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When Mayor Richard Daley spoke at the private and final meeting of Chicago 2016 volunteers, he was, according to one attendee, "in rare form." Another described him as "on a rant. It was straight off the cuff. ... He looked angry, and he was angry." Now, we weren't there. The press was barred from last week's meeting at the Aon Center and the reception that followed at the private Mid-America Club on the top floor of the building. About 150 to 200 volunteers attended, and four shared their impressions on the condition of anonymity. Daley started his remarks by calling...

Israel Aerospace Industries has signed a $350 million deal with Brazil to supply Heron unmanned aerial vehicles to patrol the South American nation's borders and provide security for the 2014 World Cup tournament and the 2016 Olympic Games. All told the state-run company, flagship of Israel's defense industry, will provide 14 drones over several years, three of them by April 2010. The deal comes amid a big surge in sales of Israeli UAVs worldwide, particularly with nations providing military forces in Afghanistan where UAVs have become a major component in the war against the Taliban and their jihadist allies. The...

The Chicago police would say only that authorities had found the body of an adult male about 3:15 a.m. in the area of 350 N. Orleans St., a road near a waterway in Chicago. CNN affiliate WGN-TV, citing unnamed police sources, said Scott's family had reported him missing Sunday evening. WLS-TV also reported that it was Scott's body that emergency crews recovered from the water. A report on the station's Web site did not cite a source but noted that Scott's wife, Diana Palomar, is the station's vice president of community affairs. Scott had been appointed to the Chicago Board...

Quote: President Obama took his chances on a high-profile visit to Copenhagen because the White House was getting a "clear message" that his presence could clinch the Olympics for Chicago, The Chicago Tribune reports. "The intelligence that we had from the U.S. Olympic Committee and Chicago bid team was that it was very close and therefore well worth our efforts," said Valerie Jarrett, a senior White House adviser. "The message was that...a personal appeal from the president would make a huge difference." President Obama first tried lobbying quietly through phone calls, and had not decided until a few days before...

“Nothing is easier than blaming others for our troubles and absolving ourselves of responsibility for our choices and our actions. Anyone can do that. Responsibility and leadership in the 21st century demands more.” — Barack Obama Very poignant statement by Barack Obama, but as witnessed by his leadership style and penchant for blaming Bush on a weekly basis for something he can’t control, he left it incomplete.

In the misty past of ten months ago, dissent was patriotic, mass protests were a sign of passionate civic engagement, and the greatest sin any politician could commit was questioning someone’s patriotism. But that was America, B.B.O. (Before Barack Obama). Now dissent is potential incitement, middle American protesters are Swastika-carrying yokels, and disagreeing with a president’s decision to put his hometown above the well-being of troops in Afghanistan demonstrates a “lack of patriotism.� On Friday’s edition of MSNBC’s “The Ed Show,� Ed Schultz blamed Chicago’s first-round rejection, not on Rio or behind-the-scenes maneuvering, but on American conservatives who questioned...

There is much discussion today on how/why Obama went to Copenhagen without the bid in the bag and what this says about his view of leadership. I remember seeing/hearing him, I think at one of the debates, say something regarding how executives/managers/operations type are just paper pusher/scheduler types. He did not see this as his role, but instead be in the vision business. Can anyone else recall this and help me with the source material? I think it would be interesting to revisit in light of recent events. Thank you in advance.

Frankly, I don't care that Chicago lost its bid for the Olympics. Really, I don't. But maybe the president's trip to Copenhagen was useful since his top battle commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, traveling from England to Denmark, had the opportunity to meet Barack Obama on Air Force One. Their talking with each other is, after all, a rarity. In fact, Obama and McChrystal had spoken but once since the general took on AfPak as his turf in early June 2009. With whom, then, is Obama conversing? And how independent of mind on military matters are they? Or are...

The International Olympic Committee has been listening to President Soetoro’s recent accounts of America and they agree with him America is not what it should be. President Soetoro spent the first few months of his presidency reaffirming all of the world’s most negative feelings toward America and they heard him. (see previous post)(see 2:16min video) For years Democrats and Liberals have been attempting to undermine America’s position as world leading super power. Former Democrat President Clinton even forecasted that this day would come, a day when America would not be the pre-eminent military, economic and political power. (see related story)...

