More on the Olympics Obamacle

It would be easy - very easy - to overstate the importance and impact of the Olympic Committee's rejection of Chicago's bid on the Obama Presidency. But it would be easy to understate it, as well, and I suspect that we'll see a lot of that in the next few days, a lot of "hey, it didn't have anything to do with him. It wasn't a rejection of him personally." And that is, I'm sure, largely true, and we shouldn't pretend otherwise.¹ But there is some importance, some impact, and it warrants mention. As we read in the house organ of the Obama administration (otherwise known as the New York Times),

Although Chicago might have lost to Rio de Janeiro for reasons that had little to do with Mr. Obama, the fact that he made himself the face of its bid invariably meant that its defeat would be taken as a stinging rejection of its favorite son...it provides fodder for critics who are already using it as a metaphor for a president who, in their view, focuses on the wrong priorities and overestimates his capacity to persuade the world to follow his lead.

And it emphasizes, yet again, the competence issue. Competence, as in he has not yet demonstrated a hint of having any regarding the responsibilities of the Presidency. How badly was this handled? Again, from that Pravda Times article,

A sense of stunned bewilderment suffused Air Force One and the White House. Only after the defeat did many advisers ask questions about the byzantine politics of the Olympic committee.

Time and time again we see a White House operating on the belief that its statements define reality. The old cliché is that "when the only tool you've got is a hammer, everything looks like a nail." Well, the only tool they've got is a talker, and everything they do seems based on their belief that Obama speaks the world into existence. They believe that, like the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, his words are definitive, and in any conflict, it's reality that's wrong. He can stand up in front of Congress and claim that we can provide better health care for more people at lower cost while allowing people to keep their current plans, and they expect people believe it will work because he said so. Worse, they apparently even expect it to work, because he said so.

The stimulus bill was to make everything better, because he said so. People pointed out that there was actually nothing in the stimulus bill that would provide anything remotely resembling economic stimulus, and the response from the Obama people was "we won, he said so, shut up." However silly his proposals, he and his supporters believe that him standing up and giving a speech is all that's necessary to accomplish all of his goals.

The sooner that he, and all of his people, are disabused of this notion, the more likely he is to actually accomplish something.<sup>2




1</sup> - On the other hand, let's not pretend that he wouldn't have taken as much credit as possible if Chicago had won...

² - It won't be anything good, of course.

Chicago gets doesn't get Olympics...

I imagine that there will be a lot of these going around, but this set, from Rich Lowry, is good:

Top 10 Reasons Chicago Didn't Get the Olympics

10. Dead people can't vote at IOC meetings

9. Obama distracted by 25 min meeting with Gen. McChrystal

8. Who cares if Obama couldn't talk the IOC into Chicago? He'll be able to talk Iran out of nukes.

7. The impediment is Israel still building settlements.

6. Obviously no president would have been able to acomplish it.

5. We've been quite clear and said all along that we didn't want the Olympics.

4. This isn't about the number of Olympics "lost", it's about the number of Olympics "saved" or "created".

3. Clearly not enough wise Latina judges on the committee

2. Because the IOC is racist.

1. It's George Bush's fault.

I had little interest in the story, though I am, on the whole, happy for the people of Chicago that didn't want them. But I will confess to being very surprised, more surprised than I should be, that this happened. I assumed, as many did, that when Obama dropped all of his important stuff to fly off to Copenhagen, he did it knowing that Chicago had won. I assumed that the fix was in. And I assumed that Obama, neophyte that he is, would know better than to allow himself to look this foolish. The competence issue has been a real one with this administration (big surprise there, huh? He's never managed a lemonade stand, never mind anything bigger) but I am very surprised that he made this trip without knowing that Chicago would win. More US prestige on the line, and flushed.

It's really been an amazing nine months. We've got the Carter administration re-run ("second verse, same as the first - a little bit louder and a little bit worse") and condensed into about 1/5 the time...

A somber anniversary

35 years ago today, Palestinian gunmen seized the members of the Israeli Olympic team in Munich. Two were killed in the initial assault, with 9 being taken hostage. A rescue was attempted at the Munich airport resulting in all 9 hostages being killed, along with 5 terrorists and a policeman.

I've written before about historical blind spots, that history which occurs as current events when you're too young to be paying attention, and becomes history too late to be studied when you're in school. This is another of those events that falls into that category for me, though I have dim recollections of it happening (I was 9 at the time.) I do believe that this event was one of the key motivating factors behind the Israeli governments decision to raid the Entebbe airport four years later.





To the best of my knowledge, this particular bit of Islamic terrorism did not take place because they were mad about George W. Bush's illegal war for oil...