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Inside Obama's Olympic Stumble
Mandel Ngan, AFP / Getty Images
Obama wasn't planning to go. But a boost from Chicagoans, and his competitive drive, tipped the balance. Richard Wolffe on what went wrong—and how much it matters.
The president went to win the Olympics for America. And did not bring home the gold. How did the White House get itself into this Olympic-size mess?
To hear Obama insiders discuss it, the president was just too competitive not to make the trip. "Whether we tried or not, we owned it," said one senior White House aide. "But you know how competitive he is. If we got a shot, he wanted to take it. The Chicago folks definitely made it known that they wanted him to come. But the decision was his. He felt if he could go and make the case and promote the country and Chicago, he was going to do it."
“While I don’t think Obama’s trip to Copenhagen was a great idea, it’s hardly the first time a president has used political capital unwisely and in vain,” said Alan Brinkley of Columbia University.
The process began with the creation of the White House office of Olympic, Paralympic and Youth Sport in February. The office has a broader brief than winning the Olympic bid for Chicago; its stated goal is to promote Olympic values and promote youth participation in athletics. But its most important mission—spurred by several people with strong ties to senior White House staff—was to ensure that the U.S. put the same kind of high-level political muscle behind the American bid for the Games that other countries around the world did.
That support found its strongest voice in Valerie Jarrett, who heads the White House Olympic office, and is both a close friend to the Obamas and the president's senior adviser. Jarrett had once worked for Mayor Daley in Chicago, and recruited Michelle Obama to work alongside her there. So it made perfect sense in the original plan for the first lady and Jarrett to represent the White House in Copenhagen.
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As the president said just two weeks ago on the South Lawn of the White House, “I would make the case in Copenhagen personally, if I weren't so firmly committed to making real the promise of quality, affordable health care for every American. But the good news is I'm sending a more compelling superstar to represent the city and country we love, and that is our first lady, Michelle Obama.”
Within a week, that position was beginning to change as Mayor Daley pressed his case for a presidential pitch, which would put the country’s leader alongside his global counterparts. But according to White House officials, there were two factors even more important than the influence of Daley: The White House was already engaged, and the president himself liked the sporting challenge.
Game over, home team lost: The U.S. won just 18 votes in the first round of IOC voting, and was knocked out in the first round. And suddenly the president was being pummeled by the right for a frivolous use of political capital—especially in the Weekly Standard, which not only blasted Obama for his failure, but anticipated that the mainstream press corps would not take the defeat seriously. “The media is faced with three facts as a result of Obama’s embarrassing failure in Copenhagen. 1) The failure itself. 2) The incompetence. 3) The lack of persuasive ability. There’s nothing ideological about any of these items,” wrote Fred Barnes.
There’s no question that in the short run, the failed trip to Denmark represents a failure for the president—at a time when his approval ratings have fallen, his policy on Afghanistan is uncertain, and the prospects for health care are unclear. The question is how long will the sting hurt him. An informal Friday afternoon Daily Beast survey of historians suggests that this may well prove to be a blip. “While I don't think Obama's trip to Copenhagen was a great idea, it's hardly the first time a president has used political capital unwisely and in vain,” said Alan Brinkley of Columbia University, who cited George W. Bush’s attempt to privatize Social Security as a similarly quixotic mission. But Brinkley says the president may not have had much of a choice. “I think Obama was worried that he would be blamed if he didn't go and Chicago lost. It was pretty much a no-win for him unless Chicago won.”
It might be a blip. Then again, momentum is everything in politics. Obama made strides in his nuclear talks with Iran in Geneva this week—an issue far more important, in the grand scheme of things, than whether the U.S. will host yet another Olympic Games. But the Olympics make for easier political shorthand—and the critics’ complaints are sure to register with the public.
Speaking back in the Rose Garden after the vote, the president made it clear he was both a good sport, and looking for revenge. "One of the things that I think is most valuable about sports is that you can play a great game and still not win," he said, before recounting his conversation with his victor, President Lula de Silva of Brazil. "I had a chance to talk to President Lula and gave him a hearty congratulations and told him that our athletes will see him on the field of competition in 2016."
Richard Wolffe is a Daily Beast columnist and an award-winning journalist, and senior strategist at Public Strategies. He covered the entire length of Barack Obama's presidential campaign for Newsweek magazine. His book, Renegade: The Making of a President, was published by Crown in June.
For inquiries, please contact The Daily Beast at editorial@thedailybeast.com.
