My crystal ball was completely accurate about the IOC dissing Obama
Bookworm on Oct 02 2009 at 8:50 am | Filed under: Barack Obama
On September 28, 2009, I wrote this:
I think the world has sized Obama up and concluded that he’s weak, very weak. The Olympics are a good example of this. One theory has it that Chicago is in, and that the price for that is Obama’s appearance before the Olympic Committee. In other words, Obama got bossed around both by Chicago and by the Olympic Committee. He’s sort of weak in that scenario, but he still gets what he wants.
But another theory (mine, to be precise) is that the matter is still up in the air, that Obama is going to the Olympic Committee as a true supplicant, and that the OC still has the power to turn him down. With a strong president, this situation would never have arisen. First off, a strong president wouldn’t have gone begging for an Olympic game. Second, of course, the OC would never dream of sayin no. But here, how tempting to have the President of the United States on his knees before you, and have the power to say “no.”
I was prescient. Not only did Chicago not make the cut, it was the first city eliminated:
In a stunning development, Chicago was the first city eliminated on Friday in IOC voting to be host city for the 2016 Summer Olympics…
Not to be smug, but some of us saw this coming. And in fact, I’m not smug, because this is a deeply depressing sign of the actual esteem in which the most beloved president in the world (outside of the US) is held. Voters were so stupid. They thought that Europeans wanted us to have Obama because it would be good for the US. Europeans and the rest of the world wanted us to have Obama because it would be bad for the US. In the short term, the rest of the world is thrilled to see an America with its wings clipped. In the long term, of course, given the America was the glue that held most Western civilization together, I wonder how happy they’re going to be.
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33 Responses to “My crystal ball was completely accurate about the IOC dissing Obama”
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Hey! How ’bout a little love here?
on 28 Sep 2009 at 4:13 pm 2George Bruce
I predict that Obamie goes begging and is turned down. The people on the OC have been hoping for the chance to do this all their lives.
http://www.bookwormroom.com/2009/09/28/just-a-thought-about-mr-and-mrs-obamas-push-for-the-olympics/#comments
Unrelated, but still…related. You’ll probably not want to run the available video immediately, but it’s a good reference to tuck away, and not one you’ll run across too often:
http://westernrifleshooters.blogspot.com/2009/09/more-bezmenov.html
Huzzah for the crystal ball. Obama makes all of us look bad, and the patriotism toting Leftists think this is a good thing for America.
Kudos. I had thought that it was a done deal for Chicago.
I wonder how long it will be before Obama has a toddler’s meltdown. I don’t think he’s been used to hearing “NO”, let alone rejection or ridicule on a global scale.
It’s one thing to be dissed by bitter clingers, but the Arabs, Russians, and now the IOC?
Yup, yup, yup, yup…you called this perfectly, Book. It’s like the old question that you ask your middle school child…do you want to be liked or respected? We, under George W. Bush, might not have been liked, but we were respected. Under Obama, we will neither be liked nor respected. Obama’s United States of America…doormat to the world!
I, though, am absolutely delighted! As an Ill-Annoy-sian, I am delighted that our politicians have been denied one more opportunity to use my bank account to enrich themselves. Axelrod, Emanuel, and Jarret especially must be crying in their beer, about now.
Then again, here’s my prediction: it will be Bush’s fault!
I can’t believe those racists at the IOC!
From Stratfor:
Headline: “Obama’s Moment of Reckoning”
(Subtext: OMFG)
******************
”
VERY AMERICAN PRESIDENT, early in his term, discovers that vision and reality rarely meet. Some — Ronald Reagan comes to mind — are able to recover. Others — Lyndon Johnson and George W. Bush, for example — do not. But the world is the way it is for a reason. States do not have as much room to maneuver in their policymaking as election campaign rhetoric would suggest. U.S. President Barack Obama’s mistake to date has been very similar to that made by every president before him: namely, basing his foreign policy on the assumption that he, unlike his predecessors, will be able to talk to “those people” in a way that solves problems — that if things are just handled in a different way, a different president can achieve a different end.
Things could be better at home, too. On Tuesday, the White House lost two major votes on health care, the issue that has crowded out nearly everything else on the domestic agenda — and this despite the tire tariffs, which were pushed through explicitly to guarantee the loyalty of some domestic groups. Making a sacrifice of China — and thereby complicating the Iran issue — has not generated a victory, but instead a loss.
