Rio in 2016 - What Happened?

Perhaps more shocking than Chicago not winning the 2016 Olympics is the fact it lost in the first round of voting, behind even Tokyo, which was not given a serious chance. Rio might have been the front-runner all along, especially after the IOC report of Chicago's preparedness to host the games came back ugly.

Still, the 3 most important people in America, and therefore the world, Oprah Winfrey, and Michelle and Barack Obama, all went to Copenhagen to pitch the games. Failure should have been impossible.

I mentioned in a blog a month ago about Bama's popularity overseas, specifically in Europe. He's far more popular there than here, and yet he failed to woo the IOC voters.

In fact, it appears he managed to turn a tight contest between Chicago and Rio into a last place finish behind Tokyo, considered a non-factor in the results.

Is it possible the Obama's managed to turn people off? If you read Michelle's comments from yesterday, you could certainly cross that bridge. "It's a sacrifice," she said of her time committed to elegant parties and schmoozing foreign dignitaries. Uh-huh, she's that self-important.

And Bama's ego is only slightly smaller than the sum total of everything else in the entire universe. How could the congenial world body stand to listen to the smug SOB? Especially after that ridiculous speech he gave last week at the United Nations where he basically told the world, I saved America, but the rest of you poor bastards are on your own. And then he flew in just for the day, and all the pundits were convinced that just his presence would be enough to land the games for the USA. Could it be the committee thought his manuever one of supreme arrogance, that one man is so important that voters would throw out all the work put in by other nations just at the sight of him?

That's Bara's MO, of course. He is the chosen one, after all, he shouldn't have to work for it, it should just magically happen when he thinks of it. Just like everything else he's thought about doing this year and not done any real work to accomplish except to blame others for his failures.

I can't really blame the committee for voting as they did - Rio deserved it. Also, Chicago may have dodged a bullet; Olympic games are notoriously over-budget and never come close to breaking even, and it's not like the residents of the city would be thrilled about having it torn up for the next 6 years. The IOC probably saved U.S. taxpayers from the inevitable Chicago Olympic Games Federal Bailout.

Personally, I'm disappointed. I live in Wisconsin and would have liked to have gone to some of the events. Thanks for nothing, Barack. Your jackassedness has screwed America again.