"Clearly a bunch of let down people is what is right for America." - The Right's Narrative
In 2005 and 2006, five cities in the United States were vying for the opportunity to host the 31st Summer Olympics in 2016: Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and San Francisco. The United States Olympic Committee would narrow this list down to three cities on July 26, 2006 – Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. After San Francisco pulled out of their bid that November, Chicago and Los Angeles duked it out with their presentations until a final decision was made on April 14, 2007 – Chicago was chosen as the city to represent the United States in a bid to get the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Chicago would eventually find itself on a short-list of four potential cities – along with eventual winner Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Madrid (Spain), and Tokyo (Japan). Those cities were widdled down from a list that included Baku (Azerbaijan), Doha (Qatar), and Prague (Czech Republic) in June of 2008. On October 2, 2009, a lengthy process spanning nearly half a decade came to an end when the International Olympic Committee chose Rio de Janerio to be the host city of the 2016 games.
It’s a shame that these days simple news stories like this can’t just go by without the fangs of toxic political jockeying sinking its teeth into places that logic would otherwise defy their existence but… well… the narrative from this?
Barack Obama was defeated by the rest of the world for the 2016 Olympic Games.
Grasping for any straw visible, no matter how much of a fool it may make one look, America’s conservatives have taken a weekend respite from letting the country know that health care = gas chambers for grandma and focused the energy of their collective hate on the President, the city of Chicago, and how this somehow is a sign of America’s weakening stature in the world. Take it away, Bill Kristol!
“There are so many ironies in this,” Kristol said, during an appearance on Fox News Sunday. “By Barack Obama’s view of the world, he should have been routing for Brazil to get the Olympics.”
“‘South America has never gotten them, Brazil has never gotten them. It is a rising power, it would help Brazil. We don’t need the Olympics, we have had them a million times. Our economy doesn’t need the boost of the Olympics,’” Kristol added, mimicking the president. “And then [Obama] in a sort of George W. Bush like way goes and tries to bully the International Olympic Committee… ‘Come walk with us. I’m here for America.’”
“Could you imagine if Bush had done this and we hadn’t gotten it?” He went on. “‘Typical Bush heavy handedness, cowboy unilateralist, hegemonic imperialist action.’ Obama falls into that trap and they run for it. So I must say, you couldn’t help by being amused by it.”
Matt Drudge goes for the gold in the "douche-y headline of the year" competition!
While there were many others harping and piling on, Mr. Kristol outshines most when it comes to summarising the grasping for a single strand of logic, and extrapolating that into a head scratching hate party directed at the President. Sure, those on the outside looking in are going to hate, but the question has to be – over this?
To dissect – the overwhelming reason why Rio got the games has to do with the South American continent never hosting an Olympics ever. It was an oversight that was bound to be rectified at some point. That Rio would be guaranteed the games, however, was never set in stone – for if it was, why even bother with the process? Rio had the chance to put a bid together like every other interested city, and succeed or fall flat on its face like everyone else. Rio’s presentation, combined with South America’s slighting, is what got the games there. They won it, fair and square.
Kristol has an interesting definition of “bullying”. President Obama was at the top of a star studded list to make pitches to the IOC to get the Olympics – other notables being Michelle Obama, Chicago’s Mayor Richard M. Daley, Michael Jordan, and Michael Phelps. If your country has the chance to win something like the Olympics, shouldn’t you as the leader of your country make an effort to at least offer some encouraging words of support – if not a full-throated endorcement? It’s his country and his home – what would you really expect?
“Bullying” it was most assuredly not. “Bullying” is running your foreign policy on a “you’re with us or you’re against us” platform. “Bullying” is launching wars with little to no justification to do so. “Bullying” is isolating your nation from the rest of the world, and instituting policies of treating citizens and foreigners alike like potential criminals for just crossing the border into your country.
We leave Mr. Kristol’s gloating, and join the rest of the knee-jerks, already in progress:
The National Review Online called the episode an “embarrassment for Obama,” before adding the predictable conservative ribbing: “If he can’t work his personal magic with the Olympians, why does he expect it to work with the Iranians?”
Rush Limbaugh called it “the worst day of his presidency,” adding that Obama “has failed” and the entire episode was an illustration of Obama’s “Mars-sized ego.”
The Drudge Report — topping them all — blared the headline: “THE EGO HAS LANDED
WORLD REJECTS OBAMA: CHICAGO OUT IN FIRST ROUND.”
Limbaugh’s response is the most entertaining. If we really want to put all of this into a scoreboard… if the next four to eight years go by and the worst day of the entire presidency happens to be the day that Chicago didn’t get the Olympics – as opposed to days that include slightly worse things like massive terrorist attacks or botched replies to natural disasters, looks like Obama gets off with the least bad worst day since, say, the Eisenhower administration.
Typical of the opposition these days, if the American people are overwhelmingly for something, they must be against. That’s how you win elections and things!
Chicago 2016 CEO Patrick Ryan said a poll conducted last week shows 72 percent of Chicagoans back bringing the Games to the city while 84 percent of Americans support the Games.
…
The poll was conducted by Zogby International from Sept. 22 to 25, and asked the question: “Do you support having the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Chicago?”
The sample size was 702 in Chicago and 801 in the U.S. with a margin of error of 3.5 percent.
By the way, congrats to Rio winning the 2016 bid.
One small ray of sunshine out there, though – not every last conservative in America is this way. If only we could get the old pre-Clinton opposition back. In the meantime, leave it to Joe Scarborough of all people to try and pour some water on this unneeded firestorm:
Count me as one conservative who is disappointed that President Obama’s hometown will not be hosting the 2016 Olympic Games.
Chicago is a beautiful city that would have made a perfect backdrop for the Olympics. The President was right to fly to Copenhagen to try to land the games, not for the sake of his city, but for the good of his country. The fact President Obama failed makes me respect him more for taking the chance, and the fact many right-wing figures opposed the President’s mission shows just how narrow-minded partisanship makes us all.
For the better part of 20 years, a bitterness has infected our politics that has weakened our country.
We Republicans spent eight years trying to delegitimize Bill Clinton.
Democrats spent the next eight years doing the same to George W. Bush.
Now that a Democrat is in the Oval Office again, it is the GOP who is trying to delegitimize a sitting president.
When I try to talk to Republicans about the need to break this cycle of viciousness, some cite the chapter and verse of every hateful left wing attack against George W. Bush.
Whenever I attempt to have a conversation with some Democrats about the need for us respect our president– whether he be an Obama or a Bush– I am told that Bush deserved whatever he got because he was a lying war criminal who hated the Constitution and loved torturing people.
Fortunately, there are a growing number of Americans who believe we cannot continue going on this way.
To be fair, as a 25 year old, I probably have a better chance of living to see such a change in American politics. I also have as equal of a chance of living to a point where I look back upon these days as the good old days of discourse.