"Some of my best memories are sitting on my dad’s lap, cheering on Olga and Nadia, Carl Lewis, and others for their brilliance and perfection.” IOC not swayed whatsoever at the made up story... Al Gore invented the internet. Truth…It was invented by the miltary and others Obama,-Selma Got Me Born, Parents had you in 1961 - Selma had no effect on your birth, as Selma was in 1965. Bill Clinton saw Black churches burn to the ground while he was living in Arkansas.Truth…A check of the records shows there were NO burnings there during all his time there. Hillary...

The organization that brought you all those banners, ads and fund-raising pitches for the 2016 Olympics in Chicago soon will pay the price for the city's failure to get the games. Chicago 2016, the high-powered civic committee that has worked on the city's bid for three years, is expected to lay off most of its 57 paid staffers by the end of October. A small group is expected to remain through year-end as it winds down operations. In a "stewardship report" issued in late August, the committee disclosed that it has raised $76.9 million from July 2006 through last June...

I think Barack Obama's critics will face an irresistible temptation to Blame it On Rio from here on out and that would be unfair. The Olympic setback is hardly the defining moment of President Obama's foreign policy. But it is a window through which we can see some things a bit more clearly now than perhaps we saw before. With apologies to Fred Barnes, who beat me to the punch on some of these, here would be my quick hit list: 1. The decision shows the limits of soft power and those limits are greater than even soft power skeptics...

PRESIDENT Obama has been stumbling all over the world stage this past week. The spectacle has been aggravating and painful. The former world's biggest celebrity is proving himself to be the world's biggest joke to our allies and enemies alike. Sadly, the joke is on us, the nation that elected him despite plenty of alarm signals. If Obama's star has fallen this far so fast, how much worse can his presidency get for this nation over the next three years? And how much more dangerous? If only some of his recent humiliations can pop the bubble of narcissism in which...

Some Chicago officials say anti-American resentment likely played a role in Chicago's Olympic bid dying in the first round Friday. President Obama could not undo in one year the resentment against America that President Bush and others built up for years, they said. "There must be" resentment against America, the Rev. Jesse Jackson said, near the stage where he had hoped to give a victory speech in Daley Center Plaza. "The way we [refused to sign] the Kyoto Treaty, we misled the world into Iraq. The world had a very bad taste in its mouth about us. But there was...

Obama's Olympic Failure summed up in one humorous video

EXCERPT "I believe that [Friday]'s action is just the latest example of the cultural breach that still exists between the United States and several leaders of the global community of nations," Rush said in a statement Friday which was not received by The Hill until Sunday. "[Friday}'s vote by the IOC members reflects the tattered relationships that remain after eight years of the catastrophic reign of the Bush administration," Rush continued. "It will obviously take some time for the Obama administration to continue its important work to repair that breach."

<p>Those who read the New York Times's coverage of the unsuccessful results of Barack and Michelle Obama's attempt to seal the 2016 Summer Olympics bid for Chicago on Friday afternoon ('For Obama, an Unsuccessful Campaign") might want to read it again.</p>

When Hell freezes over five times in succession and rhinoceri write sonnets on Pluto, the Washington Post's Robin Givhan will stop writing love letters to Michelle Obama. Here the Obamas broke precedent and put the prestige of the presidency on the line, as well as ignoring much more pressing problems at home, all for a spectacularly unsuccessful and remarkably narcissistic effort to secure the Olympics for the Chicago Way, and all Givhan can do is gush about how wonderfully Michelle Obama had performed anyway. Givhan wrote that the First Lady "was her team's most valuable player." And, quoting others, ""She...

The Talk Shows Sunday, October 4th, 2009 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Sens. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., and Bob Casey, D-Pa.MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.FACE THE NATION (CBS): National security adviser James Jones; Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich.; retired Marine Gen. Anthony Zinni; Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo. THIS WEEK (ABC): Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan; Sens. Chuck U. Schumer, D-N.Y., and John Cornyn, R-Texas. STATE OF THE UNION (CNN): National security adviser James Jones; Sens. Barbara Boxer,...

