COPENHAGEN, Oct. 2 — Before first lady Michelle Obama set off for this Danish capital to lead the charge for Chicago’s valiant — but ultimately unsuccessful — bid for the 2016 Olympics, she joked that the last-minute lobbying effort would be “a battle.” “We’re going to win,” Obama said. “Take no prisoners.”
The world lamented the naked arrogance and aggression of America’s neo-con new president as he flew personally to Europe to force the international Olympic committee to bow to American pressure…
The phrase, “Take no prisoners” was ridiculed across Europe, and abroad, as nakedly cowboyish and typically American – and they did not mean that as a compliment…
Editorialists around the world were particularly enraged by the arrogance of the Mrs. Bush:
At a G-20 dinner in Pittsburgh, she teased Brazil’s first lady, Marisa Leticia da Silva, that when the time came for the last-ditch arguments for the Olympic and Paralympic Games coming to Chicago — over competitors Rio de Janeiro, Tokyo and Madrid — the “gloves are off.”
The fact that the world community rebuked President Bush’s naked neo-colonialism with a humiliating rejection of the US bid to gain the Olympics was not lost on the world’s news media – including in the United States. CNN, MSNBC, the NY Times, Washington Post, and all major media outlets reported that the slap in the face to Bush was a major set back to his already deteriorated global image:
The final death-match competition for the 2016 Olympics came down to emotional one-upmanship. Who could share the most moving story? Which country could strike at the core of the Olympic ideal about one big, happy world in friendly and uplifting sportsmanship? The first lady did not bring home a victory, but she was her team’s most valuable player.
“I had the privilege of being with Mrs. Obama for a day and a half and she was incredibly effective,” says USOC International Vice President Bob Ctvrtlik, a former Olympian. “She was truly elegant, articulate and persuasive. The emotions I saw in those meetings were not conjured up.”
“I found Michelle Obama brilliant. She was emotional, her story really hit home — the openness about her father and the strength of the Paralympic Games,” said Erwin Roth, who has been involved with the Olympics since Lake Placid in 1980 and has written a history of the Games.
The liberal world media was particularly upset with how the Bushes talked exclusively about their personal lives as a means to sell America’s “claim” to host the Olympic games. They said it showed just how egotistical and arrogant were the First Couple’s sense of entitlement…
He, too, made his pitch personal, talking about the aspects of Chicago that attracted him more than 25 years ago — the city’s diverse cultures, the Midwestern welcoming spirit. But the first lady launched the most powerful emotional strikes.
— I gave up on this crap after this…
The president of the US, during a time of economic crisis — and in the face of news direct from military leaders that we are losing the Afghan War — goes directly to pressure the Olympic cmte to give Chicago the Olympics —- fails to win —– and is still described as if butter wouldn’t melt in his or his wife’s mouth…
The media sucks…
