Olympics 2016. It’s that appearance of impropriety thing again (Updated; Bumped) (Obama truth)

Nearly a year ago, on June 16, RBO (then known as RezkoWatch) wrote that the email inbox had been quite busy over the weekend, just full of suggestions, questions and opinions.

One of those interesting questions, which follows, was about Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and his possible involvement with Chicago’s bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics.

The Obama White House is playing an unprecedented role in the bid to bring the 2016 Summer Olympics to Chicago, with top adviser Valerie Jarrett spearheading an effort that draws on the international symbolism of his presidency.

Any president would have an interest in helping an American city win an Olympic bid. But none has been as closely associated with an Olympic proposal as Obama, and the emerging effort by the White House is unusually pointed in its attempt to wrap the campaign around the president and his appealing image abroad — a strategy veteran Olympics watchers say is paying dividends and could result in an enormous hometown farewell party if Obama wins a second term.

“Without Obama in the White House, I would say there would be no chance whatsoever for the U.S. winning,” said Canadian IOC member Dick Pound. “The United States is the only country in this race that has had an absolutely extraordinary transformational experience with the election of Obama, which weighs very heavily in its favor.”

While the initiative is not formally directed by the West Wing, it relies heavily on Obama associates and confidants to raise private capital and seeks to parlay the international goodwill surrounding his election into a victory for Chicago.

The extent of Barackistan HQ’s involvement, you ask? Well, as Vogel reports, the Play-Doh Prez has

[...] recorded two separate videos supporting the bid since his election as president, one for presentation to the General Assembly of the European Olympic Committee in Istanbul less than three weeks after defeating Republican John McCain, and a second that was shown to IOC members during a tour of Chicago last month.

Jarrett had been vice chair of Chicago 2016, the $49 million nonprofit enterprise created in 2006 to lead the city’s bid. The group maintains deep ties to some of Obama’s closest backers, who are among its top officials and major financiers.

Four of the five co-chairs of Obama’s inaugural committee have unpaid leadership roles in the Chicago bid, including Pat Ryan, the chairman and CEO of Chicago 2016; John Rogers, the treasurer and director of Chicago 2016; Penny Pritzker, the hotel heiress who led Obama’s meteoric presidential campaign fundraising; and Bill Daley, the former Clinton administration commerce secretary and brother of the Chicago mayor.

White House social secretary Desiree Rogers, an Obama family friend, also served on the Chicago committee, which still counts Obama confidant and vacation companion Eric Whitaker among its members. Jarrett was replaced as vice chair by Martin Nesbitt, the treasurer of Obama’s campaign and another Obamaland fixture.

A.S.K. Public Strategies, the Chicago-based corporate public relations company founded by Obama political guru David Axelrod, has been paid “a nominal amount of money” by Chicago 2016 to do “communication management [and] communication planning,” said former Axelrod partner Eric Sedler.

John McCormick reports in today’s Chicago Tribune that Jarrett said the “special ethics waiver she recently received from the White House to lead the federal government’s effort to bring the 2016 Olympics to Chicago was needed only out of an abundance of caution in trying to be transparent.”

“We wanted to have one point of contact in the White House who is responsible to make sure everything runs smoothly,” she told the Tribune after a Chicago fundraising event for Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.). “Our goal is to try to win the bid.”

Jarrett, who previously served as vice chair of Chicago 2016, needed the waiver because the White House ethics pledge prohibits appointees from dealing with matters “substantially related” to previous employers or clients.

The White House has said Jarrett’s previous work for Chicago 2016 was voluntary and she has no ongoing financial relationship with the entity. She said her role will include trying to coordinate the involvement of various federal agencies in a successful bid.

On the evening of the celebration that was held last week when it was announced that Chicago has been short-listed for the 2016 Olympic games, Obama stated on one of the Chicago news channels, and it was subsequently reported in print, that he commented that if he were home in 2016, he would be able to walk 2 blocks out of his front door to attend events.

