Lester Munson at ESPN has a long and interesting look at what Obama’s election means for baseball and the world of sports in general, including his likely strong support for the 2016 Olympics in Chicago:
Japanese Olympic officials already have expressed their concern that Obama could turn the tide in favor of Chicago when the IOC votes in October.
“Mr. Obama is popular and good at speeches, so things could get tough for Japan,” said Tomiaki Fukuda, a senior Japanese Olympic Committee board member.
If Sen. John McCain had won the election, the U.S. bid to play host to the 2016 Olympics might have been negatively affected. Many IOC members remember McCain’s scathing investigation of the bribery scandal involving IOC members who helped award the 2002 Winter Olympics to Salt Lake City. Two members of the Salt Lake City bid committee were indicted, and McCain’s investigation led to major changes in the IOC and the U.S. Olympic Committee. Many IOC members remain bitter over McCain’s aggressive efforts for reform.
An Olympics in his home city of Chicago in the late summer of 2016 would be a grand finale for an Obama presidency that would be about to wind down if he were re-elected to a second term.
(OK, I didn’t have to include that paragraph about McCain, give me more than a day on that reflex…the irony is that the bribery investigation led to Mitt Romney taking over the Salt Lake City Games, which led to Romney’s political rise – talk about your chains of unforeseen consequences).
Luckily, everything in Chicago is done on the up-and-up, so you don’t have to worry like you did with those crooked Mormons…
Yeah, those fine Mormons who invaded California from Utah to pay for a proposition that was none of their business.
Daryl, can you point me to where the $38 million spent to oppose Prop 8 was funded entirely by Californians?
I’m guessing you strongly disapprove of these guys, then.
Daryl:
It’s even worse than you think. A rather significant number of those Mormons actually live in California. Horrible, I know.
I suppose you also think that all of the out of state groups that donated to Darcy Burner’s campaign should have kept their noses out of my congressional district’s business, as well?
Since when did giving good speeches make this country what it is? It takes more than a good speech to do what’s right, and take us in a different direction. I guess the elitist illuminati don’t need to know policies, just how to form words.