The noble “sacrifice” of Michelle Obama; Update: Chicago & Tokyo eliminated; Games over, prepare for recriminations; It’s Rio
Scroll for updates…And the winner is…Rio

(Photoshop: Reader Ben)
My column commemorates the noble Olympic “sacrifice” of the First Lady in Denmark.
Mrs. O’s emotional pitch was supposed to bring tears to the eyes of the audience, according to crony White House Olympics cheerleader Valerie Jarrett. Chicagoans are no doubt shedding tears — over the ballooning costs of a potential win.
Allahpundit has the lowdown on the president’s schlocky pitch.
Update: 11:34am Eastern. Chicago and Tokyo eliminated. No Obamalympics.
Hey, can we close the White House Olympic Czar’s office now?
Oh, well: “Chicago counts on Obama oratory to seal 2016 Games.”
Goodbye, “Yes We Can.” Hello, “No, You Can’t.” Like Icarus, President Obama’s giddy ego flight has ended with melted wax and fallen wings.
This is a big win and a massive relief for taxpayers. But Chicago cronies are not going to take this well. Gird your loins.
Who will be first to cry RAAAAAACIST? Well, it will be a little awkward to play the race card after liberal critics of the Games filed a civil rights complaint against the Chicago 2016 committee for racial discrimination yesterday. But count on the Team Obama grievance-mongers to play it anyway.
Update 12:08pm Eastern: Video – CNN anchor sputters, “CHICAGO IS OUT? CHICAGO IS OUT?”
Update 12:23pm Eastern: Chicago crony White House adviser David Axelrod just now on Fox: “Life goes on.” Axelrod complaining about “relationships and politics that were formidable. And we couldn’t overcome that.”
On Twitter, Tony Gall sums it up: “Chicago cronies out-cronied by IOC cronies.”
Beaten by their own game.
Update 12:52pm Eastern. Congratulations, Rio: Inevitable cost overruns, massive sports palaces & graft galore are all yours!
***
The noble “sacrifice” of Michelle Obama
by Michelle Malkin
Creators Syndicate
Copyright 2009
It’s hard out there for a First Lady of the United States. Take it from travel-weary Michelle Obama. On Tuesday night, she boarded a luxury 757 for Copenhagen. Think of the stairs she had to climb. Oh, the agony of the feet!
Upon arrival, Mrs. O, her “chit-chat buddy,” Chicago-based talk show queen Oprah Winfrey, and Chicago power-broker/interest-conflicted real estate mogul/senior White House adviser Valerie Jarrett immediately embarked on a grueling, grip-and-grin campaign to secure the Olympics for their hometown. Our smile muscles ache in sympathy.
You will be comforted to know that gracious FLOTUS feels your pain for her pain. “As much of a sacrifice as people say this is for me or Oprah or the president to come for these few days,” the First Lady told a group of fellow Chicago 2016 boosters, “so many of you in this room have been working for years to bring this bid home.” Translation: Thank me, thank you, for all we do.
Never has self-congratulatory gratitude been raised to such an art form, but there was no time for loyal subjects to dwell. The selflessly indefatigable Michelle Obama had to rush off for an 800-meter wine-and-cheese dash with International Olympic Committee members, followed by a rigorous aerobic Heads of State luncheon hosted by Queen Margrethe II of Denmark and another high-heeled trek to the IOC Opening Ceremony at the Copenhagen Opera House.
Of course, it’s not entirely clear which “people” out there are saying that the Obamas’ jaunt to Denmark is a “sacrifice.”
Certainly not the families of 43 American soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines who have died in Afghanistan since General Stanley McChrystal called for more reinforcements.
Certainly not the families of nearly 40 children and teens in Chicago who lost their lives on the out-of-control streets of the Windy City so far this year.
The First Lady’s slip of self-absorption reminds me of a useful passage in Washington Post writer Liza Mundy’s biography of Mrs. Obama. After graduating from Princeton University and Harvard Law School, the bitterly oppressed Michelle Obama headed back to her native Chicago to join the high-powered law firm of Sidley Austin—the fifth-largest in the world. There, Mundy’s book reported, the future first Lady griped about having to do the duties of a second-year associate while she was a second-year associate—demonstrating the trademark attitude of entitlement and inflated ego that led the law partner who recruited her to later describe her as “perennially dissatisfied.”
Doing her first job was a burden then. Enjoying the perks of her current job are “sacrifice” now.