I vaguely recall that Obama has been involved in some of the committees that have worked over the years to bring the Olympics to Chicago, and I would not be at all surprised to find out that he may have also been involved, as a prominent member of the AA community, in convincing Daley to agree to center several of the Olympic facilities on the south side as a way to spark economic development for the largely African-American communities in that area. And let’s not forget that one big element of Obama’s now-presidential platform is to increase federal minority contractor funding, despite the scandalous dealings revealed re [Tony] Rezko, Rezko’s brother, and some earlier AA minority contracts.

I would be interested in knowing just exactly how much detail Obama had about potential Olympic facility locations in 2005 when Chicago put its proposal in, and how that relates in time to the dates in 2005 on which Obama and Rezko began looking at, discussing, and negotiating the purchase of that house and lot in such close proximity to some of the Olympic sites. Quite apart from anything else, I don’t have a clue how public the facility locations specified in the proposal at that time might have been, or whether it was actually classified as confidential information.

But, whether confidential information or not (but worse if it were confidential), to see an elected official and a now-convicted felon working the real estate market to take advantage of potential increases in values re the Olympic facilities is unsavoury. And it also seems to me, given the details of the prices used as the deal got put together, to contain some illegal elements. If Rezko didn’t help Obama actually buy his house, he helped him finance an investment.

Here are the indisputable facts RW/RBO cited in June 2008 indicating that then Sen. Obama has a bit more than a passing interest.

# Fact: Previously, Chicago formed a committee to investigate a bid for 2008 but “quickly rejected that idea. Mayor Daley later criticized the USOC for ‘conning’ cities to ante up $50,000 just to get into the competition.” There was no application fee for 2016.

# Fact: On March 7, 2007, Sen. Obama made an appearance “by recorded video to the USOC presentation, apparently in an attempt to impress them,” raising the question whether he was “going to actively campaign for a Chicago Olympic bid at the same time he’s campaigning for President of the United States?”

# Fact: On April 14, 2007, Chicago was selected by the U.S. Olympic Committee “as the American competitor to host the 2016 Summer Olympics.”

# Fact: Valerie Jarrett, one of Obama’s top campaign advisors and close friends, is the vice chair of Chicago’s bid committee.

# Fact: Bill Daley, brother to Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, an Obama supporter, who signed on in December 2006 as a senior Obama advisor, is another member of the Chicago bid committee.

# Fact: Sen. Obama “joked” on June 6, 2008, at Chicago’s celebration rally for reaching quarterfinalist status, “that his Hyde Park home is only two locks from the proposed Olympic site, and said that his home could be vacant by 2016 when the Olympics rolls into town.”

“I’m just going to be able to walk over there. I might have to rent out my house, I don’t know how much its going to be worth. And I also, in the interest of full disclosure, I have to let you know that in 2016 I’ll be wrapping up my second term as president.”

This guy is unbelieveable. His thought process is obvious...Summer 2016- should be ending up my second term; what better way to crown myself and cement my place in history than hosting the Olympics

“special ethics waiver she recently received from the White House to lead the federal government’s effort to bring the 2016 Olympics to Chicago was needed only out of an abundance of caution in trying to be transparent.”

~~~

Whatta bunch of connivers and thieves ..... transparent, right. If there's a conflict of interest, a waiver is promptly issued. Obama = Audacity.

hmmm..all the ole familar faces...Rezko, Ponzi Penny, Jarret, Daley. Obama and The Circle of Thugs...lol. Will anyone in the media hold him to account? Don’t hold your breath.

Thanks for the ping. We sure haven’t heard much about Rezko or Blago lately. Spitzer must have gotten what he wanted(to keep his job) and now it will quietly be dropped.

I’ve been trying to spread the word on this for a while. ;-)

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Jarrett is also the CEO of Habitat, a real estate company and an old crony of the Mayor.

All the big bundlers are the same folks who are on the Chicago 2016 Olympic committee.

Word on the street is if Obama clinches the presidency, Chicago is a shoe-in for the Olympics. $$$$$

42 posted on Saturday, September 20, 2008 7:25:27 PM by Velveeta
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2085545/posts?page=42#42

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