It is too early to pass judgment on Obama’s first year in office, but things are getting dicey. Obama is now facing two crises in the Islamic world — Afghanistan and Iran — and by all indications he doesn’t have a clear strategy on either. His advisers are good enough, and he is smart enough, to realize that simply continuing in the same direction on either issue will not be a recipe for success. Iran, Russia and the Taliban already view him as weak. Doubling down in Afghanistan in order to confront the Taliban would rob the United States of its ability to act elsewhere. Going to war with Iran would (at a minimum) remove 3 million barrels per day of crude from the market and reverse the nascent economic recovery — not to mention reigniting conflict in Iraq. Shifting the country’s military orientation to re-contain Russia would leave Iraq and Afghanistan in the hands of potentially (if not already outright) hostile forces. Not a nice menu from which to select.
Obama’s moment is shaping up to arrive very soon. It well might be Thursday.
We see really only one clean way out of Obama’s dilemma: a deal with Iran. Should the Iranians and the Americans find a way to live with each other, then a great many other issues would fall into place. The Russians would lose their lever in the Middle East. The Americans could smoothly (for the Middle East) withdraw from Iraq and Afghanistan. American and Iranian intelligence and training in cooperation could limit any Taliban resurgence in Afghanistan.
Such a “happy” ending naturally faces some touchy obstacles. Israel would retain the ability to scrap any rapprochement, and would have strong incentives to do so if Iran’s nuclear program was not clearly and publicly defanged. Russia might have a thing or two to say (and do) to scuttle any warming in U.S.-Iran relations. And then there is that issue of a lack of trust between Tehran and Washington on just about everything.
”
********************
Great, just great. Our only hope is to further appease a Hitlerian madman.
[...] a quick roundup Okie: another roundup Rich Lowry: Top 10 Reasons why Obama lost Olympics Bookworm: Had a crystal ball Althouse: sees a backlash against “all that glamorous traveling” Flopping Aces: Blames [...]
So, who would like to propose that Chicago-Style arm twisting is considered bad form in international Olympic circles? Just askin’, of course.
Personally, I think that the President’s appeal that he would so look forward to seeing the Olympic Stadium in his front yard as he stepped out of his Hyde Park home probably didn’t go over very big (it’s all about me, me, me, I, I, I…etc.). Think SNL will do a skit on that?
Now that Oprah and Michelle are done working the diplomacy rounds in Copenhagen, perhaps they could prepare themselves for the negotiations with Iran next month.
LOL
How many billions of dollars would have been siphoned from the federal treasury to reward Chicago politicians had Chicago been awarded the Olympics?
Not that that will stop Barack. It will just make the graft slightly more time consuming to hide.
I’m ambivalent to Chicago being awarded the Olympics. Anyone doubt it would have been used as an extra-large funnel directly pointed at Chicago?
Oh, somewhere in this joyful world the sun is shining bright;
The band is playing in Rio, and there all hearts are light,
And in Copenhagen men are laughing, and in Brussels children shout;
But there is no joy in Chi-town – mighty Obama has struck out.
Zhombre, I appreciate the humor, but I also remember the proverb: “A wounded lion is the most dangerous.” It will be interesting to see how Obama reacts to this very public failure on his part. How will he try to regain face?
Interesting times.
My friend, a wounded lion is dangerous. A wounded peacock not so much.
Uh…zhombre…so, I dunno….how many pecks of pecked peckers can a pecked peacock peck?
I planted the news on the open thread early today when the news came across the screen. It’s worth noting that Obama, has again, failed to size up facts. He has spent so much time preening and strutting like a peacock,
No surprise to us that he’s actually a peahen. Chicago is left with the bills and the bullies.
BREAKING NEWS – All the O’s
Two planes, Mr. & Mrs. O and the other Chicago ‘O’ (Oprah) left Copenhagen with a big O for their Olympic pitch. The financial O’s in this brief news item is the cost to Chicago – approximately a $100 million dollars.
I predict that after getting burned publicly, Obama will go back to voting “present” another 132 times. Continue to outsource control to Pelosi & Co.
I don’t think that he or his staff has a Plan B. The totus is his entire schtick. More cowbell.
This is getting scary.
Danny Lemieux
Then again, here’s my prediction: it will be Bush’s fault!
Your wait is over. Just saw Roland Burris being interviewed (past administration’s fault).
It’s Bush’s fault. Fifty years from now remnants of the Left will still be saying that.
It will be interesting to see how Obama reacts to this very public failure on his part. How will he try to regain face?
That’s not interesting. What is interesting is how Michelle Obama will react.
I think, after this failed Presidential mission to snag the Olympics for Chi, that this old WWII slogan needs to be emblazoned across Air Force One: “Is this trip really necessary?”
It will be interesting to see how Obama reacts to this very public failure on his part. How will he try to regain face?
