The Agony of Conceit

If you think it’s a bit ridiculous to link the credibility of a U.S. President to a vote by the International Olympic Committee you would normally be right, normally. But welcome to the abnormal, the ever expanding sideshow that is the Barack Obama presidency. Wether it’s the affairs of a Massachuset police department, the first day of school, or an effort to secure the Olympic games to line the pockets of a few Chicago slum lords, Barack Obama has the uncanny ability to create a self-absorbed boondoggle out of what would seem to be irrelevant events in the scope of presidential politics.

Obama loves to insert himself into what should be meaningless issues, sure it would have been nice to get the Games, (again) but we are not some obscure emerging power that needs such an event to highlight our advancement. I also understand that the Olympics would have given a bit of a jolt to the windy city economy, but if Chicago is waiting for some E.U. bureaucrat to help out their economy, where the Olympics are held should be the least of their concerns and from what I’ve been seeing this really wasn’t high on the list of the average Chicagoan’s priorities.

But this really wasn’t about the United States or getting the games. It was about Barack Obama securing the games for Chicago in an attempt to puff up his already overinflated ego. Therefore what should have been some non issue turns into a fiasco that damages the Presidents “Image of success” and calls into question his self-proclaimed credibility in the world.

In an attempt to spin off some of the embarrassment, Obama’s chief political adviser David Axelrod made the statement that it is always worthwhile when the President sells America to the world. Maybe so, but that’s not what this President does, Obama doesn’t sell America he sells himself. In Obama’s world view America’s only redeeming quality is that he is the President. He even waxed philosophic to the IOC judges about the night he was elected. It’s hard to decide what was a more pathetic pitch that or Michelle Obama’s assertion that Chicago deserves the Olympics because that’s what her father would have wanted. I really can’t remember a first lady who was as out of touch with the American people as Michelle Obama, but I digress. In the end the Obama’s came off as arrogant, much as they do too many Americans.

Barack Obama doesn’t sell America well because successful selling comes from a belief in your product, a conviction that what you have to offer will best represent an image, or make an individual life or business exponentially better. Closing the deal requires a transfer of that enthusiasm, this is impossible if you believe your product needs fundamental remaking.

Anthony D Dolpies