Chicago denied Olympics bid

The news has broken, hard and fast: Chicago will not be hosting the 2016 Olympics:

Chicago has been eliminated from Olympic balloting in the early rounds of voting by the International Olympic Committee, a stunningly swift defeat for the U.S. bid personally pitched by President Barack Obama.

Balloting continues in Copenhagen, where Rio de Janeiro, Tokyo and Madrid were also seeking approval to host the 2016 Summer Games.

via Early exit stuns Chicago — chicagotribune.com.

I expect some political silly season now, some backers of President Obama saying that the publicizing of the story of the beating to death of Derrion Albert by the Drudge Report and other anti-Obama media will be the reason Chicago lost its bid.

But I doubt it had anything to do with Chicago losing its bid. Remember when everyone said New York was a shoe-in for 2012 because it would be a way for the world to show its support for the post-9/11 rebirth of the city (which never really died so why the need for a rebirth….). The IOC had its own ideas, and that’s why it went to London.

Still, what a colossal waste of our President’s energies and focus. I can has health care reform now please?

My money is on Rio – it’s time for an Olympics in the Global South. We’ll see if IOC bureacrats feel the same way.

Addendum: Two additional thoughts -

First, there *is* a political upside to this. Obama can’t in any way now fall into the sinkhole of the Chicago Way during what I believe will be his next 7 years in office (I’m a 2012 optimist for our current president). He’ll take a hit on the chin now, but it’s better than the untreated concussion down the road that he’d discover he had if he stayed in this fight.

Second, I don’t know maybe instead of the Olympics for 2016 we can concentrate on some other athletics benchmarks: keeping Wrigley Field the best baseball stadium in the world; winning a World Series for the Cubs; bringing another Super Bowl (and an offensive line/running game) to the Bears; restoring the Chicago Bulls to the dominant national basketball franchise they once were. Mayor Daley, make that your legacy, and I’ll remember you fondly in spite of any of your other transgressions.