America Did Lose

I noted in passing on Friday that, in addition to not speaking Austrian, our President does not speak Olympian.

But I was also mixed in my thoughts about the whole thing because I honestly thought that the administration had the inside track on bringing the Olympics to Chicago. This was going to be another spectacle of a photo-op for Barack Obama. I say photo-op, because only the images seem to linger when the words of the speeches fade. And the networks had hyped this to such a shrill level that I truly was as surprised as the network anchors at the ultimate decision.

Now, in typical form, the state-run media is now making excuses for the observed missteps:

• This is Bush's fault. For this I will refer you to the fact that New York made it at least to the second round in their quest to host the 2012 Olympics and this occurred while Bush was president.
• The USOC misled the administration as to Chicago's real chance in this.
• The IOC is racist.

Now, what probably caused this was:

• The concept of the Olympics is or should be above countries, cultures and individuals and they did not take to being bigfooted by the Obama administration. This ideal concept is probably the closest to utopia that we are going to see and no administration can be perceived to be above it.
• Chicago was probably never in the running as Rio had everyone beat on diversity, location and fun.
• The Derrion Albert news reports couldn't be ignored and did not put Chicago in the best light.
• Why would a country that evidently requires frequent apologies to international audiences expect to score the Olympics.

Lessons to be learned:

• The IOC is very political if not outright corrupt and petty.
• Presidential prestige comes only from serving as President and is not to be squandered.
• The press really has to quit hyping this guy. This does not serve him well.
• There are cities that represent our country well, but Chicago was not the example we needed right now.
• Under-sell and over-deliver.
• We can't really afford this right now.

America lost because this would have been a perfect excuse for Obama to move the "Chicago" bunch back to Chicago and let them prepare for the Olympics. There would have been enough graft and corruption to keep these folks in walking-around money for quite some time. He could have brought the Clinton Triangulators back to help straighten out the economy.

As the official scribe to the Great Unwashed, let me inform you that I believe the "The One" is now "The Once."