Obama's Chicago Olympics lure: Noticed

by Mark Silva

Taking stock of President Barack Obama's "unprecedented" role in Chicago's bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics, Ken Vogel at Politico has called on some International Olympic Committee members who are noticing, too.

"Any president would have an interest in helping an American city win an Olympic bid,'' Vogel writes. "But none has been as closely associated with an Olympic proposal as Obama, and the emerging effort by the White House is unusually pointed in its attempt to wrap the campaign around the president and his appealing image abroad -- a strategy veteran Olympics watchers say is paying dividends...

"Without Obama in the White House, I would say there would be no chance whatsoever for the U.S. winning," says Canadian IOC member Dick Pound. "The United States is the only country in this race that has had an absolutely extraordinary transformational experience with the election of Obama, which weighs very heavily in its favor."

According to some observers and participants in the Olympic site selection process, Vogel reports, Obama is "viewed internationally as the engine driving the Chicago bid. ''

"Everybody who follows the bids is talking about the Obama factor," says Robert Livingstone, who runs GamesBids.com. ""It's the biggest issue of the whole campaign."

Valerie Jarrett, Obama adviser and friend, had been vice chair of Chicago 2016, and the nonprofit organization created to spearhead the city's big for the games, Mica Matsoff, says that if Chicago wins, Jarrett "would head a special office to provide top-level support to Chicago" by coordinating the work of federal agencies.

Four of the five co-chairs of Obama's inaugural committee have unpaid leadership roles in the Chicago bid, Vogel notes: Pat Ryan, chairman and CEO of Chicago 2016; John Rodgers,treasurer and director of Chicago 2016; Penny Pritzker, hotel heiress, and Bill Daley, former Clinton administration commerce secretary and brother of the Chicago mayor.

And A.S.K. Public Strategies, the Chicago-based public relations firm founded by Obama political adviser David Axelrod, has been paid "a nominal amount of money" by Chicago 2016 for "communication management [and] communication planning," according to former Axelrod partner Eric Sedler.

Then there was the video appeal that Obama made to the general assembly of European Olympic Committees. (see it above.)

Vogel says "the White House brushed off questions about the administration's strategy for courting the 107 voting members of the International Olympic Committee, who are deciding between Chicago and the other three cities vying for the 2016 games -- Rio de Janeiro, Madrid and Tokyo.''

But he cites "an administration official"l who says "bringing the Olympics to the United States is an important priority for the administration, and Valerie Jarrett is in a unique position to help with that effort given her experience with the committee and the city of Chicago."

He quotes an IOC member from an island nation: "President Obama has made serious efforts to improve the overall image of the U.S. around the world...That reflects favorably on the image of the U.S. within the IOC."

And Rania Elwani, an IOC member from Egypt, who says she adores Obama and has a picture of him on her refrigerator: "It's important to know how much involvement the government is willing to sho.''

Yet he also quotes one IOC member from a Western European nation suggesting that Obama and other heads of state might best stay out of it: "I strongly believe that presidents of states should not be directly involved in the Olympic selection process.''