Ah, well. Let the games begin — somewhere else!
Even President Barack Obama’s magic has its limits, it turns out. The International Olympic Committee rejected Chicago’s bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics, despite the president’s quickie trip to Copenhagen to make the pitch in person.
Obama and the rest of Chicago’s powerhouse delegation, which included first lady Michelle Obama, Mayor Richard M. Daley and his wife Maggie and the Queen of All Media Oprah Winfrey, were fighting an uphill battle all along.
Expectations were overinflated by the media hoopla. But as the final bidding indicated, the IOC has a mind of its own.
Speculation runs wild as to why Chicago lost. Most of it follows personal agendas. The negatives that various analysts and critics bring up — crime, corruption and cronyism lead the pack — are hardly unique to Chicago and are certainly no worse than the problems faced by Rio de Janeiro, the winner of the 2016 Olympics.
Rio took an edge in less tangible ways. Chicago’s presentation to the IOC, despite the Obama glitter, was lackluster and disorganized compared to Rio’s colorful and passionate presentation.
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Brazil played the geopolitical card skillfully, holding up maps that showed South America to be the only region left without a single Olympics. This may have touched the hearts of IOC members, who like to think of the organization as a groundbreaking force for international development and unity.
And how savvy, for Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to use a certain Chicagoan’s famous slogan when talking to reporters to promote his country’s bid: “Yes we can!”
“For some countries, it is just one more sports event that they are going to organize,” he said. “But for us, it is a unique and extraordinary thing.”
Back in Chicago, a Tribune/WGN poll showed that no matter what the IOC decided, about half of the city would be happy, or at least relieved. Only 47 percent of Chicagoans favored bringing the games here, according to the poll, while 45 percent opposed it.
That’s a fair measure, in my humble view, of an intelligent Midwestern ambivalence, two warring attitudes deeply embedded in the cultural DNA of Chicagoans.
One of these attitudes is the boundless optimism captured in the ambitious slogan attributed to the great Chicago architect and city planner Daniel Burnham: “Make no little plans.”
The other is the healthy skepticism expressed by the late Chicago City News Bureau slogan: “If your mother says she loves you, check it out.”
Visions of Chicago’s past triumphs danced in the heads of local folks. But, with one former Illinois governor in prison and
another famously under indictment, so did the possibility of a grand overpriced boondoggle with powerful elites stuffing their pockets and taxpayers left to foot the bill.
Political rivals of Obama and Daley stop at nothing to smear their efforts to bring the Olympics to the United States.
And that’s too bad. Los Angeles showed in 1984 that an Olympics can make a profit, if it’s done right. It can create jobs, boost commerce and build civic pride and national unity. But that requires a sense of shared purpose that Chicago and our national politicians aren’t very good at pulling together these days.
Instead, Obama and Chicago’s leaders heard calls to scale things back. Don’t take on so much. Make only small plans. Little plans “have no magic to stir men’s blood,” said Burnham, “and probably will themselves not be realized.” Burnham had a point, but small plans seem to be all that a lot of Americans want to tackle these days.
Someday, my Midwestern optimism tells me, the Chicago and the America that Burnham knew will be back. Until then, let the games begin in a place that appreciates big ideas: Brazil.
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Clarence Page is a member of the Tribune’s editorial board and blogs at chicagotribune.com/pagespage