Not since Adolph Hitler in 1936 has a national leader sought to have his image so closely identified with the Olympics. Make no mistake about it, the grand design was for the possible 2016 Summer Olympics to be the great Obama Olympics if awarded to Chicago.
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IOC sends message, "It's not about you, Barack."
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What world event is more significant than the Summer Olympics?
Every four years, the host nation not only has the chance to host most of the world’s top athletes competing at the highest level but that country also gets a showcase to present itself to the world, a promotional and political opportunity second to none for being able to create favorable images to be shown around the world.
The high visibility is not without consequences. The specter of Islamic terrorism horrified the civilized world when the 1972 Olympics were held in Munich, West Germany. The Israeli Olympians were kidnapped and assassinated against the backdrop of a German culture desperately trying to show the world it had buried its Nazi past. The butchery of these young Jewish competitors stirred up some of the world’s worst nightmares.
As the worldwide media was able to bring the Olympics to homes around the world, the propaganda and political significance of the Olympics was not lost. American black athletes, for instance, flashed the black power salute, on the award podium in Mexico, City 1968. On a grander scale, the United States was forbidden to participate in the 1980 Olympics in Moscow after the Lake Placid miracle in the winter games earlier that year as President Jimmy Carter attempted to use the Olympics a tool for protesting the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The Soviet Union, in turn, sat out the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. The possibility of the Olympics being a target of terror resurfaced again in Atlanta in 1996, when a lone nutcase detonated a bomb in the city’s Olympic park.
More recently, the 2004 Olympics provided a tremendous platform for Greece to present itself as a vibrant, modern country while playing up the history of the games going all the way back to ancient Greece. Just last summer, the Communist Chinese used the opportunity of hosting the Olympics in their capital city to maximum advantage to try to show the world that China was a modern, progressive culture of gleaming modern cities and colorful cultural traditions. What was missed was just how staged the whole red Chinese presentation was from the selection of the participants to brutal efforts to keep potential protesters far, far away.
Corruption has been endemic in the Olympic movement both in the organization and how the IOC awards host locations and within competition itself whether it involves athletes cheating or corrupt officiating. What we think of as bribery and corruption in the United States is simply the way business gets done in some parts of the world, but the IOC was held to the highest standard. We need look no further than the bid to bring Winter Olympics to Utah for just how corrupt the system could become. Cleaning up that effort and bringing home the award took tremendous effort lead by Mitt Romney.
As a world movement, the Olympics provide a looking glass into the state of the world. But for all the worldly factors that corrupt the Olympics, few would argue the Olympics movement is a worthy effort whose transcendent value is immeasurable.
Flash forward to the present. October 2, was the day the 2016 Summer Olympics would be awarded to a host location. Chicago, Rio, Tokyo, and Madrid were the finalists from whom a host venue would be selected in Copenhagen, Denmark today.
Chicago? Surely, few American cities have the readymade infrastructure to support an Olympian effort. Wouldn’t it be a sight to see for historic Wrigley Field to be the site for Olympic baseball for the world to see? The Lake Michigan shoreline and many other attractions could make Chicago a most desirable city. As the nation’s third largest city, it also has the massive infrastructure to support the hundreds of thousands of visitors such an event would attract.
Chicago is also a city suffering from a special kind of unrivaled institutional corruption. Does the name Tony Rezko come to mind? How about the Richard Daley machine? Even the ghost of Al Capone lurks in the shadows of night in the Windy City and since the rise of Barack Obama, the world has gotten a much more detailed view of the cronyism, rampant corruption, and destructive beliefs and ideologies which guide many institutions in the city. Many of these cronies would be in an ideal position to profit tremendously from the Olympics coming to Illinois among them key advisor, Valerie Jarrett, one who has maintained substantial interest in Chicago housing and real estate dealings and David Axelrod, another well-connected Chicago source.
When the Chicago political machine comes into play along with the list of Obama cronies who stand to benefit substantially by the potential of a Chicago Olympics, gone are the visions of the placid Chicago lakefront but more the stench of the legendary Chicago slaughterhouses and the screaming of soon to be processed swine.
The extent to which the President involved his office in landing the Olympics for his adopted home town has a rather porcine stench to it as well. With so many red hot issues facing the nation and the need to save every last Federal dollar, a transatlantic flight by Air Force One and the other flight to escort Michelle Obama to Copenhagen, are substantial expenses even if a drop in the bucket compared to the overall Federal budget. A cynical way to look at it, every moment Obama spends working on causes like snagging the Olympics for Chicago, that’s less time devoted to pushing his radical agenda on environmental taxes, government health care, and meddling in corporate operations.
Clearly, the IOC was not about to let the 2016 Summer Olympics become a vanity fest for a self-infatuated egomaniac who’d love nothing more than having the Olympics in his home ground where he’d envision himself surrounded by legions of his admirers from all around the world singing his praises in the final months of his second term as President. What better way to celebrate his Presidency.
