Obama may have never changed a single mind because of factors having nothing to do with him.

<snip>
The president talked about Chicago and himself as examples of American diversity, he chatted up I.O.C. members, and maybe he never changed a single mind because of factors having nothing to do with him.

Some members of the I.O.C. are still smarting over the scandal at the turn of the century when officials in Salt Lake City were discovered buying off I.O.C. members. Some members still miss the shopping trips for their wives and jobs for their sons, and have not forgotten the anger of Senator John McCain at one Senate hearing in April 1999 and of representatives at a Congressional hearing in December 1999.

Those long memories did not help New York’s clumsy candidacy for the 2012 Games, and may have hurt the vastly superior plan by Chicago this time around. The U.S.O.C., which has become as remote as North Korea, may have doomed Chicago’s bid by trying to create an Olympic television network.
<snip>
I am possibly the least political person in this country and certainly the least political person in this town, so if there were implications for the Obama administration in this, I wouldn't be the first to notice. But to call this a referendum on the Obama presidency is like saying Miley Cyrus is a better actress than, say, Meryl Streep because the Kids' Choice Awards say so. You've got to remember the voting body here is morally and ethically questionable (and I don't mean Nickelodeon).

So perhaps it's time for the United States to step out of the running for a few years and mend some fences (or hope some of these crusty members of the International Olympic Committee call it quits), because it appears the IOC is beyond angry at the U.S. Olympic Committee.

For the past two years, the USOC has been fighting with the IOC over how to divide the revenue generated by Olympic television deals. How contentious is that issue? IOC members have called the U.S. portion of the money an "immoral" amount. And who would be a better judge of immoral amounts of money than an IOC member?

Talks on the topic have been tabled since March, and perhaps the ill will would have died but for the USOC's ill-advised announcement this summer that it would create an Olympic TV network with Comcast. The IOC went so ballistic that the deal was scrapped. "We recognized the error and hopefully have righted that," said Stephanie Streeter, the USOC's interim chief executive.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/02/AR2009100203743.html?sid=ST2009100204362

Convoluted voting process may have doomed Chicago bid
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/brian_cazeneuve/10/02/rio.2016.day.after/index.html#ixzz0SrNMl8Kx

The IOC is a small political world with byzantine politics. They actually make maneuvers in Congress look amateurish.
I think this was much more about the IOC vs the USOC than Obama.

People in the US who are nattering about what a stunning political defeat this is are talking out of their asses. They don't know the first thing about Olympic politics.

The vote wasn't close. People were maneuvering long before Obama got there, and his presentation was a "Hail Mary". He probably didn't have a chance in hell of changing the outcome. The USOC needs to be revamped from top to bottom.

The defeat seems stunning because there were unrealistic raised expectations. Nobody knew how to count the possible votes in this one. The IOC was a different league.

nt

They also better hope that the USOC gets its act together.

The IOC Olympic voting process also needs to be revamped.

Here is Nate Silver's article about the vote: Disband the IOC! http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/

all the various considerations into play before he jumped in. maybe he did and still thought he could pull it off. I don't know.If nothing else, as soon as most folks learned Rio was in the mix, most of them thought it was over because SA hasn't ever hosted the Olympics. Honestly, I thought we looked silly. We have hosted the Olympics many times already.I don't fault him for trying but it was a wasted effort that was obviously doomed from the start.

knew anything about all the potential factors at play. It wasn't just a caucus as Jarrett stated. People who looked at the Chicago presentation and choice said that they made an excellent case.

However, I think too many things doomed their bid. Rio was a sentimental favorite, and why wouldn't someone vote to hold the Olympics in SA. It's amazing that they have never been held there before.

Olympics.Perhaps they felt it worth the gamble.