Posted on 10/03/2009 5:52:16 PM PDT by AJKauf
I think most Americans were rooting for Chicago. As I wrote on NRO’s corner, I know I was. But Rio had a really convincing hope and change/ multicultural/new guy on the block case. And consider: given the recent bad windy city publicity (You Tube beatings, state and city corruption, Blagoism, Daley ward mobsterism, rumors of pre-Olympic wheeling and dealing on land angles, administration Chicago hard-ball Rahm Emanuel/David Axelrod politics, etc.), Chicago, Illinois ,was seen abroad as less competitive, far less competitive, than the other cities. I think almost any fair-minded neutral judge could grasp how those realities were going to play out. (Do not forget that Euros love to be gratuitously fickle and so in the first round trashed the reset-button, fawning American who wants to wow them through obsequiousness. And the more I watched Barack/Michelle do the “I grew up in the neighborhood” thing, the more I noticed the Euro-audience wincing (not smart bragging about your childhood Chicago “right hook” to an audience that has just watched horrific fighting in the streets of Chicago).
But even without the self-centered story-telling it was a hard sell anyway. ....
(Excerpt) Read more at pajamasmedia.com ...
Huh? I WASN”T “rooting” for Chicago! I can not think of a worse place to have the Olympics!
Uh, I was rooting, am rooting, for America.....that’s the problem....we got American hating people in the Whitehouse! The America I’m rooting for has NOTHING to do with Chicago!
I knew from the start this would be a royal screw up if it happened.
It would have been more logical to try to site the event in one of the collar counties, or at any rate outside of Chicago proper. In Chicago if it ain’t a slum it’s pricey as all get out.
At first I thought it might be cool. Then I did more reading and discovered that the Olympics aren’t necessarily a good investment with a real return.
And I thought the egalitarian thing is to give it to South America...we’ve had our share of Olympics.
Then you factor in the corruption in this state and it looked like a recipe for fiscal wrongdoing.
I don’t know why we were told somehow that Chicago had the inside track or and edge over the competition. I mean, who said so?
Bunch of commie maniacs.
Daley simply wanted to build a monument to himself, and grease some allies in the process. It’s the Chicago Way.
I was rooting NOT to spend billions to support Dailey’s thugs and Obama’s friend.s
....Michelle doing her black ‘overcoming-the-odds’ shtick didn’t impress the white Euros...they don’t have that much guilt.
No they were not. This is the only disappointing statement I have ever heard from this man. But it is a very big one. Here is where you have your voice crack, Michelle. Here is where you bat those false eyelashes. None of this was "heartfelt." Any sentient person knows it.
How could he say this? I really cannot express how disappointed I am that he could say this.
The article is about much more than the Olympics. IMO, everyone should really read the whole thing.
I do share the concern about a weakend President but the trouble is the only one who can change that is Obama. And not by ramming through the current agenda. In otherwords, he needs to grow up as Sarkozy indicated.
Barring that changes need to occur by installing a Congress to police him. If the world doesn’t respect him, then they need to respect our Congress. We cannot be both in both branches as we are today.
But since everyone is focused on the Olympics, no, I wasn’t rooting for chicago. I think it’s a lousy city to host the Olympics. But I’m not against hosting them. Just choose better.
We all need to remember that Hanson is a self-acknowledged liberal, and that this colors his perceptions of current events. He is an outstanding historian, but good historical analysis requires and benefits from the detachment and perspective of time for the impact and meaning of events to become clear. When it comes to current events Hanson is no more immune from his biases than anyone else.
Good points. I will say that I had more faith in his common sense gut reactions then perhaps I should have and just need to take that into consideration.
I am not prone to throw the baby out with the bath water. But I must say that Michelle Obama is pretty much not heart felt about anything other than her own comfort, and anyone who thinks otherwise is missing the mark, and badly.
He is not a self described liberal; good grief.
You need to listen to both speeches to see the arrogance from both of them. I'll abbreviate their speeches ... Me Me Me Me My My My I I I. Its shocking. Then think about the people around them, and the MSM, that inflates their egos.
They left Reality behind a long time ago.
The egocentrity of his speeches is really getting tiresome, I agree.
Huh? I WASN”T “rooting” for Chicago! I can not think of a worse place to have the Olympics!
My feelings exactly!
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