Thread: Obama to Make In-Person Pitch in Denmark for 2016 Olympics

Obama to make in-person pitch for 2016 Olympics

Sep 28, 9:22 AM (ET)
By JULIE PACE

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama will travel to Denmark to support Chicago's bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics, projecting the highest-ever White House profile in lobbying for the international event.

Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to the president, told The Associated Press Monday morning that Obama will leave Thursday and join his wife, Michelle, in Copenhagen, where they'll make the pitch to the International Olympic Committee. Obama would be the first U.S. president to actually appeal in person to the International Olympic Committee for an Olympics event.

The International Olympic Committee is meeting in Copenhagen to select a host city for the 2016 Summer Games. Chicago faces tough competition from Rio de Janeiro, Madrid and Tokyo.

The White House later formally announced the trip, saying that Obama and his wife "will both make presentations to the IOC during Friday's session. They will discuss why Chicago is best to host the 2016 Summer Games, and how the United States is eager to bring the world together to celebrate the ideals of the Olympic movement." The IOC is scheduled to decide the site on Friday.

While in Denmark, the statement said, Obama and his wife also will meet with Queen Margrethe and the president will meet with Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen of Denmark.

Obama, who represented Illinois in the U.S. Senate after serving in the Illinois Legislature, is a longtime supporter of Chicago's bid. Michelle Obama is a native of the city and he considers it his adopted home town. Obama recently sent letters to selected IOC members promising a "spectacular Olympic experience for one and all."

"President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama symbolize the hope, opportunity and inspiration that makes Chicago great, and we are honored to have two of our city's most accomplished residents leading our delegation in Copenhagen," Mayor Richard M. Daley said in a statement. "Who better to share with members of the International Olympic Committee the commitment and enthusiasm Chicago has for the Olympic and Paralympic Movement than the President and First Lady."

The president had held off on announcing a trip to Copenhagen, saying his first priority was the ongoing debate in Washington over health care reform. But aides said the president determined that his trip wouldn't take away from that process. The legislation is a signature piece of his domestic policy agenda and negotiations on Capitol Hill have been contentious.

But with heads of state representing Rio and Madrid already scheduled to attend the IOC meeting Friday, Chicago's bid organizers had hoped Obama would make an in-person appeal.

"I don't think there's an IOC member on the planet that wouldn't love to meet your president. He's a transformational figure in the world today," longtime IOC member Dick Pound said recently.

Obama is also mobilizing his administration on behalf of Chicago's bid. Senior adviser Jarrett, Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, will also be joining the president and first lady in Copenhagen. All are from Illinois.

They join a Chicago contingent already packed with more star power than a Hollywood red carpet. The first lady is one of the few people who rivals her husband in visibility, and she'll be joined by talk show host Oprah Winfrey, who trails only Angelina Jolie on Forbes' annual Celebrity 100 list, a ranking of the rich and famous' most powerful.

Chicago is also bringing 14 Olympic and two Paralympic gold medalists, including Michael Johnson, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Nadia Comaneci and Nastia Liukin.

Associated Press Writer Nancy Armour contributed to this report.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/art ... wD9B0BH1G1

Related article

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-172644.html

Chicago is also bringing 14 Olympic and two Paralympic gold medalists, including Michael Johnson, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Nadia Comaneci and Nastia Liukin.
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Funny but i dont recall any of these people living in the chicago area.
i think RIO needs to get them

Doesn't he have more important matters to attend to?? Obama is pretty much useless.

Chicagoans: Obama's Wasting Time on Olympics

Monday, September 28, 2009 3:34 PM

CHICAGO - President Barack Obama's decision to personally lobby for Chicago to host the 2016 Summer Olympics was greeted with hope and skepticism on Monday, with some in his hometown wondering if he didn't have better things to do.

The trip to Copenhagen, announced on Monday, will make Obama the first sitting U.S. president to attend an Olympic session. Some Chicagoans were as divided about him as they were about whether winning the games would be a lucrative jobs program or a huge construction headache.

"I think we have more pressing problems to deal with than the Olympics in 2016," said Brad Stotlar, 37, an unemployed construction worker in a Chicago suburb.