There in lies the problem, it’s all about him, all about Obama, and that’s so contrary to the Olympic spirit which embraces a spirit way too powerful to be about one man or one country. The last time a national leader figured prominently in the Olympics, if we discard Jimmy Carter’s decision to boycott the 1980 Moscow Olympics and the Soviet’s decision to do the same from the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, we go back to 1936, swastika flags and banners at every venue with a proud and boastful Adolf Hitler looking on. Hmm, Hitler was one of those leaders who had school children forced to sing his praise too, but that’s another issue, right?
How should an IOC member react to Michelle Obama addressing them, “"As much of a sacrifice as people say this is for me or Oprah or the president to come for these few days," as she went on to talk of the tireless efforts of others involved in the project. However, it doesn’t matter what context her remarks are used to introduce, how can she be talking of “sacrifice?” Poor Michelle. Is it such an inconvenience for her to have to hop on a luxurious charter airliner and fly to a lovely city like Copenhagen to represent her hometown? Poor baby.
Every four years, the host nation not only has the chance to host most of the world’s top athletes competing at the highest level but that country also gets a showcase to present itself to the world, a promotional and political opportunity second to none for being able to create favorable images to be shown around the world.
The high visibility is not without consequences. The specter of Islamic terrorism horrified the civilized world when the 1972 Olympics were held in Munich, West Germany. The Israeli Olympians were kidnapped and assassinated against the backdrop of a German culture desperately trying to show the world it had buried its Nazi past. The butchery of these young Jewish competitors stirred up some of the world’s worst nightmares.
As the worldwide media was able to bring the Olympics to homes around the world, the propaganda and political significance of the Olympics was not lost. American black athletes, for instance, flashed the black power salute, on the award podium in Mexico, City 1968. On a grander scale, the United States was forbidden to participate in the 1980 Olympics in Moscow after the Lake Placid miracle in the winter games earlier that year as President Jimmy Carter attempted to use the Olympics a tool for protesting the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The Soviet Union, in turn, sat out the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. The possibility of the Olympics being a target of terror resurfaced again in Atlanta in 1996, when a lone nutcase detonated a bomb in the city’s Olympic park.
More recently, the 2004 Olympics provided a tremendous platform for Greece to present itself as a vibrant, modern country while playing up the history of the games going all the way back to ancient Greece. Just last summer, the Communist Chinese used the opportunity of hosting the Olympics in their capital city to maximum advantage to try to show the world that China was a modern, progressive culture of gleaming modern cities and colorful cultural traditions. What was missed was just how staged the whole red Chinese presentation was from the selection of the participants to brutal efforts to keep potential protesters far, far away.
Corruption has been endemic in the Olympic movement both in the organization and how the IOC awards host locations and within competition itself whether it involves athletes cheating or corrupt officiating. What we think of as bribery and corruption in the United States is simply the way business gets done in some parts of the world, but the IOC was held to the highest standard. We need look no further than the bid to bring Winter Olympics to Utah for just how corrupt the system could become. Cleaning up that effort and bringing home the award took tremendous effort lead by Mitt Romney.
As a world movement, the Olympics provide a looking glass into the state of the world. But for all the worldly factors that corrupt the Olympics, few would argue the Olympics movement is a worthy effort whose transcendent value is immeasurable.
Flash forward to the present. October 2, was the day the 2016 Summer Olympics would be awarded to a host location. Chicago, Rio, Tokyo, and Madrid were the finalists from whom a host venue would be selected in Copenhagen, Denmark today.
Chicago? Surely, few American cities have the readymade infrastructure to support an Olympian effort. Wouldn’t it be a sight to see for historic Wrigley Field to be the site for Olympic baseball for the world to see? The Lake Michigan shoreline and many other attractions could make Chicago a most desirable city. As the nation’s third largest city, it also has the massive infrastructure to support the hundreds of thousands of visitors such an event would attract.
Chicago is also a city suffering from a special kind of unrivaled institutional corruption. Does the name Tony Rezko come to mind? How about the Richard Daley machine? Even the ghost of Al Capone lurks in the shadows of night in the Windy City and since the rise of Barack Obama, the world has gotten a much more detailed view of the cronyism, rampant corruption, and destructive beliefs and ideologies which guide many institutions in the city. Many of these cronies would be in an ideal position to profit tremendously from the Olympics coming to Illinois among them key advisor, Valerie Jarrett, one who has maintained substantial interest in Chicago housing and real estate dealings and David Axelrod, another well-connected Chicago source.
When the Chicago political machine comes into play along with the list of Obama cronies who stand to benefit substantially by the potential of a Chicago Olympics, gone are the visions of the placid Chicago lakefront but more the stench of the legendary Chicago slaughterhouses and the screaming of soon to be processed swine.
