Rio de Janeiro wins 2016 Olympic Games. Madrid came in second. Tokyo came in third. Chicago–despite the presence of President and Mrs. Obama and Oprah Winfrey–got knocked out in the first round. Congratulations, Brazil. (FWS, our correspondent in Brasil, as he and Brazilians spell it, please report.)
Christianity, Culture, Vocation
Lucas Cranach, self portrait c.1530.
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{ 27 comments… read them below or add one }
>>despite the presence of President and Mrs. Obama and Oprah Winfrey<<
Rather, BECAUSE of the presence of said dignitaries. Hubris always gets its reward. The President again looks naive, immature and foolish and returns in disgrace. Hopefully POTUS and FLOTUS have learned a lesson, namely, the world doesn’t think you’re all that…how’s that for mandate?
Excuse my naivety, but, do heads of state normally attend such things? I can’t understand why he’d want to take time away from such all-important matters as health care reform and the continuing overseas military contingency operation (formerly known as the GWOT).
Scots (@1), “Hubris always gets its reward”?! You are aware that we’re talking about the Olympics here, right?
I get that you intensely dislike Obama and will take any opportunity to take a shot at him, but please. Do you honestly think the winning city is the one whose commission displays the most humility?!
The King of Spain was there too, and he came in second.
Looking forward to Beach Volleyball in Rio!
Spin, tODD, spin!
This first-round loss (boohoo) goes directly to the FLOTUS, the “0″, and the other “O”.
As Michelle Malkin noted, “Prepare for the recriminations.”
Maybe Chicago can ask for a recount. There must be misplaced votes in some Copenhagen cemeteries.
Jonathan, here’s a quote from an article in USA Today that preceded the one in Veith’s link:
So, yes, heads of state do attend such things. It’s all about making a splashy presentation. Not that you’ll hear anything like that from Obama-haters.
Well said, tODD–humility doesn’t go well with the Olympics, and I think de Coubertin would cringe today at what has become of his idea for peaceful, non-nationalistic amateur sport.
Of course, he probably cringed at St. Louis 1904, too, not to mention both sets of games in 1936. (and had he not died in 1937….this could get long….)
I’m personally very glad Chicago lost, as the Games were simply Daley’s idea to cover up how he’s run the city into the ground, and shame on Dear Leader for helping him out. Half the people in Chicago, for crying out loud, saw through the charade.
Actually, a head Australian delegate to the IOC seems to confirm the suspicion that Chicago was, in fact, the front-runner, but that the Asian delegates voted in a bloc during the first round to eliminate Chicago in hopes of rigging the election for Tokyo.
This confirms my suspicion that the Olympics are a generally corrupt phenomenon.
As for Obama, I don’t think the loss has anything to do with him. Or rather, it wouldn’t have if he hadn’t staked a good number of political points on his visit. Whether he likes it or not, he chose to go there in hopes of swaying the bid, and the IOC’s decision will, to some degree, be imputed to him and will reflect upon the “charisma” or strength of his presidency. That’s just the way it is.
I really can’t believe Rio got it, though (though I had been cynically guessing they would all along). I mean, warm fuzzies about South America hosting the event for the first time ever and all that, but Rio had about 2500 murders last year alone, a number which does not include the approximately 1300 massacred by the brutal and unruly local police (about four times more than were killed by police in all of America last year). That, and the vast majority of the local population lives in abject and unmitigated poverty. fws is free to spin these facts as he likes, but I can’t call Rio a sterling example to the world. The truth is (apart from the shady dealings by Asia mentioned above) that the IOC is intent on rewarding “developing” nations, like China and Brasil, with the Olympics, even though it doesn’t really make economic or logistical sense. I will bet money on the proposition that India gets the Olympics in 2020.
Per Cincinnatus’ comments, is Rio polluted enough to host an Olympic marathon? (I’m thinking LA ’84, Beijing….) Frank? :^)
Regarding crime; 2500 murders in a city of seven million (twelve million if you count the suburbs) is about equivalent to what New York saw before Giuliani (1600 murder/year in a city of seven million) or Chicago a few years back (1000 or so in a city of three million.
Horrendous, but not terribly worse than what you’d see in Norte America.
