Last Friday, President Obama and his wife flew to Copenhagen, Denmark to address the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and lobby on behalf of Chicago for the 2016 Olympic Games. The entire trip was a mistake, perhaps costing the Obamas' home city the opportunity to host the games.
The case for Chicago began with a personal and emotional plea by first lady Michelle Obama that did nothing but hurt the city's cause. After recounting some touching, yet irrelevant childhood moments spent watching sports with her ill father in the city, Michelle Obama said, "Chicago's bid for the Olympic and paralympic movement is about so much more than what we can offer the games, it's about what games can offer all of us."
I submit that the First Lady missed the mark in her frankly selfish pitch. Indeed, the entire purpose of the gathering in Copenhagen was for the IOC to determine which participating city would contribute most to the Olympic Games, not to determine which city would benefit most from them.
Nevertheless, inspirational orator President Obama should have been able to sway the IOC in spite of his wife's mistakes. Not so, apparently. Perhaps the most telling appeal he made to the committee was this: "There is nothing I would like more than to step just a few blocks from my family's home, with Michelle and our two girls, and welcome the world back into our neighborhood."
I do not think the International Olympic Committee, which is tasked with organizing the world's largest sporting event and selecting a city anywhere from Moscow to Calgary that can house representatives from more than 200 countries and 33 sports for two-and-a-half weeks, cares what Obama "would like."
Neither, for that matter, does Chicago, only some of the city's residents were in favor of hosting the Games due to fears of increased corruption (as if that were possible) and higher taxes.
Perhaps the IOC was prejudiced against Chicago, which is home to more than twice as much violent crime as the American national average and last month witnessed the brutal and disgusting murder of a high school honors student by a gang of two-by-four-wielding inner-city felons, the third such murder of that month.
Perhaps the IOC was already disinclined to give the United States a shot at hosting the games because Obama himself has demeaned the country, calling it an "arrogant" and "off-course" nation, one that "sacrifices [its] values."
For President Obama to fly to Denmark and make a pitch on bended knee to the IOC under the assumption that his mere "rock star" presence (simpering NBC correspondent Natalie Morales' words, not mine) would woo the committee members was shameful and embarrassing.
The fact that Chicago was the first city eliminated from this round of bidding sent a powerful message to Obama that the international community, like increasing numbers of Americans, was not impressed by his exhibitionist egoism.
What can we learn from the President's latest blunder? Maybe that it's best to leave representing a city to its elected officials. Maybe that our commander-in-chief should be spending more time being commander-in-chief, perhaps visiting his troops in Afghanistan for once, instead of playing the lobbyist.
Or that a better decision would have been to remain in Washington and combat the fact that nearly 10 percent of his citizens are unemployed, as we found out the very same day he was four thousand miles away in Denmark with his wife and Oprah?
But I digress. Congratulations, Rio. In seven years you will be the temporary home of the Olympic torch, the focus of the world's attention as our greatest athletes compete within your borders. As for us, all I can do is hope that our President gets his priorities straight, and fast.
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