The Latest Olympic Situs Score: Eight Victories, One Defeat

By Marion Edwyn Harrison, Esq.  

Upon eight occasions in the 20th and 21st Centuries the Olympics have been held in the United States of America:  1904 Summer Olympics, St. Louis, Missouri, 12 nations participating; 1932 Winter Olympics, Lake Placid, New York, 17 nations; 1932 Summer Olympics, Los Angeles, 37 nations; 1960 Winter Olympics, Squaw Valley, California, 30 nations; 1980 Winter Olympics, Lake Placid again, 37 nations; 1984 Summer Olympics, Los Angeles again, 140 nations; 1996 Summer Olympics, Atlanta, 197 nations; 2002 Winter Olympics, Salt Lake City, 77 nations.

No President of the United States or Federal bureaucracy contributed to the eight victories in choosing an American site.  Something is becomingly increasing obvious about the Barack Hussein Obama Administration, fortified by the largest national debt in history and a Chief of State who fancies himself a world leader - it will intrude, take over, grab the ball, run the track (however one wants to phrase it) whenever and wherever possible.

That many other sovereign governments - some socialist, some dictatorships, some absolute monarchies, so forth - directly seek to influence the location of the Games is an irrelevant fact.  They do not function under the Constitution of the United States of America or an equivalent; they have little or no separation of functions in a tripartite national government; almost none is a federalist system. 

There may be few, if any, activities or functions which the Obama Administration and/or the President personally would not like to lead or, even preferably, dominate.  Thus, perhaps it is not surprising that the Administration has created the White House Office of Olympic, Paralympic and Youth Sport - yes, that’s the title!

Beyond that, guess what?  For the first time in history, the President appears before the International Olympic Committee.  The President goes to Copenhagen, uses American - and his own - prestige and influence, spending American taxpayers’ money, to attempt to capture the 2016 Olympic Games for Chicago.  The result is dramatic disaster.  On the first ballot he strikes out.  Chicago receives only 18 votes, while Tokyo gains 22, Rio de Janeiro 26, Madrid 28.  According to the balloting rules, Chicago at the bottom is eliminated.  On the third ballot Rio de Janeiro is chosen.

To what extent is the dramatic defeat an insult to the United States of America?  To what extent a personal insult to the President himself?  To what extent a commentary upon the notorious politics of crime-ridden Chicago? 

Whatever the evaluations, the result is an embarrassing defeat.  Let the result also be yet further proof of the wisdom of the Founding Fathers and of the Constitution in establishing what is supposed to be a limited Federal Government.

Marion Edwyn Harrison is President of, and Counsel to, the Free Congress Foundation.

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