Everyone agrees that NYC was a terrible place to live in the ’80s (and, by extension, a terrible place to hold the Olympics), so what’s your point? 1000 more murders per annum than NYC in those bad old days is, I would submit, “terribly worse” than what you’d see here, and you’re not including the 1300 murders (more or less) committed by Rio’s third-world police force.
America loses the 2016 Olympics … far right giddy.
The spinmeisters have arrived:
“Newsweek Political Correspondent: Losing Olympics Good for Obama”
Chuck Todd: Biggest Political Loser Not Obama But Daley in Olympic Loss (newsbusters.org/blogs/ken-shepherd/2009/10/02/chuck-todd-biggest-political-loser-not-obama-daley-olympic-loss)
First: I will invite any and all of you (yes that includes, in life-as-parable fashion, carl vehse and peter leavitt!) to be my guests when and if you come to visit brasil.
I am happy that the olympic will be in Rio, and mostly for reasons mentioned here in fact. Brasil will want to put it´s best foot forward, so they will have about 6 years to clean up the police force and crack down on crime. Roads and public transportation will improve. Poverty will be given a kinder face so people don´t have to look at the slums as they drive from the airport to the city center.
It can be done because NYC did it and it took about as long.
There is alot of poverty here, but it is alot better than poverty in the USA in alot of ways. People here can be very happy with not alot. That spirit is one of the reasons I live here. Brasilians are eternal optimists.
The good news there is that finding places in need of good works is like hitting side-of-barn-as-bullseye. What could be a more wonderful place for a christian to live in I ask you??!! I feel blest indeed.
President Lula declared a national holiday for this, so stores and govt offices will close, with pay. And you think life under Obama is disfunctional? Ha!
But we DO know how to enjoy life here. The beachs are the best in the world if you don´t count the ones in Bali.
Oh. And the beer. Served just below it´s freezing point and boy is it good!
One more selling point: it is awesome to the point of tears to be on the other side of the planet, with a beach pointed towards antartica and attend a church where you can follow along in the divine service even though it is in Portuguese and you can know that those people you worship share a common faith in great unity of detail. Only the Holy Spirit could make that miracle happen.
#11 sam
I’m not rejoicing that Chicago lost its bid, but I’m happy for Brazil and for South America at large. It’s about time South America got to host the Olympics.
If anything is learned out of this, it is that we cannot assume that just because we make a pitch, or enter into a negotiation, or script things a certain way, the world will just fall into line. The saddest thing was watching certain media figures simply assume that because the First Couple went to Copenhagen, the Olympics were our’s. To the extent that Obama believed this would be the case, this will be an important step of maturity for him.
Similarly, we should be very wary of the idea that we can simply talk with the madmen running Iran and defuse the nuclear situation there. We must be prepared for the eventuality that talks will fail.
#15 dons
I am curious Don as to what you think prudent action would be for Iran. I think if we make an ultimatum we should consider how prepared we are to back that ultimatum up and how.
No one seems to talk about how our resources are limited and that we cannot fight every war we might want to.
what do you have in mind? “get tough” with Iran? what would that look like? embargo? airstrike? military action.
I think i like the american ideal up till wwII that we would never strike preemptively.
I’m just relieved nobody’s calling the IOC racist. That’s a step in the right direction; but, then, Robt Gibbs hasn’t had his Monday morning spin conference.
I’m hoping Obama might finally comment on the terribly sad killing of the honors student in Chicago a few days ago; he missed an important teaching moment in the excitement of the Olympics. Maybe he’ll take those poor parents who lost their son for a beer?
Top 10 Reasons Chicago Didn’t Get the Olympics
10. Dead people can’t vote at IOC meetings
9. Obama distracted by 25 min meeting with Gen. McChrystal
8. Who cares if Obama couldn’t talk the IOC into Chicago? He’ll be able to talk Iran out of nukes.
7. The impediment is Israel still building settlements.
5. We’ve been quite clear and said all along that we didn’t want the Olympics.
4. This isn’t about the number of Olympics “lost”, it’s about the number of Olympics “saved” or “created”.
3. Clearly not enough wise Latina judges on the committee
2. Because the IOC is racist.
1. It’s George Bush’s fault.
In her 18-paragraph speech to the International Olympic Committee in Copenhagen Michelle used “I,” “me,” or “my” 41 times, including when she said:
“Some of my best memories are sitting on my dad’s lap, cheering on Olga and Nadia, Carl Lewis, and others for their brilliance and perfection.” [Note: Michelle would have been at least 20-years-old when she sat on her dad's lap to cheer Carl Lewis.]
