Tongues are wagging that certain members of the International Olympic Committee lured Barack Obama to Copenhagen to publicly humiliate and embarrass him.
For months Obama planned not to go to Denmark to make a personal pitch for the Olympics. He said his priority was passing the lame duck healthcare reform bill. But he would send his wife Michelle Obama and senior advisor Valerie Jarrett in his stead. Historians pointed out that no other US president had ever made a personal pitch before the IOC members.
But according to the Drudgereport, White House aides were assured by IOC officials that Chicago would win the bid if Obama made a personal presentation in Denmark. The aides were told that if Obama didn’t appear before the committee, the members would “notice” his absence.
The IOC played on Obama’s weakness, realizing his narcissism would not allow him to say no.
So Obama made the overnight flight to Copenhagen believing the trip would cement his place in history as the first US president to help seal an Olympic bid.
Obama’s narcissism is legendary and preceded him. But no one counted on Michelle Obama to display her arrogance when she told members of the Chicago delegation that her trip to Denmark was a ‘sacrifice’ for her.
The final straw was the fact that the other global leaders spent days schmoozing with the IOC members, but Obama flew in at the last minute spending a total of 4 hours on the ground in Copenhagen before flying back out.
When the voting was tallied, Chicago lost by a landslide in the first round, getting only 18 votes out of 94. It was the snub heard around the world.
And it must have been a crushing blow to both of the Obamas’ egos.
