I’ve seen four theories about why President Obama has decided that the most important task he can undertake this week is to fly to Copenhagen to lobby in behalf of the Chicago bid to host the 2016 Olympic Games.
The one that I would like to believe is Bill Kristol’s: that the sports junket is a cover for a surprise visit to our troops in Afghanistan. The trip could be the start of a White House effort – conspicuously absent to date – to rally public support behind the Af-Pak campaign and contradict the hints (such as his delay in authorizing new force commitments and nearly complete absence of communications with the commander in the field, not to mention Joe Biden’s vaporous “fight terrorism from 35,000 feet” proposal) that Kabul is about to go under the spacious Obama bus.
A second theory is that the International Olympic Committee has covertly made the decision to pick Chicago and that the President wants to bask in the “glory” of putting an American city over the top. If that’s the motive, it will be yet another example of our chief executive’s childish vanity. Hundreds of rank-and-file Chicagoans have devoted thousands of hours to pushing the bid. The One swoops down to claim the credit. Appalling.
For the true cynics, Jim Geraghty notes that the trip “just happens to take him out of the country the day the unemployment numbers for September will be announced”. How handy to have a big foreign story to overshadow what’s likely to be an unhappy domestic one.
Finally, and most plausibly, there’s the view of John Fund, writing in the WSJ.com Political Diary (subscription-only, and the best use of $7.95 you have this month):
Some even in Chicago question the wisdom of his lobbying trip. “To let himself be distracted by a parochial concern like this does not speak well for Obama’s judgment,” wrote Chicago Tribune columnist Steven Chapman. Not every Chicagoan shares Mr. Obama’s enthusiasm for hosting the games. The latest Tribune poll shows only 47% of residents backing the city’s bid in the wake of Mayor Richard Daley’s decision to put taxpayers on the hook for any cost overruns.
But in reality President Obama’s decision makes perfect sense. Chicago’s bid for the Olympics is in jeopardy, and even though the president will have perhaps five minutes before the microphones of the International Olympic Committee, his star presence could make the difference. What’s on the line in Copenhagen is much bigger than the Olympics, at least to the parochial players who run Chicago. Mayor Daley has staked his legacy on snagging the games. The 67-year-old mayor has dominated the city for the past two decades, but recent scandals and financial strains have dented his prestige. “The mayor’s ability to continue to run the city as he sees fit could hinge in great part on whether the Olympics bid succeeds,” reports the Chicago Tribune.
That’s why Chicago sources tell me Mayor Daley pulled out all the stops to mobilize the White House to save the city’s bid. He was aided in his appeals by the fact that the White House is now stuffed with top aides who are Daley loyalists, ranging from Valerie Jarrett to David Axelrod to Rahm Emanuel.
In their heyday, the big city political machines wielded massive influence. The bosses had governors, senators and congressmen in their pockets – but never quite managed to dominate a Presidency. Richard M. Daley is generally regarded as a pale shadow of his father, Richard J. In this respect, at least, he has surpassed the old man.
Further reading: The American Spectator, “Obama’s Olympic Spirit”
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