slapped down in copenhagen

Last night we were talking about the Olympic bid, and thinking through the calculus of Obama making the trip to Copenhagen for the final presentation... I was obviously naive in thinking that this had to be a bit like Bill Clinton heading to North Korea -- for someone of his stature to get on a plane, the deal had to already be in the bag.

Obviously not. As Peter Baker puts it so succinctly in his New York Times piece...

Rarely has a president put his credibility on the line on the world stage in such a personal way and been slapped down so sharply in real time.

Ouch.

Comments

[Pat Harrington]

I turned on the radio at about 745 Chicago time, and heard them talking about how much of an impact Rio had. That they brought a world map on stage and highlighted all the areas that have had the Olympics. And I knew we were done in right then and there, but to get "slapped" down in the first round that was a message.

What the message is, I'm not sure.... but a message none the less.

[ptp]

From what I heard there are a lot of very pragmatic reasons for Chicago to be denied, among them the fact that American cities have hosted several Olympic games in the last few decades, and also the fact that it is increasingly difficult to get into the United States as a foreigner; neither of these have much of anything to do with Obama, nor are they things that his presence would've been able to mitigate in any real way.

On another note it's apparently standard for most world leaders to show up in support of their nations' bids, while it's somewhat rare for American leaders to do so. I can see that American tendency both ways; it's arrogant because it assumes we don't even need to show up, or it's humble because it's not trying to assert our status as hegemonic World Power on a potentially delicate decision-making process. I'm curious what effect it will have for Obama to have acted contrary to the trend. Realistically, the way his decision is interpreted will probably be a product of the United States' (and Obama's) reputation in the global community at the time that the interpretation's made.