Deal’s done. Chicago will host the 2016 Summer Olympics.
So. President Obama is going on a whirlwind trip to Copenhagen, to try and talk the IOC into picking Chicago for the 2016 Summer Olympics.
A senior administration official told the Tribune Washington Bureau this morning that Obama will travel to Copenhagen Thursday night, and return following the Friday meeting….
“President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama will both make presentations to the IOC during Friday’s session,” the White House press secretary said later this morning, in formally announcing the trip. “They will discuss why Chicago is best to host the 2016 Summer Games, and how the United States is eager to bring the world together to celebrate the ideals of the Olympic movement.”
What a monumental waste of time and money. Well, maybe not monumental. But still a waste.
Not to mention…and I’m writing about this for tomorrow’s FoxPolitics.net – this proves that Chicago’s already got the Games.
Ask yourself: why would Obama put his own prestige on the line like that? He’s the first president ever to personally lobby the IOC this way. Why would he risk getting slapped down? Risk that personal defeat at a time when his political capital is both waning and in great demand?
If the U.S. loses, he still might get points for trying. But he would be visibly tied to a failed effort – and to the spending of political capital on an endeavor many Americans might consider unworthy of so much of a president’s time and energy.
…”If you actually go to Copenhagen and meet with the Olympic committee, you’re really on the line to deliver,” said Darrell West, a political analyst at the Washington-based Brookings Institution.
Maybe the Obama White House is just that incompetent?
Or maybe he’s only going – in this last-second whirlwind kind of way – to maximize the credit he’ll get when the IOC announces Chicago.
That’s where my money is. Deal’s done, and Obama wants the applause.
UPDATE - Dangit, Allahpundit said the same thing an hour before I did.
Stupid job.
One thing: I’m not quite sure what Allahpundit means by this:
It’s a done deal; the only question is who approached whom. I think the IOC probably forced his hand:…he (Obama) had every incentive to avoid this — unless the IOC sweetened the pot by promising him the games if he showed up. Once they did that, he had no choice.
But what does the IOC get out of that? Just the knowledge that they can manipulate the POTUS if they want?
Like this:
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He can claim that he’s following the Tony Blair precedent.