by Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n
NRO’s\u00a0<\/i>The Corner<\/em><\/p>\n One can understand an American president\u2019s lobbying for an American city to obtain the Olympics, but the blitz by the Obamas proved a PR nightmare. Let us count the ways:<\/p>\n 1) Obama\u2019s brand is trans-nationalism and an \u201cAmerica is not exceptional\u201d multiculturalism. According to his worldview, it makes sense that a South American country \u2014 especially a powerful, ascendant country such as Brazil \u2014 should at last have its turn at hosting the Olympics. It did not seem consistent that a politician who had reached out to the Castros, Ch\u00e1vez, Morales, and Ortega, in parochial fashion, would lobby for his own hometown over a \u201cyes, we can\u201d Latin American initiative, especially one involving an exciting city such as Rio.<\/p>\n 2) The Obama lobbying speeches were counterproductive. The world has its own inspirational narratives and is not impressed that much by the Obamas\u2019 Chicago sagas. It was accidental but unfortunate that the global viewers had seen some horrific YouTube clips of street fighting in the Windy City, and then\u00a0were told by Michelle that her father had taught her how to land a\u00a0right hook, and that it was a sacrifice for her to fly to Denmark to make the case for Chicago.<\/p>\n 3) The Chicago bit was overdone. Obama should remember that there is\u00a0a perfect storm brewing: The more we hear about Valerie Jarrett,\u00a0Rahm Emanuel, Bill Ayers, and all his old Chicago friends, along with rumors about Tony Rezko\u2013style backroom deals to cash in on Chicago\u00a0real estate involving the Olympics, and continuing stories about Chicago\u2019s street violence and corruption \u2014 the\u00a0more it hurts the president to be identified as a \u201cChicago politician\u201d who tries in\u00a0heavy-handed fashion to implement change through the \u201cChicago way.\u201d To a younger Obama, Chicago was the romantic can-do town of Reverend Wright,\u00a0Michael Jordan, Oprah, and the Daley machine; to the world at large, it\u00a0is something quite different, and far more unappealing.<\/p>\n 4) Obama\u2019s messianic appeal is wearing thin, both at home and abroad. I think that once Sarkozy essentially said to the world, \u201cThe\u00a0emperor has no clothes,\u201d the Obama facade crumbled. And here we are.<\/p>\n \u00a92009 Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Victor Davis Hanson NRO’s\u00a0The Corner One can understand an American president\u2019s lobbying for an American city to obtain the Olympics, but the blitz by the Obamas proved a PR nightmare. Let us count the ways:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[651],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-Ak","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6345,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/obamas-middle-east-mess\/","url_meta":{"origin":2252,"position":0},"title":"Obama’s Middle East Mess","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 19, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"When we don't support our potential allies and encourage constitutional rule, Egypt is the result. by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/\u00a0National Review Online \u00a0 In Egypt the Obama administration has managed to alienate the military, secular constitutionalists, the Islamists, and the proverbial street all at once. How and why? First, we\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Middle East"","block_context":{"text":"The Middle East","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10227,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-obamas-and-the-clinton-road-to-perdition\/","url_meta":{"origin":2252,"position":1},"title":"The Obamas and the Clinton Road to Perdition","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 30, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"By Victor Davis Hanson American Greatness Hillary and Bill Clinton were a proud, progressive power couple who came into big-time state politics on promises of promoting \u201cfairness\u201d and \u201cequality.\u201d It did not matter much that very little in their previous personal lives had matched such elevated rhetoric with concrete action.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bill Clinton"","block_context":{"text":"Bill Clinton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/bill-clinton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3830,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/obamas-1979\/","url_meta":{"origin":2252,"position":2},"title":"Obama’s 1979","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 17, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online Obama\u2019s deer-in-the-headlights, finger-to-the-wind, \u201cI can\u2019t believe this is happening to me\u201d initial reaction to the Mubarak implosion has eerie precedents. 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