As many of you may already know, President Obama made the mission for Chicago to sponsor the 2016 Olympics a personal quest. His doing so resulted in a major defeat. Chicago was tossed out in the first round of voting with only 18 of the 94 delegates voting for Chicago. This, in a small way, opened his shortcomings up to criticism, and with no one to blame but himself. The quest to hold the games in Chicago should have never reached the President’s schedule especially with so many more pressing issues at hand.
Some are outraged by the $900,000 it cost taxpayers to fly the President to Copenhagen just to sell Chicago to the Olympic Committee. While others are upset and think that President Obama could not pass up a chance to demean America during his sales pitch. He said, “I think that over the last several years sometimes that, that fundamental truth about the United States has been lost. One of the legacies I think of this Olympic games in Chicago would be a restoration of that understanding of what the United States is all about and the United State’s recognition of how we are linked to the world.”
There were many reasons for the Olympic committee to choose a city other than Chicago. Rio budgeted $14 billion for the games, which is 3 times what Chicago had offered. They had 30,000 people supporting their city, that is 3 times Chicago’s numbers, and the Games had never been held in South America. Those alone would have allowed many to recognize why Rio was a better choice. However, even with those blatantly obvious reasons listed, Illinois Senator Ronald Burris didn’t see it that way. He wasted no time blaming no other than the Bush Administration for Chicago and President Obama’s inability to secure the 2016 Olympic games.
Apparently former President Jimmy Carter has been subjected to much criticism since his comments about those opposing President Obama being racist. In defense of his comments, he said, “If you read the remarks carefully you’ll see that’s not what I said. I said those that had a personal attack on president Obama as a person, that was tinged with racism, but I recognize that people who disagree with him on health care or the environment, that the vast majority of those are not tinged by racism.” Our Former President has an interesting way of backpedaling, but what he really said that day is this. “I think an overwhelming porting of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man, that he is African-American”
I am finding myself opposed to many of the current policies being discussed during this administration, whether it is from Congress or the President himself. To insinuate that my motivation for doing so is based on the color of Our President’s skin would be grossly inaccurate. I hope after his recent criticisms our former President will begin to choose his words more carefully.