(CBS) This is going to come as a surprise to some but the world did not end Friday! From what I heard all week, a lot of people thought it might if the President flew to Copenhagen and failed to bring home the Olympics. Well, he went. He asked. He failed. It was not even close. So he came home. Washington spent most of the week, gnashing its teeth about whether he should have gone. Republicans accused him of dereliction of duty. Some in his own party shuddered at the possible humiliation of it all.

Of course Barack and Michelle Obama failed in Copenhagen. Their strategy could not possibly succeed. In their academic arrogance, they thought they could sell a product they clearly do not believe in (the United States) and moreover, they could do so by stressing the benefits to the seller (Chicago) and not the buyer (the IOC). And to top it off, they committed the faux pas of talking too much about the sales force (themselves) and not about the product or the buyer. Gee, what could possibly go wrong? Anyone who has had to succeed in the real business world --...

10. Dead people can’t vote at IOC meetings 9. Obama distracted by 25 min meeting with Gen. McChrystal 8. Who cares if Obama couldn’t talk the IOC into Chicago? He’ll be able to talk Iran out of nukes. 7. The impediment is Israel still building settlements. 6. Obviously no president would have been able to accomplish it. 5. We’ve been quite clear and said all along that we didn’t want the Olympics. 4. This isn’t about the number of Olympics “lost”, it’s about the number of Olympics “saved” or “created”. 3. Clearly not enough wise Latina judges on the committee...

Rio de Janeiro will host the 2016 Olympics after the Brazilian city won a landslide victory over Madrid in the final round of voting on Friday. -snip- Chicago went out after polling just 18 votes in the first round, despite the eloquent speeches on their behalf made by Obama, the first sitting U.S. president to address an IOC session, and first lady Michelle Obama.

George Will: Obama Went to Copenhagen to Speak About Himself By Noel Sheppard Created 2009-10-04 12:10 On Sunday, ABC's George Will uttered an inconvenient truth about Barack Obama that his adoring media have been ignoring since he first threw his hat into the presidential ring in February 2007: his rhetoric is filled with constant references to himself. To prove the point on the most recent installment of "This Week," Will counted the number of times Mr. and Mrs. Obama used the words "I" and "me" during their speeches in Copenhagen Friday. The numbers are shocking making it likely in Will's...

If a former ACORN lawyer is adventitious enough to win a presidential election, the least he could do is upgrade his community organizing tendencies into talents better fit for the Oval Office. (Somebody please explain this concept to Soros and Rahm.) Let’s face it, Obama is a colossal failure. You silly liberals—what ever made you think a community organizing skill set could be used to run the United States of America? Are you retarded? Not only was his little Olympic idea stupid and wrong on more levels than I can name, but he outright failed. I almost feel sorry for...

The Olympic Fiasco I think most Americans were rooting for Chicago. As I wrote on NRO’s corner, I know I was. But Rio had a really convincing hope and change/ multicultural/new guy on the block case. And consider: given the recent bad windy city publicity (You Tube beatings, state and city corruption, Blagoism, Daley ward mobsterism, rumors of pre-Olympic wheeling and dealing on land angles, administration Chicago hard-ball Rahm Emanuel/David Axelrod politics, etc.), Chicago, Illinois ,was seen abroad as less competitive, far less competitive, than the other cities...

“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...

It's quite damning for Dear Leader when even his concubines at the New York Times think he was off his rocker for traveling to Copenhagen only to get bitch slapped by the 18 votes his beloved Graftland got from the International Olympic Committee after his little speech: "As for why Mr. Obama went — especially if he wasn’t sure Chicago would win — here are two possible explanations: One, Mr. Obama, and his White House chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, another Chicagoan, love a good competition; the other is that they have a tad too much confidence in Mr. Obama’s...

While Michelle Obama fruitlessly pimped (oh ok, shilled, promoted) her corrupt, broke and now nationally known violent, native town, as a site for the 2016 Olympics, for the first time in her life she was seemingly proud of it. Her neighborhood "of working families -- families with modest homes and strong values.Sports were what brought our community together. They strengthen our ties to one another." It was also, and still is, a relatively high crime neighborhood. It is a testimony to Michelle and her parents that she emerged relatively unscathed except with a huge, but somewhat understandable, chip on her...

