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News & ArtsFriday, October 2, 2009
Politics / Sports Michelle and Barack and Valerie and Oprah? Really?
Posted by Christopher Frizzelle on Fri, Oct 2, 2009 at 2:48 PM
Doesn't that seem... excessive?
The president had traveled to Denmark to make the case for Chicago, joining his wife, first lady Michelle Obama, senior adviser Valerie Jarrett and an array of Chicago luminaries, including Oprah Winfrey. His top aides had refused to speculate ahead of time about what a defeat would mean, but they privately acknowledged that Obama was taking a risk by making such a personal effort.
I realize it would be great for the American economy to have an Olympic games here, and I realize the Obamas have a personal stake in Chicago's history/future, but Barack plus Michelle plus Valerie plus Oprah plus "an array of [other] Chicago luminaries" is an awful lot of firepower to expend on something that, it turned out, was a longshot: Chicago was out in the first round. South America's never had an Olympic Games. Obama's statement after the news broke? Not, "Gah, I probably shouldn't have spent all that time flying to Copenhagen considering all the other wars and shit I've got to worry about." Not, "I should've just sent Michelle and Oprah and maaaybe Valerie--they could've handled this."
His statement: "You can play a great game and still not win."
You're not blowing me away with insight, Mr. President, or with your sports metaphor, and "You can play a great game and still not win" better not be how you look at, say, Iraq or Afghanistan or health care. (To be fair, Obama had a meeting on Air Force One, with the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, during the flight—that's them shaking hands in the photo.) As for the selection of Rio de Janeiro, which brought tears to Pele's eyes, Obama called it a "truly historic event"—diplomatically deploying what is clearly his favorite word.
1
Cost to fly President to the EU for 5 hour trip ... x dollars
Cost to remind the world that America has a fun side ... x dollars
Realizing that our President just met more than 30 elected leaders of major countries without all the distracting protestors and got invaluable face time that makes our diplomacy five times as effective as before ... PRICELESS.
For protestors there's G-20. For real diplomacy, it's the Olympics.
Cost to remind the world that America has a fun side ... x dollars
Realizing that our President just met more than 30 elected leaders of major countries without all the distracting protestors and got invaluable face time that makes our diplomacy five times as effective as before ... PRICELESS.
For protestors there's G-20. For real diplomacy, it's the Olympics.
2
Journalists really need to stop repeating the "great for the economy" line like it was some sort of obvious and widely recognized economic truth.
In fact, among economists, the obvious and widely recognized truth is nearly he opposite. Yes, lots of people spend money at subsidized sports events, and lots of jobs are associated with them. But that same money would have been spent on lots of other things, supporting lots of other jobs, were that subsidy to disappear. The press releases touting so-and-so-many-jobs and so-and-so-many-dollars do so by counting every associating they can think up and not counting any of the displaced spending. More rigerous economic studies, which usually appear in journals instead of press releases, have almost always found a net loss. Which should hadly be surprising since, if there were a net gain, private financing would fund the venture.
In fact, among economists, the obvious and widely recognized truth is nearly he opposite. Yes, lots of people spend money at subsidized sports events, and lots of jobs are associated with them. But that same money would have been spent on lots of other things, supporting lots of other jobs, were that subsidy to disappear. The press releases touting so-and-so-many-jobs and so-and-so-many-dollars do so by counting every associating they can think up and not counting any of the displaced spending. More rigerous economic studies, which usually appear in journals instead of press releases, have almost always found a net loss. Which should hadly be surprising since, if there were a net gain, private financing would fund the venture.
3
who fucking cares? he probably worked on the plane the entire fucking way and back. its not like they make him turn his cell off.
4
I agree -- Chicago dodged a bullet. Unless Rio gets a truly iconic building out of the deal they're going to come out losers. The classic example of a "successful" Olympics is LA '84, but that's pretty creative accounting. Most Olympics vary between "losing a lot of money" and "holy shit, that's a lot of money".
5
This whole thing has been a despicable boondoggle, and I can't believe he stooped so low. But hey, payback is a bitch.
6
the way the right is portraying this as a monumental fail for Obama and celebrating this "loss"-- one thing is clear: Chicago has joined the ranks of San Francisco and New York as the knuckledraggers most hated cities, YAY! you plucky windy city, you've arrived.
