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Home Front: Politix
Axelrod: 'Politics' sank Obama's Olympics effort
2009-10-03
Top White House adviser David Axelrod says "politics" played a key role in the International Olympic Committee's decision to reject President Obama's appeal in support of Chicago's bid to host the 2016 Olympics.
The U.S. had the Olympics in 1996, in Atlanta. In 1984 they were in Lost Angeles. There's never been a southern hemisphre Olympics. Likely enough people thought it was time for one. I kinda felt that way myself.
In an interview moments ago on CNN, Axelrod said, "I don't view this as a repudiation of the president or the first lady. I think that there are politics everywhere, and there were politics inside that room." Axelrod said that a former head of the IOC was leading Madrid's effort for the games, and others involved in other Olympic bids also had connections with the IOC. "As with any process like this, there are all kinds of crosscurrents in the room, there are relationships," Axelrod said.
But President Obama's personal charm and rock solid arguments were not enough to overcome national interests. How unexpected.
Plenty of other blogs have pointed out Bambi's stupidity in flying to Copenhagen and putting his prestige on the line. The deal wasn't done, the fix wasn't in, and yet he went there thinking his charm and spiffy persuasive skills would turn the IOC around. Now the whole world knows that Bambi can't argue his way out of a paper bag.
Posted by:Fred

#23  I think it's time for Obumble to go under the bus, along with all his cronies, including Biden, Pelosi, Reid, Dodd, Murtha, Hoyer, and the rest of the entire democrank screwup committee.

BTW, the way the US Olympic Committee has been shafting the citizens of Colorado Springs lately, they don't DESERVE any funding - from anybody. The athletes, yes. The committee, no.
Posted by: Old Patriot   2009-10-03 22:21  

#22  The majority of Olympic funding comes from US TV rights (~$2B/Olympic out of a total $2.6 billion worldwide for the 2006 and 2008 games). That's much more than all the rest of the world put together. A portion of that is then routed to national Olympic committees to fund athletes and training. The IOC wants less of that percentage to go the the US Olympic Committee.

A better option would be for the US Olympic Committee to control US TV rights, negotiate broadcast rights w/ the IOC and sell time to the US networks. Plowing the profit back into US Olympic training. It's the Chicago Way.
Posted by: ed   2009-10-03 20:36  

#21  I read somewhere recently (can't remember where) that the IOC has (probably not publicly) decided that the US won't get any more Olympics until the US Olympic Committee agrees to a change in the greedy way they get too much of a cut of the income. (Too Byzantine for me to understand, or care about, how it works.)
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut   2009-10-03 20:11  

#20  Its really simple. DO the math.

Euros vote for theirs, Asians vote for Tokyo, S America and probably much of Africa votes for Rio. Not all that many votes for Chicago.

Plus, if you are an IOC member, and were thinking about ti, where would you rather be in July/August? On the muggy shores of Lake Michigan, down wind from Chicago with a bratwurst, or watching a carnival then hanging out on the beaches of Rio?

And I'm sure Chicago's rep as a corrupt boss-run town didn't hurt them a bit.

The only ones stupid enough to think Chicago could get this were Daly and Obama, and the suck up press.
Posted by: OldSpook   2009-10-03 19:25  

#19  Well good luck thar Brazil. Australia and Tokyo were bad enough with tape delay. Gawd knows what will happen with Rio and the huge time (6 month) difference.

I hope .5MT doesn't mind, but I'm going to quote him for the next week. Bloody brilliant, my dear!
Posted by: trailing wife   2009-10-03 18:14  

#18  That magnificent bastard.
Posted by: Woozle Uneter9007   2009-10-03 16:07  

#17  I think that there are politics everywhere, and there were politics inside that room.

Yeah, and it's your job to know what's going down. Rove would not have failed his boss.
Posted by: KBK   2009-10-03 13:20  

#16  The Fix should have been in for Brazil. I'm from Chicago and thought we had a good chance until I heard we're up against Brazil.

It's time for them to take their rightful place.

The international bitchslap was worth it.

ROLLING..........even today.

Ohhhh, they were pissy yesterday. Is this political theatre kabuki-style?

Or did I not use those terms properly?
Posted by: anonymous_2u   2009-10-03 12:51  

#15  Doc, it seems to me the fix was in, just not for Chicago, but for Brazil. Various sources have described the IOC's politics as "Byzantine". Actually, they're just plain corrupt.
Posted by: Spot   2009-10-03 12:30  

#14  So Slick Slease couldn't sway Facts? it's the end of Obama.
Posted by: Redneck Jim   2009-10-03 12:26  

#13  I heard Sebelius convinced Obama to bow out gracefully, because watching the Samba procession will give the average American male an equivilant of 3 hours of exercise, thus cutting costs for Obamacare.
/BS

Local boy high-jumped in Sydney. It is time for a South American olympics, Brazil is on the up and up. Chicago? Where ya gonna put the damn thing? It looked like from the get-go Obama running a errand to save investments but to come back empty handed is aweful. That is, using public office for private accounts. We all know that happens but this was so...unashamed.

