A Colossal Lack of Judgement

President Obama has come under attack for his “method” when trying to get the Olympic games for Chicago. Among points being made, is that Barack delivered a speech laced with hubris, and that the Chicago committee itself, recently taken over by Obama mentor, Valerie Jarrett, approached the process with ham-fisted arrogance . Be what it may, it’s not the Obama approach to the IOC that disturbs me.

I’m very concerned, nay stunned, at the colossal lack of judgement shown by not only Barack Obama, but by his advisory team, in sending the president to Copenhagen in the first place.

When I first found out that Obama was going to give a pitch directly to the IOC, I was bewildered. How could an advisory team allow such a risky move? How could Obama himself, not see that he was sticking his neck into a meat grinder that had no guarantees and very little in the way of reward?

With around 50% of Chicagoans against the games in the first place, a win with the IOC wouldn’t have garnered Obama much in the way of brownie points ... a loss, would be humiliating. Not only that, there were no guarantees that the IOC would even consider Chicago a strong contender, in fact, most any person following the process would’ve seen Rio as the hands down favorite.

Furthermore, with the war drums beating ever louder in Afghanistan, with 5 healthcare bills winding their way through The Senate and House, with a million disgruntled citizens protesting in a Washington march, with unemployment heading toward 10%, with national debt in a death spiral, with acorn on death row, and with low poll numbers making Obama #2 on the all time first year losers list, the IOC pitch was simply incomprehensibly stupid. There’s no other word for it but, stupid.

It all begs the question ... who’s pulling the strings ... Rahm? Axelrod? Jarrett? Michelle? ... or Barack himself? Whoever it is, the political instincts on display are abysmal.

Obama has surrounded himself with an assortment of influence peddlers, money bundlers, race hucksters, environmental extremists, leftist academics, and social ultra-leftists ... all who have done well on a regional scale. But, it’s one thing to survive in Chicago, where influence peddling is everything ... or to survive in California where the bizarre and far out left is “normal”. It’s entirely another thing to function well on a national or international scale where the likes of Putin, FOX, Ahmadinejad, Wen Jiabao, and Zarkozy will kick the stool out from under you in a moment’s notice and where incredibly sophisticated machinations are the norm.

Obama’s team is essentially made up of voracious little fish who’ve now left the pond and swam out into a big lake ... a big deep dark one full of pike. Sure, they’ve been adept at eating bugs and larvae, but where they swim today they have become prey and the pike clearly smell blood in the water.

It’s going to be a long 4 years ... 4 years where a person won’t know whether to laugh, cry, or shake one’s head in stunned disbelief. If you like watching pike devour minnows though, it’ll be a blast.

What’s most disturbing for me, is that weak leadership has a propensity to act out when cornered ... to launch ill conceived stunts to garner support, much like a terrified kitten spitting and scratching ... but little kitten none the less. Those stunts though, can end up costing lives, costing incredible sums of money, and costing a nation it’s place in the world.

Further Readings:

Half a President

The Beta Male President

It's All About Money; Not Country