This will harden his position left. Rather than reflecting on the limits of his power and
movingleaning toward the center (as Clinton did after the ’94 elections), he will work toward a public option or a trigger that guarantees a government run insurance option. He’ll never say this publicly, but the fix will be in. The senate will not include this and they will use the reconciliation process to pass the house written version.Very little will be said by the MSM about the final version (typical stealth leftism). We will have socialized medicine and Obama will have recouped his honor.
Instead of commenting on the latest egg on the face of Obama, I want to comment on the theme that reveals the truth:
Obama is a very, very weak man. And he is an appeaser.
We last faced such a situation, a terribly weak man as President, with Jimmy Carter. If we are to learn from history, this is a time to be afraid of what may be coming. We did not know that the terrible weakness of Carter would lead to the mad mullahs of Iran taking over that country; that Carter’s appeasement would lead to it, and that for the U.S.A. the result would be the embassy hostages and hundreds of days of national shame while our horrifyingly weak president dithered and blathered and hid in the Oval Office and the Rose Garden.
But those of us who are old enough… we remember Carter. And we see Obama now as just another Carter. You have to wonder what is coming.
To Mike Devx: Yes.
I understand your point, Zhombre. Yet, both analogies are off, as Pres. Obama is neither a lion nor a peacock, but a human being, with all the trade-offs that involves.
Not a lion, true, but he moves as the figurehead (sometimes) of some fairly ruthless company, such as David Axelrod, Rahm Emanuel, Bill Ayers, Valerie Jarrett, and other Chicago (and elsewhere) cronies.
None of us know what his reaction will be: we’re in terra incognita, which means extra caution is warranted. Many predictions can validly be made. Some will end up being more prescient than others, but it would be wise to prepare for a wide range of eventualities.
it would be wise to prepare for a wide range of eventualities.
Which got me thinking about hurricane disasters. Just insert (word of choice) in place of hurricane and it’s a plan. Weather disasters, political disasters both leave us vulnerable to the elements and the unknown.
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/HAW2/english/disaster_prevention.shtml
Mike Devx…
But those of us who are old enough… we remember Carter. And we see Obama now as just another Carter. You have to wonder what is coming.
I do remember. Carter was a political tsunami and I never saw it coming, but I never forgot the destruction left in his wake either.
>>Carter was a political tsunami>>
I disagree. Carter was ebb trough that prepared the way for the towering surf that was Reagan’s ride. _Obama_ is a tsunami.
I thought the CNN video was bad enough: This was the video, during the campaign, taken on Obama’s plane. He was strutting his stuff in the aisleway, talking on his cellphone. All the female CNN reporters were telling one of their own, “Sit down! Sit down! Sit down! We can’t SEE! We can’t SEE!” And then Obama did himself one better, after she *did* sit down, striking a particularly telling pose for them all. They all recognized the pose, and these reporters had a fit of giggling that reminded me of a sixth-grade girl being invited by the Backstreet Boys to their hotel room.
Yes, that one was bad enough.
But then three nights ago, while driving home from work late, Laura Ingraham played an excerpt on her radio show here in Dallas. I believe it was Ann Compton, of ABC News. The woman was absolutely *gushing* with enthusiasm for the Michelle Obama/Oprah trip. She was breathless with her own excitement. I believe Obama was winging his way to Copenhagen at the time, and Ann Compton couldn’t contain herself. Gush, gush, gush, squeal, gush, gush, gush. Squeal, squeal.
I believe I was open-mouthed for MINUTES, after listening to that. Ann Compton must be dead today, her heart crushed and shattered by the devastating Olympic loss. After that kind of overwhelming sycophantry, that gushing enthusiasm, nothing other than her demise from disappointment could be possible.
Journalism is dead. The mainstream media is dead. I no longer have even one ounce of hope for its resurgence. It is dead, dead, dead. “Entertainment Tonight”, at its very worst, at the nadir of its worst excesses, couldn’t hold a candle to what Ann Compton did a few nights ago on that radio excerpt. The mainstream media is DEAD.
Someone referred to it as the “Jurassic Media”. Yep!
But the people are not dead.
[...] More than that, whenever Obama has gone somewhere with his cap in hand, he’s been rebuffed. Remember the fanfare surrounding his trip to Copenhagen so that his prestige would sway the International Olympic Committee to award to 2016 Summer Olympics to Chicago? Obama may have gone there with his cap in hand, but he returned here with his tail between his legs, after the IOC gave him a humiliating rebuff by eliminating Chicago in the first round. [...]
[...] but he returned here with his tail between his legs, after the IOC gave him a humiliating rebuff by eliminating Chicago in the first round.Undaunted, Obama returned to Copenhagen to spearhead an incredibly wonderful Climate Change summit [...]