Reactions To Obama’s Spectacular Olympic Failure

The consensus on the right appears to be that the Obamas failed because they attempted to make Chicago’s bid for the Olympics all about themselves.

Here’s Karl Rove On Fox, October 2nd, amazed that Obama had made it such “a personal ask”, even referring to his own election eleven months ago:

George Will on ABC, this morning even kept tabs on the number of I’s and me’s in their Olympic speeches.:

Rush, on Friday, right after it happened:

More analysis:

C. Edmund Wright, The American Thinker:

Anyone who has had to succeed in the real business world — and that includes few if any on Team Obama — instinctively knows that to get business done you have to believe in what you are doing and offer a product or service that is focused on the benefits to the customer.  In the Obama World of Chicago pay-to-play power, business gets done by flexing muscle and clearing the field of your competitors.  You don’t have to sell anything. You don’t have to believe in anything.  It is fine to be self-focused.  You simply have to apply the power of the applicable political machinery and you win.

Which could explain why the First Couple was so apparently lost in an attempt to actually have to make a sale to an audience not cowed by Chicago-style clout, inoculated by our own fawning Jurassic media, nor remotely interested in their life stories.  Perhaps that is how and why they botched it so badly.

That is not to say that Chicago was a slam dunk in the first place. I have no way of knowing what their ultimate chances were.  But the embarrassing first round knockout was a definitive rejection of both the Obamas and their approach. Their hearts were in selling the Obama brand, not U-S-A.

Sammy Benoit, The American Thinker:

One of the first things managers taught me when I entered Advertising Sales was you never put down your own product. Whether it was a right decision for him to have attended that meeting or not, the only purpose of him going to the IOC meeting was to be the closer, the heavy hitting Chief Salesman. But the President told the IOC that America’s world image is the pits.  Hell, if your closer doesn’t have confidence in the product, why should the buyer have any confidence?

VDH, The Corner:

4) Obama’s messianic appeal is wearing thin, both at home and abroad. I think that once Sarkozy essentially said to the world, “The emperor has no clothes,” the Obama facade crumbled. And here we are.

Frank Luntz via Robert Costa at the Corner:

“You had both Obamas, telling deeply personal, heartfelt stories to the international community that, in essence, couldn‘t care less,” says Luntz. “It is a direct slap at his personalizing of politics, policy, and in this case, the Olympics.”

“People have grown tired over the Obamafication of life,” concludes Luntz. “President Obama ought to see this as his wake-up call.”

The Danish Press via Gateway Pundit:

“The fact that Barack Obama came, could not do it. I think he lacked emotion, it seemed too empty and business-like. When Tony Blair promoted London he was around three days to lobby and talk to people. You can not just come with the train one day and try to affect everything. People have felt that it was a lack of respect for the Olympics and sport in general. I think people felt it was too business-like to get into the way we have now seen it many times, and you would have feelings back.”

Tim Reid for the UK Times

Mr Obama was greeted — as usual — like a rock star by the IOC delegates in Copenhagen — then humiliated by them. Perception is reality. A narrow defeat for Chicago would have been acceptable — but the sheer scale of the defeat was a bombshell, and is a major blow for Mr Obama at a time when questions are being asked about his style of governance.

Bill Kristol reveled in the irony of the transnational  President jetting off to Copenhagen to “bully” the world into giving him the Olympics:

Mark Steyn on the same theme:

It’s hard for a transnationalist – “the post-American President,” in John Bolton’s words – to lobby effectively for American interests.

The lessons of this apply beyond the Olympics. To put it mildly.

Obama does keep reminding everyone that we’re no better than anyone else;  American exceptionalism is a thing of the past. America coming in last place out of four would seem to confirm that.