Barack Obama… Beginning of the End?

Let’s suppose you were the president of the United States, and the home and that of your wife and children – apart from the White House – was in Chicago. And that those in charge of Chicago 2016 asked you to lend a hand with the Olympic candidacy, even though they knew or suspected that Chicago was not going to win…Therefore, if you did not go to Copenhagen, they would blame you for not having shown enough interest. And if you did go, you would be soundly beaten. You, who appeared to be the Superman of international relations.

This is the situation in which Barack Obama finds himself since the International Olympic Committee’s verdict, and which the American far right has heralded as “the first great defeat” of Obamaism. When images of the Republicans celebrating and cheering Chicago’s defeat appeared on the internet, the Democrats were angered. They have begun to accuse the Grand Old Party of putting party interests before national ones: anti-Obamaism to the point of anti-Americanism.

It seems that Republicans and Democrats have switched roles. In George W. Bush’s era, it was the conservatives who accused the anti-Iraq war liberals of undermining the country’s policies and interests with their protests. Now it is the Democrats who are asking if Chicago is not American enough for the enemies of Obama.

The torrent of criticism started before Copenhagen. In the beginning the president did not have to be present at the Olympic event, but the candidacy promoters cried out for him to attend. The most serious analysts maintained that this was an important miscalculation: They highlighted that Chicago was never a possible favorite, and demanding the presence of the president was ignoring this fact. The fact that the city was not only eliminated, but that it was eliminated in the first round of voting, has proved particularly humiliating and a hard pill to swallow for the White House.

The Gloves Come Off

And this is where the American far right has got its act together: if before Copenhagen they dismissed the importance of the Olympic event and criticized Obama for dedicating his time to such things instead of tackling growing unemployment and the ever-more intense public health debate, after Copenhagen the accusation is that he has made a fool of himself, not to mention highlighting “the limits” of his supposed international popularity.

Commentators like Glenn Beck on Fox and Newt Gingrich were quick to launch an attack (“President Obama fails in his attempt to bring the Games to Chicago the same day that unemployment reaches 9.8%…The country needs leadership”). But above all, the conservative radio guru Rush Limbaugh was the most brazen in his delight, and said so: “Am I happy? Well, yes! I don’t deny it! I’m happy because what I want most in the world is that Obama fails and all his ideas do with him!”

[Editor’s note: some quotes may be worded based on translated material].