Barry used “I,” “me,” or “my” 26 times in his 14-paragraph speech to the IOC.
The narcissistic devotion of these two prompted George Will to note:
“What’s alarming is whether it indicates a belief on the part of the President which is that there is no problem that will not melt before the sunshine of his charm. And this is evidence again that it’s not so. The President and First Lady went to Copenhagen and gave little speeches about themselves… It was all about them”.
When the NY Times accidently printed the truth about the 0bamas and their Olympic fiasco, the usual clymer revisionism took care of that as noted in Lame Gray Lady: NYT Scrubs Major Portion of Original Obama-Olympics Article. Comparison between the original and the revised version and more reference links are provided at the Newsbusters site.
One paragraph that the NYT flushed:
And the prospect of winning was too irresistible. After all, Mr. Obama has already envisioned the day when he could welcome the world to his hometown, never mind that small matter of reelection. ‘In 2016, I’ll be wrapping up my second term as president, he told a rally in Chicago in June 2008. “So I can’t think of a better way than to be marching into Washington Park … as president of the United States and announcing to the world: Let the Games begin!”.
A comment on a linked site noted: “Wait…he took AF1 back? You mean he didn’t walk across the Atlantic?”
And you’ll know Carl’s a Christian by his love, by his love, and you’ll knooooow Carl’s a Christian by his love.
Keep in mind, tODD, that sometimes love means speaking brutal truths. Remember John the Baptist speaking to the Pharisees, or our Lord clearing the moneychangers at the Temple?
If the thing Dear Leader needs to hear most is “man your ego is immense”, then that’s exactly what we need to be saying. Love is not always nice(Latin “nescius,” ignorant), and thank God for that.
Appreciated Frank’s comments on his city. What’s weather likely to be like for the marathon? As a former distance runner, my heart goes out to people running marathons in August, and I’d hope that things might be a touch cooler south of the equator then…
Bombay 2020!
Regarding @18, “Top 10 Reasons Chicago Didn’t Get the Olympics” become leftist talking points.
Reason No. 1 is now claimed by the usual gang of liberal spinmeisters as reported in the Chicago clymer press.
OTOH, editor-in-chief Marty Peretz of the liberal New Republic concludes:
“If Obama could not get Chicago over the finish line in Copenhagen, which was a test only of his charms, how will he persuade Tehran to give up its nuclear weapons capacity or the Arabs, to whom he has tilted (we are told) only tactically, to sit down without their 60 year-old map as guide to what they demand from Israel.
“What I suspect is that the president is probably a clinical narcissist.”
Ouch. With political friends like that…
Carl @19
I am shocked, SHOCKED, that you didn’t pick up on the fact that, if Michelle Obama was cheering on “Nadia and Olga”, she was cheering on the Communist gymnastics teams of Nadia Commanici and Olga Korbut in the 1976 Montreal Olympics.
I guess Michelle really wasn’t proud of the USA back then (well, admittedly our gymnastics team finished 6th in 1976 and didn’t win any medals). But even so you’d think the First Lady could have found some American athletes to be proud of in addition to Carl Lewis.
Yay! Rio! I have it on good authority that in Rio you can dance on the wings of airplanes as they fly around.
I am quite behind on commenting, so I suppose no one will notice. But, I thought I should speak as a native of Rio de Janeiro.
1) Rio hosted the Pan-American Games in 2007. Before this, a friend from Rio thought that the city did not have the infrastructure to host the Olympics, but that hosting the Pan-American Games should help. I don’t know how well Rio handled the games.
2) Rio is by far the most strikingly beautiful city in Brazil, but it is also the craziest. I think the world will be enchanted by it but hard-pressed to overlook some of its weaknesses.
3) At any rate, I think Brazil is one of the more under-appreciated countries in the world, and I’m glad for the publicity.