Chicago Loses Olympic Bid: The International Community Expects REAL Change And More Than Hope From Obama

Even if part of the reason Obama went to Copenhagen was to meet with Gen. Stanley McChrystal to discuss Afghanistan, Chicago's rejection as the site of the 2016 Olympics was a stunning blow-- an international virtual slap in the face-- to the American president. Chicago was eliminated in the first round and Tokyo was eliminated in the second and Rio was the eventual landslide winner over Madrid. Although normal Americans are sorry Chicago's bid was rejected, the teabagging kooks like Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Michelle Malkin, Sean Hannity and Michael Savage are crowing and celebrating, eager to chip away at Obama's image.

Ironically, the primary reason for the defeat was Obama's refusal to move rapidly enough to dismantle onerous Bush-Cheney policies that have put America in such a negative light in the eyes of the entire international community. Michael Froomkin put the rebuke in context by pointing out the Bush era policies that have made it such an unpleasant task for foreigners to get U.S. visas and enter the country:

In the official question-and-answer session following the Chicago presentation, Syed Shahid Ali, an I.O.C. member from Pakistan, asked the toughest question. He wondered how smooth it would be for foreigners to enter the United States for the Games because doing so can sometimes, he said, be “a rather harrowing experience.”

This is the same stupid anti-visitor policy that is destroying American higher education by driving graduate students to UK and other universities. Here at UM, for example, we have had great trouble getting visas for some great students who want to take our LL.M for foreign students-- including one who had a US government scholarship!

Maybe some good can come from this stunning defeat for Obama's personal diplomacy: bring back the pre-9/11 visa rules that made this country a magnet for tourists, investors, and the world's best and the brightest.

And, as Arthur Frommer pointed out, when discussing why he wasn't recommending tourists go to Arizona, many foreigners are frightened of American gun nuts, racism, homophobia and domestic right-wing terrorism.




UPDATE: GOP Crackup Over Olympics

Ashamed by so many radical right nincompoops jumping up and down celebrating Chicago's failure-- and Obama's failure-- to win the '16 Olympics bid, some conservatives are trying to separate themselves from the pack of ravenous and treacherous anti-American hyenas like Malkin, Dobbs, O'Reilly and Hannity. Some of the rightists even attacked Mitt Romney for working for Olympic success. These people all hate America and all want America to fail. They are America's sworn enemies:



Unlike most of them, former Republican congressman/current Republican media shill Joe Scarborough is savvy enough to not get caught wishing the country ill. He penned a column thanking the president for his try-- and, in effect, asking people to note that he isn't an extremist America-hater like Michelle Malkin or Rush Limbaugh.

Count me as one conservative who is disappointed that President Obama's hometown will not be hosting the 2016 Olympic Games.

Chicago is a beautiful city that would have made a perfect backdrop for the Olympics. The President was right to fly to Copenhagen to try to land the games, not for the sake of his city, but for the good of his country. The fact President Obama failed makes me respect him more for taking the chance, and the fact many right-wing figures opposed the President's mission shows just how narrow-minded partisanship makes us all.

For the better part of 20 years, a bitterness has infected our politics that has weakened our country.

We Republicans spent eight years trying to delegitimize Bill Clinton.