Maybe you think President Obama’s administration screwed up that Olympic deal. Maybe it was the Chicago Olympic committee that failed him.
I’ve got how it REALLY might have come down and we must pray, now, for our country.
Plus “cash for clunkers” insight, nineteen pound babies, all the czars you could ever want and the Bad Guys of the Week.
Pic of the Day
So Who Had the Final Say On Sending the President to Copenhagen?
Of course I believe that President Obama has, er, a bit of an ego. It’s pretty much a given that in order to even consider oneself in the position of President of the U.S. one would have to have a mighty sense of self-confidence.
But I look a bit askance at the many assertions by various and sundry who allege President Obama to be a narcissist, that his ego knows no bounds, that indeed his overinflated ego is a danger to the country.
It was this morning, on Fox and Friends, when Dana Perino, Bush’s press secretary, was asked what on earth was the administration thinking when they sent Obama to Copenhagen to risk the prestige and reputation of the American President if the Chicago Olympic locale for 2016 wasn’t a certainty.
Leading up to Obama’s mission to Denmark I too accepted the then conventional and logical wisdom of the pundits that no way would Obama risk going all the way to Denmark, to chance the ire and criticism for leaving the country what with Afghanistan in a mess and the coveted health care bill stumbling, if the Chicago locale was not locked up.
Thus when it was announced early in the day that Chicago was out of the running one could hear the sound of my jaw dropping clear across the state.
Who screwed up, I thought? Who let the President of the United States go to Denmark, to plead for Chicago to host the 2016 Olympic venue, who, who, who…without KNOWING it was in the bag?
Over the weekend I read, again from the various and sundry pundits across the fruited plains, that it was the Chicago Olympic committee who screwed up. No wait, later I’d read or hear, it was Rahm Emmanuel who messed it up. Stop a minute, it went on, David Axelrod, or Valerie Jarrett or even Michelle Obama screwed it up.
All of the guilty, so went the weekend discussions, thought they had it locked up. Poor President Obama is the victim of a bunch of n’er do wells who didn’t do their job.
Dana Perino set me straight just the morning of this writing, 10/5/09. For when Perino was posed with the question of who SHE thought messed up so badly, she didn’t name Axelrod, Emmanuel, or Jarrett. Perino immediately said it was likely the President himself who decided to go to Denmark and suddenly dawn broke like a red ball of truth over my marble head.
OF COURSE!
In fact, for yon reader’s edification, I present a fly-on-the-wall scenario of how it probably went down.
“You know Michelle,” Barack said as his wife bustled about in the west wing, consulting with her staff, approving travel plans, reviewing fashion choices, reading and re-reading prepared speeches. “I’ve been thinking that maybe I should go over to Denmark this week.”
Michelle signed off on yet another invoice for her upcoming trip to Denmark then shot her husband an angry glance. “You’ve got to be kidding me, Barry. Forget it! Don’t even get a notion…” Michelle looked at her husband a bit closer, gave an exasperated sigh, then ran down the hall to get Rahm in here to deal with Barry.
“No way, Bar…no way!” Rahm paced back and forth in the Oval office. He ran his fingers through his wiry hair. “This is a job for the first lady. We’ve got it all arranged. Oprah Winfrey’s going with her. This is NOT something for you to be getting involved with!”
“Barry, look, we’ll set up a live evening TV press conference if Chicago gets the nod. We’ll tell the networks that it’s an address to the American people about Afghanistan. You can talk about that but you’ll have some time to enjoy the Olympic victory, if we get one.” David Axelrod ran his finger through his hair like Emmanuel had just done. It was getting so that these two had perpetually messed hair of late. Axelrod and Emmanuel looked over to Valerie.
“It’s a really bad idea, Barry. I know the Chicago people are telling you that it’s a race down to two cities…Chicago and Rio. But Bar, I think a lot of that assessment is just wishful thinking. If you go over there, and Chicago doesn’t get the nod, you’ll suffer perhaps unreparable harm to your credibility and reputation. The press will ream you a new one. You’ve got health care and what do you think the American public’s going to think about you gallivanting around the globe with Afghanistan in so much trouble…”
“Get McChrystal to meet me in Denmark,” Obama said, cutting off Valerie’s ernest plea in mid-sentence. “That way it will look like I’m working. And even if I don’t win, I’ll congratulate Rio and I’m sure we can spin that Chicago was a narrow loss but we almost pulled it off.”
Rahm and David rolled their eyes to the sky, another action they’d been doing of late. House and Senate Democrats had been burning up the phone lines begging them to get Barry under control, to somehow reign him in, to keep him off the air waves for maybe a day or two. They knew that the senators and representatives would go ballistic over this.
“Get Rachel Maddow to go on Meet the Press,” Obama commanded, walking around, snapping his fingers, issuing orders as he did when he was determined and could not be dissuaded. “Get that Schultz guy on CNN ready,” Obama continued. “If we get Chicago they can celebrate. If not give them some talking points to spin out. Find a way to blame Bush…something about the ill will of the past eight years.”
This time Rahm and David rolled their eyes and ran their fingers through their hair simultaneously. They knew that the “blame Bush” excuse was about to run out. Another thing the party guys in the House and Senate asked them to get Barack to stop doing. Now they were supposed to blame Bush for the loss of a Chicago venue for the 2016 olympics?
President Obama looked out the window of the oval office. A view of the mightiest city in the world panned before him. He had no doubt he could convince the Olympic committee to help him out, to give him a hand, to grant him a bit of glory by giving the 2016 olympic venue to Chicago. As Barack watched Michelle prepare in the lead up, he tried desperately to ignore it all. This was her job, he knew it. But he couldn’t erase the sound of the cheering crowd from his ears. He couldn’t get the vision of the podium, the Danes, the Italians, the Swiss…all nationalities listening to his wonderful speech, the cheers at his careful pauses.
It was an opportunity he couldn’t let pass by. Some day they’ll understand. Some day, as he led this country to glory and greatness, they’ll understand why he had to take control of things, why he had to take risks.
Yes I believe it was President Obama who decided to take that trip. Dana Perino, she’s a political insider. She’s not David Gregory or Chris Matthews or the other blowhards who think they know all about it.
And now I believe that I couldn’t write fiction as scary as the situation this country is now in. For we have a powerful leader whose totally out of control.
Pray. Pray for our country.
And How About This?
I have know idea whose lame-brained idea it was to choreograph innocent little children to sing and recite praises to Obama.
I’m beginning to think it might have been Obama himself. More prayer, folks.
We’ve never had this happen before in the history of our country. Poetry and prose has been written by American presidents, of course, but never WHILE the guy was in office, much less a few months after election.
Children, innocent little children. The president is NOT a king. And they wonder why we got upset over that supposedly “innocent” little speech Obama wanted to give to American school children. Let us not forget that the Department of Education came up with some lamebrain “exercise” that would have had these children writing how they could “help” Obama achieve his goals. Public outrage took that idea off the table but just throwing it out there, who do you suppose might have come up with THAT crazy idea?
No comments:
Post a Comment