Obama-Obsessed Pundits Go After ‘Vain Obama’ For Olympic Loss

by Robert Quigley | 8:47 am, October 5th, 2009

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Judging from some conservative pundits’ reactions, you’d think that Barack Obama lost his reelection bid when Chicago failed to get the IOC’s blessing to host the 2016 Olympics. Matt Drudge wrote that the “World Rejects Obama.” George Will suggested that Obama’s new nickname could become “Vain Obama” after a speech to the IOC in which he used the word “I” a lot. The staff of Bill Kristol’s Weekly Standard reportedly erupted into cheers at the news that Chicago didn’t get it.

a. Aren’t Americans typically supposed to want American cities to host the Olympics?

b. Isn’t it a little self-obsessed to assume that everyone is as fixated on Obama’s every move as the American op-ed column/cable news cycle?

This is not to say that the Olympic presentation was well-handled by the Obama team in Copenhagen, but making it all about Barack and Michelle Obama is simplistic. With characteristic pith, Monocle editor Tyler Brûlé dissects everything that went wrong in the “slightly smug and overly corporate presentations:”

Chicago’s bid might have been technically up to scratch but the moment its IOC member Anita DeFrantz took to the stage with her hammy delivery, she’d lost the first three rows. When Mayor Daley got up and pitched his town like he was wooing another Boeing to move its HQ there, he lost Europe. When Doug Arnot butchered the French language, he lost the Francophone bloc. And whoever allowed the Obamas to serve up such helpings of cheese so early in the day should be sacked. Michelle Obama’s overly personal story was disjointed and her husband just looked annoyed that he had to address such a small audience.

Sure, Michelle Obama’s speech was a little maudlin, and she got slightly confused about Carl Lewis. But is this the sort of thing that sinks Olympic bids? Put another way — even if the US came in making an airtight presentation, would it have mattered, given other factors at play?

As a veteran IOC member told the LA Times, “We [North Americans] kind of think if you’ve got the best bid, the world will recognize that, and these decisions are made solely on the merits of the bid. Well, not solely.” Rio came into Copenhagen representing an entire continent that had never hosted the Olympics — period. Hopefully, they will be able to satisfactorily address the safety concerns that continue to worry experts, but they’ve got it. Conservatives who think that the world is as obsessed with every move of President Obama’s as they are forget that the Olympics are a world game, not just another dull frontier of American partisan politics.

(image via Newsday)

>>>NEXT: VIDEO OF CONSERVATIVE PUNDITS’ REACTIONS

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6 comments

StewartIII says:

October 5, 2009 at 9:23 am

NewsBusters — New Republic Editor-In-Chief: ‘President Is Probably a Clinical Narcissist’
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/p-j-gladnick/2009/10/05/new-republic-editor-chief-president-probably-clinical-narcissist

Joe Callan says:

October 5, 2009 at 9:39 am

The fact that we’re all still talking about this shows how arrogant Americans are on the left AND right. This whole subject is rubbish. Now that we’ve lost the bid, it shouldn’t be about the conservatives’ guffaws or the liberals leaping to their leader’s defense. Hell, it shouldn’t even be about Chicago. It SHOULD–instead–be about congratulating Rio, Brazil, and South America on the opportunity to host their first Olympic Games.

http://hack.editorialjoe.com/2009/10/03/its-not-about-chicago-the-left-or-the-right-its-about-rio/

Keeva says:

October 5, 2009 at 10:29 am

This story is about the disgraceful sliming of an American city by conservatives whose only goal is to politically attack the president. Many Chicago conservatives (Eric Bolling at Fox Business for example) were openly in favor of the Olympics until they were against them. And the main reason anyone opposed this bid was the same reason people have opposed a lot of things wothout actual logical cause – petty, pathetic, partisan politics.

To somehow feel happy about losing a chance to bring an Olympics to the US is just sad and shameful, party affiliation notwithstanding. Cheering the lost opportunity to add thousands of jobs and millions of dollars to the upper midwest’s economy is simply wrong.

Both sides should be ashamed of their inability to set aside the partisan wars that continue to be America’s biggest problem in favor of something that might be a good thing for everyone.

I do congratulate Brazil. Not only for the Olympics, but also for being adult enough to set their own internal politics aside and cheer their nation on in on one voice.

ImNotBlue says:

October 5, 2009 at 11:22 am

Ugh… AGAIN? Can we start posting the same article in one article, so we don’t get 5 different conversations going about the same topic?

What I said before:

I’d love for America to get the Olympics… but not as an effort to feed Obama’s ego. His “last minute decision” to go reeked of egotism and bravado. I think he sees the left’s constant chanting of “Yes We Can,” as more than just a political slogan, but a personal motto… of course, I also believe he hears it as “Yes I Can.” And occasionally, it would be important for him AND the country, for him to hear “No, you can’t,” instead… if only to keep him from believing his own hype.

Additionally, there are a number of concerns that ARE/WERE worth talking about… Do the Olympics bring money, or take money away? Is Chicago safe enough to host an international event? Does Chicago represent America well? Can the Chicago government be trusted to run a corruption-free Olympics? Do the folks in Chicago really want the Olympics in their city (polls say, not so much)? And so on. These aren’t “conservative” questions, they are realistic questions to be asked by folks who want to know what we’re getting before we get it (I know, I know… asking to “read the bill” before voting, is too much to ask these days).

But to wrap it up (once again), folks on the right aren’t cheering that America didn’t get the Olympics… rather, that Obama didn’t get the Olympics. His over hyped ego and fawning crowds need to be brought back down to reality for the sake of this government and this country. As SNL pointed out this weekend, the man has accomplished nothing in almost a year at the helm, but still walks around like he’s God’s gift to the world. No, the world isn’t as focused on Obama as we are here… and perhaps he’ll begin to realize that too.

ChrisNH says:

October 5, 2009 at 1:08 pm

Being pragmatic for a moment, the cities that host these things usually lose a ton of money after the fact. Add to the mix that Chicago–even without the herculean aura of an Olympic Games–is rather corrupt with respect to money and patronage. To use a rather apt phrase, ‘No good would come of this.’ That’s why the number of people in Chicago who rallied against the bid pretty much equaled the number of folks who were for it.

Chris Jones says:

October 5, 2009 at 6:38 pm

He lost it, because he didn’t mention how “diverse” Chicago is enough times.

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