I thought the world loved us now that Obama was President. It turns out that they still hate Bush more? I don't think so.Some Chicago officials say anti-American resentment likely played a role in Chicago's Olympic bid dying in the first round Friday.
President Obama could not undo in one year the resentment against America that President Bush and others built up for years, they said.
"There must be" resentment against America, the Rev. Jesse Jackson said, near the stage where he had hoped to give a victory speech in Daley Center Plaza. "The way we [refused to sign] the Kyoto Treaty, we misled the world into Iraq. The world had a very bad taste in its mouth about us. But there was such a turnaround after last November. The world now feels better about America and about Americans. That's why I thought the president's going was the deal-maker."
Maybe Obama isn't as wonderful as we were led to believe. Maybe the IOC voters resented the fact that he thought his mere presence would influence them. The truth is that it was highly unlikely that another English-speaking country would get the Games following London in 2012. Also, South America has never had an Olympics and Brazil is a rapidly growing country. It seemed like this would be their year. That being said, eliminating Chicago in the first round (before the long shot Tokyo) has to be interpreted as a slap at Obama. A lot of Americans prefer to ignore politics, but they'll notice that Obama went all out for this one and came in last place. That has to hurt.
[Update:] We're still investigating if the International Olympic Committee is racist.
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