Tomorrow marks a monumental day in American history, with Barack Obama being sworn in as the first African-American President of the United States. Along with that comes the inevitable specualtion as to his influence (or lack of it) on Chicago's bid.
I will go out on a limb and say what no other Olympic writer dares to do: the bid is dead as a doornail and any so-called "influence" is just that-perceived. Frankly, Barack has a lot more important things to fix. The economy for one. In the grand scheme of things, the Olympic bid in reality should be low on his list of priorities. Sure, he's from Chicago. It didn't take long for the lemmings to jump on the bandwagon and assume that since he is from that area, he automatically supports the bid.
Barack has said that restoring America's standing in the world is one of his main priorities. It's going to take years to undo the damage of the Bush administration. In fact, his influence could possibly do more harm than good. Chicago needs all the friends it can get. Especially in the media, since they seemed to have done well at one thing: alienating those influential people who can make or break your bid or royally ticking off those folks who are six-degrees-of-separation from the major players that will ultimately make that final decision.
It will be a very interesting time in Copenhagen. Nothing is ever certain in the Olympic world. Assuming you have it in the bag is a dangerous path to walk down. And at the end of that path may be some very rough and tough questioning from those same media members you pissed off earlier in your bid.
Change is coming. Possibly from some of the IOC voting members who think another bid has more to offer-as well as more cooperation from all sectors of the sport world.
A slice of humble pie-please.