The extent to which the President involved his office in landing the Olympics for his adopted home town has a rather porcine stench to it as well. With so many red hot issues facing the nation and the need to save every last Federal dollar, a transatlantic flight by Air Force One and the other flight to escort Michelle Obama to Copenhagen, are substantial expenses even if a drop in the bucket compared to the overall Federal budget. A cynical way to look at it, every moment Obama spends working on causes like snagging the Olympics for Chicago, that’s less time devoted to pushing his radical agenda on environmental taxes, government health care, and meddling in corporate operations.
Clearly, the IOC was not about to let the 2016 Summer Olympics become a vanity fest for a self-infatuated egomaniac who’d love nothing more than having the Olympics in his home ground where he’d envision himself surrounded by legions of his admirers from all around the world singing his praises in the final months of his second term as President. What better way to celebrate his Presidency.
There in lies the problem, it’s all about him, all about Obama, and that’s so contrary to the Olympic spirit which embraces a spirit way too powerful to be about one man or one country. The last time a national leader figured prominently in the Olympics, if we discard Jimmy Carter’s decision to boycott the 1980 Moscow Olympics and the Soviet’s decision to do the same from the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, we go back to 1936, swastika flags and banners at every venue with a proud and boastful Adolf Hitler looking on. Hmm, Hitler was one of those leaders who had school children forced to sing his praise too, but that’s another issue, right?
How should an IOC member react to Michelle Obama addressing them, “"As much of a sacrifice as people say this is for me or Oprah or the president to come for these few days," as she went on to talk of the tireless efforts of others involved in the project. However, it doesn’t matter what context her remarks are used to introduce, how can she be talking of “sacrifice?” Poor Michelle. Is it such an inconvenience for her to have to hop on a luxurious charter airliner and fly to a lovely city like Copenhagen to represent her hometown? Poor baby.
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Michelle, listen up you surly bitch. You should feel HONORED to address the IOC! Sacrifice, how insulting! It's all about you isn't it!
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Nobody feels your pain.
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What was she sacrificing, the ability to brow beat the White House staff who attends to her every whim and need? This is what first ladies are called upon to do and to do so cheerfully. It’s not like she’s involved with helping promote literacy and women’s rights for Afghani women like Laura Bush did. It seems like the only publicity the first bitch has gathered are fashion writers talking about her sense of style in public appearances, styles that many of us from flyover country would see as undignified for a first lady who is supposed to present a sense of dignity.
Then came the President’s speech to the committee, another bash America and apologize speech in which he constantly made the speech about his own world and convictions at the expense of the value Chicago might offer and the high esteem the world holds for the Olympics. In his short address, he used the first person pronoun, “I,” thirteen times. It’s all about Barack Obama, himself, his vision, his efforts, his desires. Surely, such an exercise in vanity did not move the Olympians at all.
Because the Olympics is a sporting event it became the subject of ESPN coverage. Rather than have one of their regular reporters cover the event, a corporate Vice President was afforded the honors. His reportage had no journalistic perspective and not even the kind of objectivity a true homer would show for broadcasting his hometown team. The ESPN veep was profuse in his praise of the President noting how he was greeted by the attendees at the Olympic meeting like a “rock star.” Of course, the true story still came out as he acknowledged the Rio presentation was powerful especially noting the Olympics have never been held in South America.
After all that, of the four finalists, the Chicago bid was the first one discarded and cast aside quickly with little regard or consideration at all. The IOC simply was not impressed, period.
While there’s no denying The Olympics are highly politicized, Rio presents an exciting possibility and could provide a most stimulating backdrop for the 2016 festivities. We wish Brazil all the good luck in the world as they attempt to build a world class event.
Then came the President’s speech to the committee, another bash America and apologize speech in which he constantly made the speech about his own world and convictions at the expense of the value Chicago might offer and the high esteem the world holds for the Olympics. In his short address, he used the first person pronoun, “I,” thirteen times. It’s all about Barack Obama, himself, his vision, his efforts, his desires. Surely, such an exercise in vanity did not move the Olympians at all.
Because the Olympics is a sporting event it became the subject of ESPN coverage. Rather than have one of their regular reporters cover the event, a corporate Vice President was afforded the honors. His reportage had no journalistic perspective and not even the kind of objectivity a true homer would show for broadcasting his hometown team. The ESPN veep was profuse in his praise of the President noting how he was greeted by the attendees at the Olympic meeting like a “rock star.” Of course, the true story still came out as he acknowledged the Rio presentation was powerful especially noting the Olympics have never been held in South America.
After all that, of the four finalists, the Chicago bid was the first one discarded and cast aside quickly with little regard or consideration at all. The IOC simply was not impressed, period.
While there’s no denying The Olympics are highly politicized, Rio presents an exciting possibility and could provide a most stimulating backdrop for the 2016 festivities. We wish Brazil all the good luck in the world as they attempt to build a world class event.
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