There is a lot about the politics I don't agree with or like or accept, but this was a real hold my beer moment, and like Nimble said it echos of the Gates debacle but on a world stage.
Posted by: swksvolFF   2009-10-03 12:20  

#12  Moose -

I did not know that!

Wondering though how it seems to have taken on another meaning? Besides being the title of a classic Three Stooges short...:)

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski   2009-10-03 09:25  

#11  But President Obama's personal charm and rock solid arguments were not enough to overcome national interests. How unexpected.

Snark O' the Day already? I know there are larger geopolitical implications but, I'll worry about that later. For now, my heart feels like an alligator.
Posted by: regular joe   2009-10-03 08:34  

#10  Mike: For some reason, it is common for people to assume that "hoi polloi" means elitist snobs, but in fact it means just the opposite, the unwashed masses. I got corrected on this once, so I share the wealth.

"Hoi polloi (Ancient Greek), an expression meaning "the many", or in the strictest sense, "the majority" in Greek, is used in English to denote "the masses" or "the people", usually in a derogatory sense. Synonyms for "hoi polloi" include "...commoners, great unwashed, minions, multitude, plebeians, proletariat, rabble, rank and file, riffraff, the common people, the herd, the many, the masses, the plebs, the peons, the working class".
Posted by: Anonymoose   2009-10-03 07:53  

#9  I hope Daley, Jarrett, and the rest of those corrupt Donks lose their ass financially on property they bought up expecting to sell at prime price for the Olympics. F*ck em all
Posted by: Frank G   2009-10-03 07:24  

#8  The Chicago Way totally defines politics and government as bribing your friends and punishing your enemies.

I think Obama has just discovered that being a Chicago political fixer, makes you strictly bush league on the world stage.

Each IOC member gets one vote and most of those voting members are micro-states or third world kleptocracies. It's no secret that those votes go to the highest bidder.

I'm astonished Obama's camp apparently didn't know this.
Posted by: phil_b   2009-10-03 07:10  

#7  Well good luck thar Brazil. Australia and Tokyo were bad enough with tape delay. Gawd knows what will happen with Rio and the huge time (6 month) difference.
Posted by: .5MT   2009-10-03 07:04  

#6  Ah, that's too bad. I guess Valerie Jarret and Richard Daley will be divesting in Grove Parc Plaza

"In one of those endless Chicago coincidences, Grove Parc Plaza Apartments—now targeted for demolition as a result of years of neglect by Obama’s developer friends—sits in the shadows of the proposed site of the city’s 2016 Olympics Stadium. Valerie Jarrett is vice chair of Chicago’s Olympics committee. "

You know, Valerie Jarret,a senior adviser to Obama's presidential campaign and a member of his finance committee. Jarrett is the chief executive of Habitat Co., which managed Grove Parc Plaza from 2001 until this winter and co-managed an even larger subsidized complex in Chicago that was seized by the federal government in 2006, after city inspectors found widespread problems

it's all for the children
Posted by: Jumbo Slinerong5015   2009-10-03 06:44  

#5  It wouldn't be the first southern hemisphere games. Australia has hosted two of them (Melbourne and Sydney).

It would be the first time that they have been in South America, though. And if any country there has previous experience in hosting large international events, it's Brazil.
Posted by: Cornsilk Blondie   2009-10-03 04:52  

#4  ...It should be pointed out, however, that after the 96 games there was a quiet consensus among the rest of the IOC that it would be a highly frigid planetary rotation in Hades before the US got another summer Games. It seems our fellow sports enthusiasts were appalled at the way we marketed things - not to mention the fact that home-grown American terrorists bombed the Games. (Yes, I know - lone nut, but the IOC hoi polloi remain convinced that Eric Rudolph is representative of the average citizen.)

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski   2009-10-03 01:06  

#3  The Chicago Way totally defines politics and government as bribing your friends and punishing your enemies. For them, government has no other function.
Posted by: Anonymoose   2009-10-03 00:51  

#2  "Chicago, with the least number of votes..."

So...just what was that number, I wonder. ZERO???

Mmmmm...mmmmm...mmmmm.
Posted by: Woozle Uneter9007   2009-10-03 00:41  

#1  So maybe its time for Axelrod to go under the bus?
Posted by: 3dc   2009-10-03 00:10  

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