This is after they got off the plane, Daley talks to reporters, flanked by Governor Quinn, he tries to put a smiley face on defeat.

Some Chicago officials say anti-American resentment likely played a role in Chicago's Olympic bid dying in the first round Friday. President Obama could not undo in one year the resentment against America that President Bush and others built up for years, they said. "There must be" resentment against America, the Rev. Jesse Jackson said, near the stage where he had hoped to give a victory speech in Daley Center Plaza. "The way we [refused to sign] the Kyoto Treaty, we misled the world into Iraq. The world had a very bad taste in its mouth about us. But there was...

Now we know why Chicago lost out-- The IOC did not appreciate Obama's arrogance. Don Surber posted the translation from the Danish website Berlingske: “The fact that Barack Obama came, could not do it. I think he lacked emotion, it seemed too empty and business-like. When Tony Blair promoted London he was around three days to lobby and talk to people. You can not just come with the train one day and try to affect everything. People have felt that it was a lack of respect for the Olympics and sport in general. I think people felt it was too...

I think most Americans were rooting for Chicago. As I wrote on NRO’s corner, I know I was. But Rio had a really convincing hope and change/ multicultural/new guy on the block case. And consider: given the recent bad windy city publicity (You Tube beatings, state and city corruption, Blagoism, Daley ward mobsterism, rumors of pre-Olympic wheeling and dealing on land angles, administration Chicago hard-ball Rahm Emanuel/David Axelrod politics, etc.), Chicago, Illinois ,was seen abroad as less competitive, far less competitive, than the other cities. I think almost any fair-minded neutral judge could grasp how those realities were going to...

Reporting from Washington - In the run-up to the Olympics vote, the White House was getting a clear message from the architects of Chicago's bid: Balloting would be tight, and a personal visit to Copenhagen from President Obama just might lock in a victory. Leaders of the Windy City's campaign to secure the 2016 Games had done some nose-counting and were convinced the International Olympic Committee might well anoint Chicago as host, according to White House officials interviewed Saturday. "The intelligence that we had from the U.S. Olympic Committee and Chicago bid team was that it was very close and...

Chicago loses in first round of voting. 101st Airborne Division due in Copenhagen shortly. Beck, an increasingly contentious figure, got under the Administration's skin via typically goofy segment (Link goes directly to video) on Obama's plan to travel to Copenhagen to lobby on behalf of the city of Chicago's bid for the 2016 Olympic Games. While the White House bloggers do effectively rebut several of the points raised during the segment on Beck's show, you have to ask yourself when the White House decided to duke it out with television pundits. Guy Benson, blogging for the National Review, is wondering...

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Top 10 Reasons Chicago Didn't Get the Olympics 10. Dead people can't vote at IOC meetings 9. Obama distracted by 25 min meeting with Gen. McChrystal 8. Who cares if Obama couldn't talk the IOC into Chicago? He'll be able to talk Iran out of nukes. 7. The impediment is Israel still building settlements. 5. We've been quite clear and said all along that we didn't want the Olympics. 4. This isn't about the number of Olympics "lost", it's about the number of Olympics "saved" or "created". 3. Clearly not enough wise Latina judges on the committee 2. Because the...

While his trip is certainly within the province of presidential duty, it begs the question, why did he do it? As the Brazilians celebrate, he looks foolish, not to mention weak to the world. If the president had been able to peddle his influence and bring the games to Illinois, he would have looked effective now, and not coincidentally, effective at the end of his second term (provided he wins one) when the games would take place.-- Talk about historic grandeur and a sure way to memorialize one’s legacy!

Mark sets the record straight on Obama’s Olympic folly…Video Link

For weeks, the United States Olympic Committee and the national sports governing bodies it oversees had settled into an uncomfortable truce. Despite a year of upheaval and conflict, the parties had agreed to set aside their differences in solidarity for Chicago’s bid to win the 2016 Summer Games. The truce ended as quickly as Chicago was dispatched from the race won by Rio de Janeiro. In surprisingly frank terms, a number of influential people in American Olympic sports questioned the performance of the U.S.O.C.’s new management team and said its two top executives were ill-equipped to navigate the insular world...

