age 43, famously believed in the phrase, “Speak softly and carry a big stick”?
No doubt Roosevelt’s belief in this mantra came from his previous leadership experience as Vice President of the United States, Governor of New York, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, New York State Assemblyman and President of the New York City Police Commission.
Not to mention his gallant command of the Rough Riders -- an all volunteer Regiment privately organized during the Spanish-American War -- and his personal leading of their famous and intrepid charge up San Juan Hill in Santiago, Cuba, for which, then-Colonel Roosevelt was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor in 2001.
On the contrary, with life-experiences that pale in comparison to Roosevelt’s, President Obama took it upon himself to charge carelessly to the IOC lectern in Copenhagen and then proceed to blunder loudly, while clinging to his rapidly deflating mojo.
How again does one say ‘humble pie’ in Portuguese?
You can bet, before that dope is out of the White House, he will find a way for the taxpayers to fund his slumlords schemes. Just wait....
Good effort, Marco, and welcome to FR.
Who bees you, and what’s a RLA, ASLA?
Good question.
Thanks! Though please disregard the first post. It was an older version posted in error. Just getting my feet wet.
Registerd Landscape Architect and American Society of Landscape Architects
IOW, the IOC delegates are a bunch of jerks!
I'm having a really hard time trying to explain what it means in English - lol! I'm only getting a literal translation, not a significant meaningful phrase.
Best result : Pause and "uhh?"
Torta humilhe...”mmm mm mmm”
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