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Richard Wolffe is Daily Beast columnist and an award-winning journalist. He covered the entire length of Barack Obama's presidential campaign for Newsweek magazine. His book, Renegade: The Making of a President, was published by Crown in June.
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Richard Wolffe is Daily Beast columnist and an award-winning journalist. He covered the entire length of Barack Obama's presidential campaign for Newsweek magazine. His book, Renegade: The Making of a President, was published by Crown in June.
lsquare
Perhaps it is a blessing in disguise that Chicago didn't win it's bid for the Olympics. With our luck, some awful gang murder would occur during the Olympics. Chicago needs to focus on their high child murder rate. No doubt Rio probably has worse crime than even Chicago, but still, the U.S. is supposed to be better than that. Clean up your act Chicago.
case1234
"what went wrong"? Why does the media insist on not giving RIO any credit for there win. No South American city has ever held a games. The IOS's third world votes went heavily to Rio in show of solidarity.
Also, these same media critics would have blamed him for the loss if he DIDN'T go. When did we a nation because this hateful and cynical about everything. The President not winning the Olympics is the end of the world?
Every nation sends their head of state to pitch for the games now. Blair did for London, Lua did for Rio. Japanese and Spanish did the same. Why is Obama different? Almost no major media outlet stated that fact, they didn't want to kill their story by stating that it is standard practice for the head of state to go.
seakiev
It was pretty obvious to everyone even a week before, that Rio was going to win the bid so Obama should have stayed home and focused on healthcare or Iran.
Instead, Obama looks weak and ineffectual because not only has Chicago not won, healthcare is stalled, and Iran continues to build nukes no matter what they say.
iralarry
I share your gall for the crap that passes for unbiased reporting above. No logical reason to spin this as an embarrassment save for some political agenda to cause said embarrassment where none exists.
Obama went to bat. No hits. So what? Next...
DocinPA
What's next, iralarry? Why, how about an effective unemployment rate of 17% and no plan that I can see that will actually work? How about the fact that the current Finance Committee "bill" isn't even an actual bill? Or that this same piece of crap "conceptual framework" mandates cuts to physicians if the costs per patient exceed 90% of the mean, regardless of the patient population or severity of illness? (Why do Baucus and Schumer hate Grandma?) There's LOTS to talk about.
Bamos99
To DocinPa:
To expect you to see a "plan that would work" is expecting too much. Perhaps if you were to do some research about the history of recessions and the steps taken here ( and what the ensuing reults can reasonably be) then the historic efforts made to correct a failed economy may dawn on you. It can be explained to you but not understood for you.
friendlyskies
Good point, case1234. I feel like the Republicans trying to spin this as a "loss for Obama" are unaware that there are a lot of countries out there. They seem to see the world as the USA vs Other. I've read articles that suggest Hugo Chavez and Lula are in the same block, when ten minutes of online research would reveal quite the opposite. And as you point out, it's totally normal for a head of state to lobby for the Olympics; to argue that Obama's visit is unusual reveals a serious commitment to ignorance.
And lsquare, a quick bit of online research on your part would have revealed that yes, Rio has worse crime than Chicago - that was a complete non-issue. It is deliberately ignorant, deliberately spreading ignorance, to even suggest otherwise.
Anyway, congrats to Rio! Chicago would have been awesome, but Brazil definitely knows how to put on a show. China's about to get one-upped in ways that no one's ever seen before. I can't wait!
mcmchugh99
I don't like the Olympics and never even watch it on TV because it is just a big advertising, propaganda extravaganza. If I had any choice in the matter, I would have picked Brazil to host the games since they have never had a chance before. Lula is also a democratic socialist like myself, so I'm glad he's getting a boost like this, which indicates that Brazil is a rising power that is finally coming of age.
numonk
No, the US is NOT supposed to be better than killing kids. Happens everyday, douche.
Fuck the Olympics, I'm very glad that now the Chicago homeless won't all of a sudden "disappear" next year. This is not news, and Richard Wolff is still subpar at best.
winston1
This is not about Obama being competitive it's about a narcissistic man who thinks he can do all, I guess he thought Michelle, Oprah and Valerie Jarrett couldn't do this without him, so last minute he decided to go, thinking if they did pull this off he wouldn't get any glory and reconization.
The chance of loosing never entered his mind because he thinks the world loves him, and to even leave behind high priorities and very important decisions never factored in, he was on a mission.
This seems to be the way Obama works, I guess you cannot expect too much because he is inexperienced, never really held a job with responsibility. I read his book' Dreams from My Father' and the way Obama lived his life was like a nomad, trying to find himself. Well from what I see, he is continuing to do just that.
