Buffalo Boy's Blog

Can the right wing please give this president one bit of credit for anything? Now its the fact that he is going to Copenhagen to speak to the IOC (International Olympic Committee) about the Chicago bid for the 2016 Summer Games.

I say great, go for it. How many other US cities have a bid in for 2016? If you guessed zero you are absolutely right. So whats the big deal. It just so happens that many on the committee supported Barack Obama in his run to the presidency and he is helping them in their last push to bring the summer games to US soil. He is not favoring Chicago over any other city in the US because of this speech, if New York City or LA or Dallas or some other big city had been on the list then I would say okay, you can't do this but no other US city is so it would only be right for him to go to bat for a city that just happens to be his hometown

Then there are those who say that he will be partly responsible for any incurred debt that the taxpayers of Illinois and Chicago have to pick up due to any excessive expenditures.....if they are afraid of that why are they bidding for it in the first place? Obama will be four years out of office by then and will have nothing to do with it politically other than being a fan of the Olympic games at that point. Im sure the committee bidding on them knows where their expenses are coming from and will keep them in line with the money they raise.

The Olympics is bigger than money, its the grandest stage in all of sports including the NFL and all the major professional sports leagues. It attracts international attention like no other event in the world so why shouldn't Barack Obama be there on behalf of Chicago? I would be more upset if he declined.

Those who fault him fault him because he is the first US President to speak on behalf of a bidding US City, well he may be the first one who comes from the city that is bidding. Ill guarantee you if it was George W. Bush's hometown he would be there, if it was for Little Rock, Arkansas Bill Clinton would be there. So how would we know unless this set of circumstances presented themselves before?

Get off his back, hes doing right by not only Chicago but the heartland of our country which by the way, due to the global recession has lost a ton of jobs thanks in part to the faulty handling of the economy by the Bush administration, they could use the financial and tourism shot in the arm this will give them.