Dear Rio: For godsakes, pull yourself together!
Because right now you just look desperate and ugly.
And you may have already lost the Olympic bid because of it.
In fact, it looks like Rio is choking.
First, Brazil's president nearly demanded the 2016 Games because they needed it more than the other bid cities.
"For others it would be just another Olympics, but for Brazil it would be something to raise the self-esteem of the people," President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said. "No other city needs to host an Olympics. Brazil needs it."
Wow, what a crappy country.
Local
That's what I'm thinking if I'm on the IOC.
I sort of want to award the Games to a great country filled with people who don't think so poorly of themselves.
Then the Brazilians tried to play off President Obama's decision to go to Copenhagen as having about as much import - less, really - as sending a Chicago alderman.
"This changes absolutely nothing," insisted Carlos Nuzman, identified by USA Today as the IOC member leading Rio's bid. "This changes nothing."
Carlos, you doth protest too much.
The governor of Rio followed suit and proclaimed that "Honestly, I don't really understand what could change or what could happen."
Then why don't you advise your president to stay home?
Finally, Rio officials whined that an innocuous statement by Mayor Daley violated an ethics rule about criticizing opponents' bids.
And what dastardly thing did Daley say?
When asked whether Rio would be helped by hosting the World Cup in 2014 as a sort of dry run, Daley said "I don't think so . . . That's all soccer stadiums, it's completely different."
And?
And nothing. That's it.
Get it together, Rio.
If you aren't capable of seeing your bid through its last week, you won't be deemed capable of actually making your bid work.
Full Coverage: Chicago's 2016 Olympic bid
Steve Rhodes is the proprietor of The Beachwood Reporter, a Chicago-centric news and culture review.
