I see that Chicago’s bid for the 2016 Olympics has been rejected. Lord knows why President Obama thought it was appropriate to the dignity of his august office to go, hat in hand, to Copenhagen to petition the IOC on behalf of his hometown; his failure to carry the day is now an embarrassment he, and we, could well have done without.
P.S. While we’re at it, can anybody explain to me why on Earth they (whoever it is that’s in charge of such things) decided to light up the Empire State Building in red and gold last night to honor 60 years of Communist rule in China??
7 Comments
Am I the only one who is glad we lost this bid????
“Lord knows why President Obama thought it was appropriate to the dignity of his august office to go, hat in hand, to Copenhagen to petition the IOC on behalf of his hometown”
Look no further than the people from the Chicago families (capisce?) who surround him. Obama owes a lot of ‘vig’ around that particular town and with the prospect of the injection of huge Federal funds to renovate and develop whole tracts of property in which the ‘families’ have interests, it was time to call in the IOUs. They didn’t have to go far, Ms. Valerie Jarrett, former CEO of Habitat, the slum landlord company, sits at his right hand. Read this, but have a sick-bag handy!
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/06/27/grim_proving_ground_for_obamas_housing_policy/?page=1
One of my witty commenters wondered whether it is too late to give him our games?
Oh and the Republican response to this defeat has been so dignified. Here’s a video of conservatives clapping at the news of America’s second city’s defeat:
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid26857425001?bctid=43158474001
Well, congratulations.
Yep, the whole thing kinda makes you proud all round, no? Maybe he should have just stayed home.
Jack, I don’t know who those people were, but there are ample reasons why many Chicagoans wanted the bid to fail. Hosting the Olympics can be a very costly proposition.
David, that’s a revolting story. I am shocked — shocked — to hear that in a great city like Chicago, a project in which private businesspeople were given public money in order to provide decent housing to poor folks could have led to any sort of corruption.
Here we have Mr. Obama, who is usually accused of seeking to expand the role of government into every aspect of the economy, actually taken to task for advocating reliance on the private sector. But is not “the private sector” in the abstract; the private sector here consists of his friends, associates and political supporters.
To understand all of this, one thing we must keep in mind is the Augean difficulty, I am sure, of maintaining buildings inhabited by the very lowest-functioning stratum of the population, even in the absence of such venality as is described here.
It is all very sad, and even the most audaciously hopeful have little to work with here.
We had similar problems over here with huge swathes of public housing running to ruin although in our case the maintenance was mostly in the hands of the local authorities whose incompetence and idleness – and expense – was the stuff of legends. Then along came ‘that woman’ in the ’80s and said, OK, we’ll sell these places to the tenants for a song. Within a very short period run-down council estates smartened up and looked good. In our big cities there are still ‘blots on the lanscape’ and you know instantly that they remain under local government authority.
I remained steadfastly neutral concerning your president during the election campaign on the obvious grounds that I knew nothing of him. Now I am learning and I fear that he is not only a charlatan, but even worse, an incompetent charlatan. For the first time in a long time, I fear for the future. I’m a Brit but I know that in geo-strategic terms, America is our only safeguard. Allow that pillar to crumble and only the ‘Intelligent Designer’ knows where it will lead!
Hi David,
I too am beginning to worry about this president’s competence (yes, I remember the last one too, so no jokes, please). Much was made, during the campaign, of his youth and inexperience (for the first time the President of the United States is younger than I am, which is not a big confidence-booster), but everyone would have you believe that he had such a supple and intelligent mind, and such extraordinary political gifts, that he would dazzle us all, and confound his critics, once elected. But he often seems quite the rookie now that he’s in office — unseasoned, incautious and overconfident. He may, with time and experience, turn out to have been a capable President after all — I’m sure he’s a quick learner — but it hasn’t gone very well so far, and meanwhile his closetful of prior connections and political IOUs are looking positively Clintonian.
The homage to the Chinese is an easy one. We have to suck-up to them as our chief bondholder and enabler for our national debit. Can’t bite the hand that feeds us!