HiredGoons
Right, because U.S Senator is a job with no responsibility.
bcaldwell
It really is a job with NO responsibility and in Obama's case, it wasn't much of a job seeing as how he went on a job search about 180 days after he got it.Can A Senator send men into battle. Can A Senator mobilize for a national emergency like Katrina. This whole Olympic thing shows Obama to be a rank amateur....RANK!!!!!!!
allonfla
Wow! Are you a close friend of Obama? You write as if you know him so well. The article said Obama wasn't going to go, but you claim the thought of losing never entered his mind. No logic there. And the world does love him. I don't have to point out the crowds from the campaign when he went overseas and the crowds that gather when he goes as the President. Or when Americans visit other parts of the world and the first thing they hear is something positive about Obama. Get over it, the world hated George W. , they Like O much more. Now as to the rest of America? that's who the rest of the world can't stand. They like O, can't stand his people (us).
And get off this bogus crap that he left behind high priorities. He was there from 2AM-6AM OUR TIME. What could he have done in that time except sleep and workout? While you are here typing and bashing him, while anyone in the blogosphere is making a comment about his performance or flapping their jaws on tv, O is meeting with his staff/cabinet and making extremely intense and serious decisions.
thankulord13
Only difference Winnie between this guy and the last. Obama worked for everything he has while Dumbya had daddy buy it for him, even the 2000 election. So I would rather deal with this narcissist as oppose the the religious fanatical who himself was very narcissistic, who thought he was suppose to initiate amegeddon.
sonofloud
At the time of his birth, Obama's parents were students at the East-West Center of the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
Obama's parents separated when he was two years old and later divorced. Obama's father went to Harvard to pursue Ph.D. studies and then returned to Kenya.
His mother married Lolo Soetoro, another East-West Center student from Indonesia. In 1967, the family moved to Jakarta, where Obama's half-sister Maya Soetoro Ng was born. Obama attended schools in Jakarta, where classes were taught in the Indonesian language.
Four years later when Barack (commonly known throughout his early years as "Barry") was ten, he returned to Hawaii to live with his maternal grandparents, Madelyn and Stanley Dunham, and later his mother (who died of ovarian cancer in 1995).
He was enrolled in the fifth grade at the esteemed Punahou Academy, graduating with honors in 1979. He was only one of three black students at the school. This is where Obama first became conscious of racism and what it meant to be an African-American.
http://www.biography.com/articles/Barack-Obama-12782369?print
PS if you do a little research you will find Punahou Academy is a private school and Soetoro was an oil-company executive and liaison to the Suharto government......not exactly poor or middle class
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n--Y--neverminddebbieqd
Time for more remedial English, Winston. When you finish those lessons, perhaps you will be able to think.
JohnnyCakes
The right-wing is so pissed-off that someone would dare think that they can come into a system where everyone is compromised and think that not only can he DO something worthwhile but that he can even help reform the system. To wingnuts it the height of arrogance for anyone to believe in ANYTHING. In the meantime they are talked down to by towering egotists like Rush Limbaugh and true narcissists like Palin and Beck and they applaud like love-starved puppies and trained chimps. and boy, don't get 'em started on that teleprompter!
missbike
winston, grow up. Get a job in the real world, see how things work. I've been to several Games, and spent twenty years training to make a team. The fix is in on things more often than not.
Maybe he's a genuinely earnest man who wanted to see an Olympic games in his city- not to mention the economic boost. But if you'd ever been out in the actual world and competed for even the short grocery store check out line you'd know you win some, you lose some.
SaxmanDH
Winston, you sound like a real doushe bag. I would say why your a doushe bag, but trying to talk to doushe bags is impossible.
judithk6
Hey Winston: Do you think the people of the competing countries are demonizing THEIR leaders for not coming home with the olympics? They were all there, you know. Or is yours just another racial slur?
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n--Y--nevermindiralarry
You are a friggin' genius. You actually know what the President was thinking. What am I thinking right now about you?
Thats correct-Putz.
JAP022
Man get over yourself. Put all that energy into something more useful and positive.
perrylowell
I cannot believe what a flap you are making this into. How nice that Obama went to lobby, along with the otthers. And too bad that we didn't get the games. But... so what? Just because America was in the running doesn't mean we are the annointed ones-- what a feeling of entitlement we seem to feel, just because we're the USA. Congrats to Rio, and let's focus on more important things again.
