Baldy wrote:Excuse me if i find it funny that after all that travel and expense to send Obama and his wife on separate trips to Copenhagen only to have Chicago get eliminated in the first round. Now that it is over, could it possibly be that Obama actually hurt Chicago's chances?

I guess I just don't see the humor in all of this. I don't think Obama's appearance in Denmark helped but it likely didn't hurt either. I'd wager that Rio's bid was already in the bag and the IOC, having an opportunity to humilate the United States on a world stage, decided to do so. And then to see so many folks over here reveling in the defeat? Yeah, I don't get it..
What was he supposed to do, not go? Blair did it for London's 2012 bid. The leaders of Brazil, Japan and Spain were in attendance this year. It's a damned if you do damned if you don't proposition. If he didn't go and Chicago lost then the same talking heads would blame him. Regardless, the guy is never going to win with the crowd who is hoping to see him fail to begin with.
Thank You, Mr. President
Joe Scarborough
Count me as one conservative who is disappointed that President Obama's hometown will not be hosting the 2012 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.
Democrats spent the next eight years doing the same to George W. Bush.
Now that a Democrat is in the Oval Office again, it is the GOP who is trying to delegitimize a sitting president.
When I try to talk to Republicans about the need to break this cycle of viciousness, some cite the chapter and verse of every hateful left wing attack against George W. Bush.
Whenever I attempt to have a conversation with some Democrats about the need for us respect our president-- whether he be an Obama or a Bush-- I am told that Bush deserved whatever he got because he was a lying war criminal who hated the Constitution and loved torturing
people.
Fortunately, there are a growing number of Americans who believe we cannot continue going on this way.