"The last time I looked we had double-digit unemployment in Illinois and I'd rather Obama dealt with that than jetting off to Copenhagen," he said.

Others wondered what took Obama so long to decide to go.

Until Monday, first lady Michelle Obama had been officially slated to travel, with Obama's aides keeping everyone guessing on his plans. Leaders from Spain, Japan and Brazil -- touting bid rivals Madrid, Tokyo and Rio de Janeiro -- will be there for the International Olympic Committee (IOC)'s choice on Friday.

"He's been supporting the Olympics; why not do what other world leaders have done and try to bring it home?" said Eliot Moskow, 39, a payroll manager out walking his dog near Lake Michigan.

"The Olympics will bring some worldly attention to Chicago, and I'm hoping that in the end it boosts Chicago's economy a little bit," Moskow said.

Obama, a Democrat, took office in January and has seen his early high public approval ratings dip as he grapples with the recession and a domestic agenda that includes trying to push through reform of the healthcare system, as well as wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

NICE, BUT WHO PAYS?

Pleased and likely relieved that Obama decided to go, Chicago bid leaders Mayor Richard Daley and insurance executive Patrick Ryan issued statements from Copenhagen.

"There is no greater expression of the support our bid enjoys, from the highest levels of government and throughout our country, than to have President Obama join us in Copenhagen for the pinnacle moment in our bid," Ryan said.

Atlanta was the last U.S. city to host the Summer Games, in 1996. The contest between the four rival cities this year has been seen as very close, with no clear front-runner.

There was concern among Chicagoans about the cost of building sports venues and the athletes' village if the city does win the bid, and worries that taxpayers would be on the hook if the games failed.

"It's nice that Obama is going to help back our bid, but what I'd like to know is how we're going to pay for all this," said Doris Pullman, a 68-year-old retiree out shopping in a suburban mall. "I'm worried we'll be stuck with a huge bill for this a few years down the line."

One woman waiting for a ride downtown who refused to give her name called Obama's trip "a total waste of time, but I don't like anything he's done."

"We've got to have the Olympics," said construction worker Sam Berkland, 38, buying a taco at a curbside stand. "We need the work."

Berkland gave more weight to the fact that Chicago's other best-known celebrity, TV talk show queen Oprah Winfrey, was also going to Copenhagen to lobby for the games.

Source: Newsmax

http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/obam ... 65701.html

This was on the Drudge Report; Olympic Spirit -Brutal Gang murder in Chicago. Gangs truly are urban terrorists. Our kids can't even go to school in safety. If you go to the link on the bottom there is video of the fight. Godawful...

http://www.drudgereport.com/


Video: Teen Attacked, Beaten to Death in Melee
Help Police Find Derrion Albert's Killers

Updated: Sunday, 27 Sep 2009, 8:18 AM CDT
Published : Saturday, 26 Sep 2009, 9:00 PM CDT

* By Darlene Hill, FOX Chicago News

This is the hard lesson some students at Fenger High School have to deal with after a day of learning. For them it's a hard lesson of reality on the streets.

Thursday after school, two rival gangs got into a fight three blocks from the high school.

In all four students were beaten in that melee -- one was released from the hospital Friday morning.

While police continue their investigation, some students say they don't want to go back to Fenger next week.

Rival gang members have been fighting for a month -- and each time one of their fellow classmates is injured.

No knives and no guns were used in Thursday's fight. Just fists, feet and boards.

Derrion Albert, 16, was struck in the head by one of those boards.

Seconds later the honor student hit the pavement. That’s when witnesses, who are other high school students, say gangbangers began stomping on and punching Albert.

Derrion Albert's mom said witnesses told her he was "trying to help another student and kind of got mixed in with the crowd of the fight and he was hit.â€

The guy can't seem to stand to be in the White House for very long. Always traveling - in more than first class! - all around the world. He wants the narcissist glory and has all of his commie czars working on the real policy stuff.

Can't figure out, though, why he thinks the Olympics should be in America. According to him, America is a terrible country that has been so bad to the world - it's all our fault - so why not let someone else, like maybe Kenya, have the Olympics?