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Obama Olympic torch fizzles for Chicago
San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 10/6/9 | Debra J. Saunders

Posted on 10/06/2009 7:54:48 AM PDT by SmithL

If you want to understand why some conservatives were gleeful over Chicago's fourth-place finish in its bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games - after President Obama and the first lady flew to Copenhagen to pitch the American city to the International Olympic Committee - consider this quote in the New York Times from Anita DeFrantz, an IOC member from the United States: "I hate the fact that these elegant people were here, and then our country got treated that way."

These elegant people? So the other folks who didn't win for their cities are what? Slobs?

You see in that sentence all the presumption of Obama and his political base.

The 2008 presidential campaign reveled in the argument that the cosmopolitan Obama would boost America's image abroad. Alas, the Copenhagen experience suggests that international types may have fuzzy feelings about the United States post-Dubya - but that doesn't necessarily mean that America will reap tangible benefits. And unlike a beauty contest, the IOC losers can't even bring home a Miss Congeniality prize.

The Drudge Report offered this headline after the news that Chicago placed fourth out of four cities in the running: "The Ego Has Landed: World Rejects Obama." Sure, that verdict is hyperbolic, but Drudge hit on the self-conceit that preceded this fiasco.

(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 0bama; hubris; olympics; usoc
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1 posted on 10/06/2009 7:54:49 AM PDT by SmithL
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To: SmithL

Exactly on the mark.


2 posted on 10/06/2009 7:57:43 AM PDT by texas_mrs (Abort 0bamaCare)
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To: SmithL

From the SFC yet. ???


3 posted on 10/06/2009 8:00:26 AM PDT by Bringbackthedraft (DON'T BLAME ME I VOTED FOR "PALIN"!)
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To: SmithL

This guy has an ego bigger than Napoleon’s...and that will also lead to his eventual downfall.


4 posted on 10/06/2009 8:05:27 AM PDT by mainepatsfan
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To: SmithL

Thanks for the article

This, “New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, for example, has discovered “the politics of spite” - and not after looking in the mirror.”
Brilliant Debra, and funny.

This SF writer is good and should be syndicated but won’t be


5 posted on 10/06/2009 8:09:22 AM PDT by RWGinger
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To: SmithL

I was ecstatic when this arrogant, egotistical, drip was embarrassed by his European wing nuts. I hope it happens many more times. No one is more deserving of it!!!!


6 posted on 10/06/2009 8:09:33 AM PDT by ontap
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To: SmithL
that doesn't necessarily mean that America will reap tangible benefits

And what are the tangible benefits (net of real cost) to the US of hosting the Olympics?

I'm happy with this outcome because I see it as a loss *only* for Zero and the Chicago Mob, not for the country.

7 posted on 10/06/2009 8:11:52 AM PDT by Tax-chick (There is no "I" in "Tejano conjunto." It's all about the mission.)
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To: SmithL

The decision of the IOC saved taxpayers a fortune—exactly what it COST Daley, Hussein and their thug cronies.


8 posted on 10/06/2009 8:15:06 AM PDT by Oldpuppymax (AGENDA OF THE LEFT EXPOSED)
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To: SmithL
> "I hate the fact that these elegant people were here, and then our country got treated that way."

GUFFAW! Is "elegant" a compliment or an insult in the US? I'm not so sure I'd want to be described as "elegant": it doesn't sound... "right." Girly-men are "elegant".

Should the war-time President of the most powerful Nation on the planet be described as "elegant"??

It's a bad look, reflective of how far things have fallen.

9 posted on 10/06/2009 8:16:48 AM PDT by DieHard the Hunter (Is mise an ceann-cinnidh. Cha ghéill mi do dhuine. Fàg am bealach.)
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To: SmithL

It’s over, Zero lost (we won) not get over it, move along.


10 posted on 10/06/2009 8:17:12 AM PDT by The Louiswu (I live vicariously, through myself.)
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To: The Louiswu
"It’s over, Zero lost (we won) not get over it, move along."

Really! It's nothing to get all wee weed up over.

11 posted on 10/06/2009 8:19:27 AM PDT by Enterprise (When they come for your guns and ammo, give them the ammo first.)
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To: mainepatsfan

Hah! Napoleon had an Obama complex!

The NappyOne


12 posted on 10/06/2009 8:21:19 AM PDT by NappyOne
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To: Bringbackthedraft

Yeah but it is Deb Saunders and she has never been as left as most of the Bay Area


13 posted on 10/06/2009 8:27:24 AM PDT by the long march
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To: All
The Drudge Report headline hits on the self-conceit that preceded this fiasco: "The Ego Has Landed: World Rejects Obama"...

Two govt planeloads of connivers......shows the extraordinary influence the Chicago three -- Rahm Emmanuel, David Axelrod, and Valerie Jarrett -- have on matters that crossover into foreign policy.