Ozone69
This was a (Miscalcualted) attempt to pay back his cronies in the Windy Ciity. Valerie Jarret's slums would have been raised to make a new Olympic Village and the rest of the Daly Machine would have got their pockets lined as well. I thought something was strange when no other president, EVER, went to the Olympic committee to shill for the games. It not only diminishes the office, it shows that there really is no "Change" in this administration. Pitiful.
HiredGoons
Barack Obama: tries to promote U.S city.
George Bush: lets U.S city flood.
Ozone69
I would also include Mayor "school bus" Nagin and Governor Blanco. They were a little closer to the problem than the President and did a very poor job of evacuating their constituents.
missbike
What could you have done better Ozone?
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n--Y--nevermindBaddchild
do different, how about vacuating the people who stahyed behind to loot the city as they were the ones who ended up dying in the flooding days later. people foget that. then you don't have Daily beast morons believing Bush was down there lighting the fuse to blow up the levies because he hates black people - sometimes you wonder is there any limit to what liberals will believe.
Ozone69
I guess I would have an evacuation plan, a local and state office of emergency management to execute said plan, public service announcements and other ways to make the plan known to the citizens of NO, etc.
looey1999
This is just one of many losses Obama will suffer in the coming years. The next losses will be from the American people when he becomes a lame duck and Obamacare gets gutted.
princeminski
A cheap shot, but a good one.
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n--Y--nevermindbigchick
My dear winston1
If you deem an individual who completed an Ivy League education, without incident (Harvard no doubt). Then later served his community as an Organizer, then taught at a major university, oh yeah, let's not forget he spent some some in a little forum called the Senate. The world now refers to him as President of the United States and yet you describe him as someone trying to still find themselves...you're a fool!
cdalzell
Leave this IOC vote alone -- the right result happened. While I think Chicago would have been a superb, safe choice for the Summer games -- the fact that the Olympic Movement has never had a stage in South America was hugely significant. And Rio is a fascinating city. Naturally, the fallout focuses on "what went wrong" when the real discussion should be "what went right." My only wish is that I can't be an Olympic athlete myself in Rio/2016 -- but I may indeed be a spectator.
ACR1493
THIS IS RIDICULUS
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n--Y--misterdonvelvetsmog
AGREED. The other side has Reflexive Parisian Obama Hatred Syndrome and regardless of the President's participation and regardless of the results would have had their talking points ready.
gvnn688
Joe Scarborough's post, "Thank you Mr. President," at Huffington Post said it all. It is time for more adults to show the courage of Mr. Scarborough. The city that won deserve our praise and the fact the President spoke on Chicago's behalf also deserve our praise.
missbike
What's the point of this stupid blurb, Beast? So what? Our President tried to get The United States the honor. He didn't fail- Rio is new, different, and the first in South America.
Lighten up- you people are sounding like AM radio.
connie47
IMO, you got it right missbike.
Thanks, Mr. President, for trying to bring the US a bunch of jobs, albeit temporary ones (which the unemployed would have been thrilled with), and an influx of cash from tourism during the games. I'm sorry it didn't work out, but I sure appreciate the effort.
Mofiamen
The President who travels the world and returns time and again with nothing for the people he has sworn to serve.
velvetsmog
I would have taken that over what George Bush gave me any day of the week.
Soonchurcher
Hope you still feel that way when you have a missle up your ass!!!!!!
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n--Y--nevermindjudithk6
I wonder if the leaders of the other countries who were there to make a case for their countries are also shamed by their press
martis
only in america do you have a political rump opposition dedicated to the hatred of the country when they are out of power. they are as pathetic as they are willfully stupid.
Beastlier
You're referring to the Dems from 2000-2008?
mcmchugh99
Once again, TDB is starting to get like Politico--filled up with toxic conservative talking points and professional trolls from the Right who ignore everyone who disagrees with them and try to run everyone else off.
I can't stand these people, and have bashed them good every so often on Politico.
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n--Y--nevermindfranjen
Presidents should never attend public meetings of this nature unless he/she is assured of the outcome. More of his lack of experince. Come on, lets be honest.
connie47
You mean the thing should be dishonest, rigged, decided in advance before anything so grand as an American bothers to join other heads of state in the competition.
What arrogant crap.
franjen
No, Connie - I'm saying he should stayed out of it. It's widely reported that his decision to go was made at the last minute. I have no idea (nor do you) why Rio was chosen or if the process was rigged and I really don't care. He clearly went to lobby because he felt his presence would make a difference and he was completely worng. That's being honest, not arrogant,
connie47
Heads of state always go to pitch their country. Get some history.
It's still arrogant crap.
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n--Y--nevermindThank you.
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