With the stunning news that Olympic officials had swiftly rejected Chicago as host the 2016 Olympics, despite a personal, last-minute appeal from President Obama, the White House was left Friday with the immediate and difficult challenge of explaining what happened. Did the president falter by making remarks that were emotional and personal, rather than giving specifics about his adopted home town? Is the defeat a sign that Obama's global popularity has begun to wane? White House advisers -- many of them Chicago natives, with a personal stake in the bid -- rushed into the back recesses of the West Wing...