7
Of course you're gonna castigate the guy now because his city didn't win. If Chicago won though, he'd have been the decisive factor and the hero prez who took a risk for his country. Media people are all such empty fools. It's all about the spin. Why don't you people get a hobby and do something useful with your time instead of spewing bullshit. Or maybe we should send someone to follow YOU around and dissect every little thing YOU do too. Idiots.
8
24 hour news stations have way too much time on their hands and not nearly enough useful stuff to say.
9
I blame the people of Chicago above all. You know they would have gotten credit if this had worked, so how can this not be proof of the inadequacy of the citizenry themselves?
11
This bid for the Olympics was an obvious scam designed to line the pockets of Obama's Chicago cronies. Michele Malkin has brilliantly written about this, and if you're a right thinking American who loves his country, it's required reading.
All that capital and he gets shot down in the first round. Woo Hoo! I will only be happier when tax cutting conservatives and hard traditionalists sweep the homosexual marxists out of power next year!!!
All that capital and he gets shot down in the first round. Woo Hoo! I will only be happier when tax cutting conservatives and hard traditionalists sweep the homosexual marxists out of power next year!!!
12
ok, we get that neocons hate America and our President.
now, go congratulate yourselves, traitors, over your "business trip" to go to the Olympics to see your mistress while your wife and kids are at home.
now, go congratulate yourselves, traitors, over your "business trip" to go to the Olympics to see your mistress while your wife and kids are at home.
17
Carter's people were also assuring us how smart Jimmy was and how hard he was working on the country's problems.
That turned out well.
Reagan, on the other hand, took a nap every day and wasn't the brightest bulb in the box.
But he changed America and his supporters still have multiple orgasms when they just hear his name.
memo to Obama:
In politics no one gives a shit how good a game you played.
Only if you win.
You haven't won any yet.
That turned out well.
Reagan, on the other hand, took a nap every day and wasn't the brightest bulb in the box.
But he changed America and his supporters still have multiple orgasms when they just hear his name.
memo to Obama:
In politics no one gives a shit how good a game you played.
Only if you win.
You haven't won any yet.
18
I'm probably being too Machiavellian, but what if the meeting in the picture was what this trip was all about, and the Olympics thing was just a diversion. There's a lot of heavy, behind the scenes shit going down about what we're going to do in Afghanistan. Maybe Obama wanted to meet face to face with McChrystal and have it be just a foot note in the news cycle. Maybe there were other meetings we don't know about. Or maybe I'm just smoking crack.
19
What a CRACKUP this is. Barack Hussein Obama spent all of his celebrity capital on an obvious pocket lining boondoogle for his Chicago cronies and LOST IN THE FIRST ROUND!!!
There are heroes in the IOC!!!
HARD TRADITIONALISTS WHO KNOW HOW THE WORLD WORKS!!!
This is the turning point. Marxism worldwide will collapse, and right thinking christian hard tradtionalists will sweep into power and the Marxists will be left to tumb through their dog eared copies of DAS KAPITAL in jail, where they belong.
There will be no more homosexuality either.
There are heroes in the IOC!!!
HARD TRADITIONALISTS WHO KNOW HOW THE WORLD WORKS!!!
This is the turning point. Marxism worldwide will collapse, and right thinking christian hard tradtionalists will sweep into power and the Marxists will be left to tumb through their dog eared copies of DAS KAPITAL in jail, where they belong.
There will be no more homosexuality either.
20
If President Obama needs a hastily arranged 5-hour trip to a relatively apolitical event in a foreign country to get "valuable" face time with world leaders, then he is a much weaker leader than I thought he was!
21
This administration is a JOKE and for Bo, his wife, & Oprah to go pitch for the Olympics (well Oprah pulled ranks and sat in the audience...) -- come on --- was this flight ticket in the stimulis PKG too? Probably since he is still working on CREATING jobs...remember the reason for this theft of the American Tax Dollar??? How quickly the media forgets the important issues at hand...Like nearly 20 MILLION folks unemployed! But hey...56% of the Americans do NOT want Health Care Reform but they are pushing that still. What happened to the MAJORITY wins? Guess it only applies to those with the deepest pockets, huh?
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