OBAMA CRONIES LINED-UP TO PROFIT Obama's cronies have too much influence over the office of the President of the United States. That they can literally compel him to expend millions of tax-payer dollars to use two US govt planes, govt personnel, and other govt resources, to make a personal appeal to the IOC, speaks of a terrible, systemic corruption. Also makes one wonder if Obama was getting a cut of the deals.

This needs to be investigated pronto (but don't hold your breath).

David Axelrod's former PR firm did all the upfront work and was paid millions for the project for years to prepare Chicago’s Olympic bid presentation to the IOC (Axelrod is a top WH aide).

Four of the five co-chairs of Obama’sinaugural committee continue to have unpaid leadership roles in Chicago Olympics 2016, including Pat Ryan, the chairman and CEO of Chicago 2016; John Rodgers, the treasurer and director of Chicago 2016; Bill Daley, the former Clinton administration commerce secretary and brother of the Chicago mayor; and Penny Pritzker, the Chicago businesswoman and Hyatt hotel heiress who led Obama’s meteoric presidential campaign fundraising.

Pritzker’s family also owns or manages other hotels named by Chicago 2016 as the accommodations for Olympic workers, press and family members. Ryan and Priztker each contributed $100,000 or more to Chicago 2016.

As did White House Social Secretary Desiree Rogers, an Obama family friend, who also served on the Chicago committee. It still counts Obama confidant and vacation companion Eric Whitaker among its members.

Obama family insider in the WH, Valerie Jarrett, a slumlord, owns Chicago property she apparently planned to turn into Olympic Villages (and flew to Copenhagen). Jarrett was replaced as Chicago 2016 vice-chair by Martin Nesbitt, the treasurer of Obama’s campaign, and another Obama family insider.

ASK Public Strategies, the Chicago-based corporate public relations company founded by Obama political guru David Axelrod and owned and run by some of Obama’s top presidential campaign consultants, was paid “in the tens of thousands” of dollars by Chicago 2016 to do “communication management [and] planning,” said former Axelrod partner Eric Sedler, who did not work for Obama's campaign, but was in Copenhagen, along with Pritzker and Jarrett.

“ASK Public Strategies worked on the bid for three years and for 2/3 of that time our work was pro bono,” said Sedler, who would not speculate on whether the company would be in line for more Olympic work if the IOC picked Chicago (duh).

BTW, did you know that Durbin was in Denmark?....... They were so sneaky as to who went. They took two govt planes---so it musta been quite a crowd. Videos aired from Denmark showed a few unfamiliar faces. Oprah was kept under wraps. Mrs Ohaha was shown getting off the plane alone. Only the Ohaha's were supposed to "shine"......er, ah, make that, bomb. LOL.

14 posted on 10/06/2009 8:30:42 AM PDT by Liz
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To: Liz

Great post, ping for later study.


15 posted on 10/06/2009 8:34:54 AM PDT by rlmorel (Obama, The Flatulence of One Thousand Black Dogs After Eating Boiled Eggs Be Upon Him...)
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To: SmithL

“these elegant people”

Elegant? Who? Would somebody please explain to me what is so elegant about Hussein and the two chubbos (Michelle and Oprah) who wasted our tax dollars on a trip to Copenhagen? I fail to see what is elegant about any one of them.


16 posted on 10/06/2009 8:36:34 AM PDT by Old Grumpy
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To: DieHard the Hunter

I think they were describing not BHO, but MO as elegant...you know, the wide hipped,big arsed, 6 feet tall, perpetually scowling MO.


17 posted on 10/06/2009 8:37:31 AM PDT by kaylar
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To: DieHard the Hunter
This is the American left's ideal of elegance.


18 posted on 10/06/2009 8:40:26 AM PDT by Enterprise (When they come for your guns and ammo, give them the ammo first.)
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To: SmithL
"The Drudge Report offered this headline after the news that Chicago placed fourth out of four cities in the running: "The Ego Has Landed: World Rejects Obama." Sure, that verdict is hyperbolic, but Drudge hit on the self-conceit that preceded this fiasco."


.........

19 posted on 10/06/2009 8:40:36 AM PDT by HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity
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To: Liz
Absolutely a great rundown, Liz.

I didn't know that Illinois Senator Dick "Turban" Durbin was among the junketeers to Copenhagen. I doubt if hardly ANYONE knows this.

IMO, Turban is the most subversive, dangerous and insidious leftists radicals in the Obama coterie of legislative agents.

He's like the German U-boats at the beginning of WW2.....he runs deep, silent and deadly.

Leni

20 posted on 10/06/2009 8:45:07 AM PDT by MinuteGal (Somewhere in Kenya, a Village is Missing Its Idiot!)
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