I thought Chicago politicians knew how to count. And knew how to scrape up extra votes when they needed them. But Barack Obama jetted off to Copenhagen to lobby the International Olympic Committee in behalf of Chicago’s bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics with, it appears, the faintest idea of the vote count. Chicago was eliminated in the first round of voting, with fewer votes than Tokyo (the next one to be eliminated), Madrid and (the ultimate winner) Rio de Janeiro. Where were those extra ballots from the river wards when you need them?
Seriously, it does look like Obama and his staff had no realistic notion of how the voting would go. Working in Rio de Janeiro’s favor was the fact that the Olympics have never been held in South America. If Latin American votes went mostly to Rio, Asian votes mostly to Tokyo and European votes mostly to Madrid, that would have left North American votes (of which there are not very many) for Chicago and the rest presumably up for grabs. Evidently Obama’s Kenyan ancestry did not produce very many African votes.
We have been told over and over that the election of Barack Obama would increase support for America in the world. Evidently someone forgot to tell the International Olympic Committee. If you doubt that this is a scorching rejectcion, read the verdict of Tim Reid in the Times of London: “Chicago’s dismal showing today, after Mr Obama’s personal, impassioned last-minute pitch, is a stunning humiliation for this president. It cannot be emphasised enough how this will feed the perception that on the world stage he looks good—but carries no heft.”
Ouch.