Mayor Richard Daley and his supporters hyped the 2016 Olympic bid as Chicago's best hope for a sorely needed economic boost, a once-in-a-lifetime chance to raise the city's global profile and even a way to help keep more kids from dropping out of school. "The next five years, six years, tell me one thing that is going to have economic opportunities for any city," Daley had said in July, when asked about criticism of his Olympic dream. "If you have something better, I'd love to see it." But Daley headed home from Denmark on Saturday without a trump card. He...

"The city of Chicago, having obtained the least number of votes, will not participate in the next round." -IOC President Jacques Rogge A sand sculpture in Brazil supports the candidacy of Rio de Janeiro for the 2016 Games, as opposed to the competing cities of Chicago, Madrid and Tokyo. Natacha Pisarenko-AP Rio is ecstatic: Silva called the win a "sacred day" as he was interviewed in Portuguese by Brazilian reporters in Copenhagen. "I confess to you if I die right now my life would have been worth it," Silva said. "No one can now doubt the strength of Brazil's economy,...

President Obama, I come from Chicago. I was born in Chicago. Chicago was where I grew up. Mr. President, you are not a Chicagoan. Yes, it's true. I, Charles Henrickson, was born and raised in Chicago, in the city. I was that rarest of creatures there--a registered Republican. And I love my hometown. Even as I detest the corrupt Democratic machine that runs it. The Chicago I grew up in, the Chicago of Hizzoner da Mare, was corrupt, yes. But the Chicago of today, under da Mare's kid, Richie, is both corrupt and radically leftist, fostering the likes of...

If POTUS & FLOTUS go to Copenhagen but the Official White House Photostream doesn't include it, did it really happen? Why would the White House exclude this wonderful, fantastic, fantabulous, super-d-dooper, "The Ego Has Landed" moment? From the White House Flickr page: [PICTURES AT SITE] (Excerpt) Read more at floppingaces.net

This wasn't supposed to happen to him. It may have only been the Olympics but President Obama's high-profile failure to win the games for Chicago has raised serious questions about his perceived international star power. The president's last-minute appeal for his home city to host the 2016 Summer Games fell flat when Chicago was knocked out in the first round. The top prize eventually went to Rio de Janeiro. Now critics are asking: If Obama can't sway Olympic officials, how can he wring concessions from Iran on its nuclear program, secure crucial support from allies to overhaul two wars or...

(CNN) -- Whenever President Obama has traveled overseas and offered pointed and direct assessments of the United States, some of them critical, Republicans have ripped him for criticizing America, saying a president should always defend the United States. So I want to hear the explanation by these so-called patriots of their giddy behavior over the United States losing the 2016 Olympic Games. Yes, the United States. The bid that was rejected Friday by the International Olympic Committee was not a Chicago, Illinois, bid. It was the official bid submitted by the United States Olympic Committee and was representative of the...

US newspapers offered various takes Saturday on Chicago's spectacular Olympic flameout, but when it came to President Barack Obama's last-minute lobbying bid, the message was loud and clear: What was he thinking? Obama joined his wife Michelle in Copenhagen Thursday just hours before the International Olympic Committee voted out Chicago in the first round, eventually awarding the Games to Rio de Janeiro in a landslide. The White House was quick to downplay suggestions that the snub was a repudiation of Obama himself, and insisted the presidential dash to the Danish capital was "absolutely" the right decision, despite a host of...

An anonymous reader writes "Yesterday, Chicago lost its bid for the 2016 Olympics (which went to Rio de Janiero instead), and it's looking very likely that US border procedures were one of the main factors which knocked Chicago out of the race: 'Among the toughest questions posed to the Chicago bid team this week in Copenhagen was one that raised the issue of what kind of welcome foreigners would get from airport officials when they arrived in this country to attend the Games. Syed Shahid Ali, an I.O.C. member from Pakistan, in the question-and-answer session following Chicago's official presentation, pointed...

Jennifer Rubin - 10.02.2009 - 12:04 PM Obama received a nasty rebuff and a stern reminder that the rest of the world doesn’t necessarily care what he thinks. Chicago is out of the Olympics bidding process–in the first round. Why did Obama invest so much personal capital and time for this?