Did Obama Orchestrate Olympic Momentum?
The Chicago bid team knows all too well that the Olympic bids come down to Madrid, Tokyo, Rio and Obama
By ANDREW GREINER
Updated 4:30 PM CST, Thu, Sep 24, 2009
If the presidential race didn’t convince you that Barack Obama and his Chicago associates know how to run a successful campaign, take a peek at the current Olympic bid.
The president’s heel dragging and the will-he, won’t-he melodrama that’s been swirling over the last month about potential visit to Copenhagen smacks of a well-orchestrated PR push. Don’t think for a second that the president wasn’t going: the “surprise” announcement has probably been planned for months.
"As we've been counseled by almost every (IOC) member we meet with, work until the last hour of the last minute because you just never know," Chicago’s Bob Ctvrtlik said. "The final presentation is very important on those swing votes. That's where we'll try to make our final presentation much more emotional, as opposed to technical.
Most of the reports emanating from bid prognosticators have said that Rio, “the emotional favorite,” has the momentum. Gamesbid.com even has the Brazilian megalopolis leading Chicago by nearly 2 percentage points as a favorite.
But the International Olympic Committee will throw all that emotional baggage out the window if they get a chance to fawn over the most popular man in the world.
As a matter of fact, ever since the president began dipping his toe in the Copenhagen water, no one seems to be talking about Rio.
The Chicago bid team knows all too well that the Olympic bids come down to Madrid, Tokyo, Rio and Obama and they’re using their media savvy president for all he’s worth.
First Published: Sep 24, 2009 4:09 PM CST
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