Mrs. Obama has a gift for selling special-interest business as usual as public-interest charity. Thus, the insatiable appetite of the Chicago polite elite for a massive Olympics windfall to crony developers is redefined as a do-good campaign For the Children. Said Mrs. Obama:
“We need all of our children to be exposed to the Olympic ideals that athletes from around the world represent, particularly this time in our nation’s history, where athletics is becoming more of a fleeting opportunity…When we’re seeing rates of childhood obesity increase, it is so important for us to raise up the platform of fitness and competition and fair play; to teach kids to cheer on the victors and empathize with those in defeat, but most importantly, to recognize that all the hard work that is required to do something special.”
“Hard work,” you know, like jetting off with your gal pals to schmooze other world leaders, famous athletes, and celebrities for a few days on taxpayers’ dime.
In the Olympics of the aggrieved, Mrs. Obama gets a gold medal.
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Trackbacks
- Breaking: Chicago Eliminated From 2016 Olympics | Right Wing News
- ‘Okie’ on the Lam » Blog Archive » The Obamas’ & Oprah’s Efforts Notwithstanding — Chicago Olympic Bid Out In First Round Of Voting!
- Barack Obama: Begging Mission Fails « The Liberty Boys
- Game OVAH! POTUS + FLOTUS + Oprah = NO « Mcnorman’s Weblog
- The Greenroom » Forum Archive » The First Lady’s First Full Measure of Devotion (UPDATE: All for Naught!)
- JammieWearingFool
- The Snooper Report
- Political Animal
- Northern Thoughts And Reflections
- DRUDGE: The EGO has landed « Sharp Right Turn
- Riehl World View
- UrbanGrounds | The Obamas Lose Olympic Bid
- Guardian Angels, October, and Hubris « Temple of Mut
- blogs4God
- blogs4God
- Chicago Loses, Conservative Celebrate | GSA Schedule Services
- Obama Fails on Olympics, Libs Blame it On Bush | The Lonely Conservative
- Conservative Media Giddy Over Loss Of Olympic Bid « The Fifth Column
- The Angry White Guy » Blog Archive » The Ego has Landed
- PAXALLES
- shyspeak.net
- The Obama White House Blogs About Glenn Beck « Goodtimepolitics
- Jules Crittenden » Going For The Gold!
- Daily Pundit » The Empress Has Ugly Clothes
- Tel-Chai Nation
- Presidential Loss Of Olympic Proportion and of Rowan Martin – Moses, Take a Memo « VotingFemale Friends Speak!
- Tel-Chai Nation
- News And Views 10-03-09 | The Freedom Medium
- Olympic Bid Dud : NO QUARTER
- If It Looks like a Snake; Acts Like a Snake It Must Be James Carville! « VotingFemale Friends Speak!
- The cost of the Obamalympic$ folly « Thoughts Of A Conservative Christian
- Liberals don’t make sacrifices « Right Minded Online
- blogwhoring 10-05-09 - rightofcourse.com
- Bozell Column: Obama’s Olympic Arrogance | linkthe.com
- Michelle Malkin » Stanford alumni blow the whistle on Valerie Jarrett
- Rooting Against America Conservative’s Celebrate Elimination
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How wonderful to have a State run Media. The people who live on Faith, Feelings and Hope have lost the ability to reason, if it was ever there to loose. These people have a great need for the Master to tell them everything is alright, and so evade the effort of thinking. The PROBLEM though is that we the people who use reason will not agree on everything, but we MUST agree that we cannot put our lives, our children’s future in the hands of those who follow blindly masters they do not understand.
One possible factor I haven’t heard before is discussed in a thread over on Slashdot. It questions if a factor in not letting the Olympics into the US is the unfavorable terms the US bureaucrats treat visitors trying to enter our country with the erratic visa process and unfriendly customs procedures/people.
I also wonder whether ongoing and recent news (Blago, corruption, violence and most recently a gang beating a 16 year old honor student to death) played a role. Chicago is not exactly a shining light of American cities, or what one would think of as the olympian ideal.
Actually, Rio is sexy while Chicago has never been the same since the repeal of Prohibition.
Anyone seen Van Jones lately?
The Chicago Sun-Times and New York Times are absolutely hysterical over Chicago losing the games. George Bush’s fault of course. A street light burned out on third street–George Bush’s fault of course.
North America has had repeated games–from Mexico City to Montreal to Atlanta to LA twice, South America never. But that will not stop the Chicago Sun-Times and New York Times from becoming hysterical–I guess they enjoy being hysterical.
These people may THINK they are are the center of the universe-obviously not everyone else agrees. Blame it on Rio or George Bush–that will make them feel better–if Liberals can ever actually be happy.