Obama’s Olympic Bid: Political Risks Even if He Wins

By Michael Scherer / Washington

When Barack Obama arrives in Copenhagen on Friday, he might be forgiven if he mistakes the International Olympic Committee meeting for just another social call in his old Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. A number of the President’s closest friends, biggest fundraisers and long-time political supporters will be making the trip as well.

Even before he committed to become the first U.S. President to attend such an event, the Chicago Olympic effort was already being substantially orchestrated by the group of people most responsible for supporting Obama’s rise to the White House. And while the White House denies that the substantial overlap between Obama’s personal and political network and Chicago 2016 organizing committee played any role in his abrupt decision to reverse himself and attend the Olympic meeting in Denmark, the potential conflicts of interest have raised eyebrows.

Two of the 13-member board of directors for the Chicago 2016 committee who plan to attend the Copenhagen meeting, John W. Rogers Jr. and Marty Nesbitt, are close Obama friends, having worked for his presidential campaign as a member of the campaign’s national finance committee and campaign treasurer, respectively. Several other friends and important campaign advisers, including investment banker James Reynolds Jr. and Hyatt hotel heir Penny Pritzker, are expected to attend the Copenhagen meeting as well. Valerie Jarrett, a senior Obama adviser and close family friend, quit the Chicago 2016 board when she formally joined the White House, but she has promised “unprecedented” government support for the games.

“To say Barack and Michelle and others like Rahm [Emmanuel"] aren’t more interested in Chicago than Cincinnati just isn’t credible,” says Allen Sanderson, a sports economist at the University of Chicago. “It’s just like saying that Obama wouldn’t be more interested in his own daughters than two kids picked at random at the Sidwell Friends School.”

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Valerie Jarrett likens Chicago 2016 Olympic vote to Iowa caucus

By Lynn Sweet

WASHINGTON–I chatted with Senior White House advisor Valerie Jarrett on Tuesday afternoon about Chicago’s bid for the 2016 Olympics and Friday’s International Olympic Committee vote. Jarrett is flying to Copenhagen Tuesday night with First Lady Michelle Obama, her chief of staff Susan Sher and her deputy, Melissa Winter.

The IOC has 106 members and the voting could go for several rounds. Only about 50 votes are needed for Chicago to be named the host city over Tokyo, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro. Jarrett said an apt comparison to Chicago’s IOC campaign would be the Iowa caucus. Obama’s 2008 Iowa caucus win paved the way for his election as president. The Iowa caucus required intense, personal campaigning–much like the final sprint to lobby the IOC members.

Said Jarrett, “The Iowa caucus, where you can have more than one round and every single vote counts and it is very retail and you have to earn the trust and confidence of every single person you can and that’s where our effort will be….it is very germane in the home stretch.”

On related matters:

*While Jarrett will be wearing the team “uniform,” expect President Obama and the first lady to be in their own clothes.

*Contrary to a report, Jarrett said she never met with HUD officials about Olympic housing issues.

“I actually was not in a meeting with HUD. …I heard after the fact that (Chicago 2016 president) Lori Healey had a meeting with some staff meeting with people from HUD.” Jarrett said that was an “informational meeting” to familiarize themselves with all the different HUD programs. “I would not have been with them at a meeting with HUD,” she said.

Said Jarrett, there was a report of her “buying tickets to some movie in Georgetown the other night in Politico, and that was not true either.”

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Building the Copenhagen top 10

To be among the truly elite, you must be on the platform with Daley and Obama(s)

By Melissa Harris - CHICAGO CONFIDENTIAL

Whenever powerful people gather, a certain hierarchy takes shape, and the show of support for Chicago’s bid in Copenhagen will be no exception.

For starters, the International Olympic Committee limits Chicago’s official delegation to 60 people. Ten of those people, plus the two U.S. delegates to the International Olympic Committee, will be on the platform during Chicago 2016′s presentation to the IOC. The remaining 50 people will be on the floor of the Bella Center.

The rest will be tucked away in a viewing room.

Chicago 2016 has been guarding the list of the 60 people as if it were the ignition code to a nuclear weapon. But Chicago Confidential is going to take an educated guess at identifying the 10 VIPs who’ll grace the platform.

Patrick Ryan, Michelle Obama, President Barack Obama (if he shows) and Oprah Winfrey are shoo-ins. (Oprah isn’t going to travel halfway across the globe to sit in the audience or a viewing room.) Mayor Richard Daley and Lori Healey, Daley’s former chief of staff and president of 2016, also will be up there.

My hunch is that the remaining four spots will include someone involved in the Olympics year-round, such as U.S. Olympic Committee acting CEO Stephanie Streeter, and someone with political prominence, such as presidential adviser Valerie Jarrett.

The group also needs a former Olympian; Edwin Moses ‘ name has been floated. And it needs a Paralympian; Linda Mastandrea, a Chicago attorney and longtime wheelchair athlete, would be ideal for that spot.

More big names could appear in videos on Chicago’s behalf. When New York made its pitch for the 2012 games, President George W. Bush taped a message. And Paris’ presentation included a sleek film by acclaimed French director Luc Besson, in which French actress Catherine Deneuve made a cameo.

Then again, neither of those cities won.

A way to startChicagoan and 2016 board member Bob Berland has a tough start to his Copenhagen schedule.

The two-time Olympian and 1984 silver medalist in judo will take off on the official 2016 charter at 9:30 p.m. Monday and arrive in Copenhagen about 5:30 a.m. Chicago time (12:30 p.m. Copenhagen time).

He’ll then quickly change into his judogi and perform in a demonstration at a judo club.

Berland, the president of Berland Printing, said he always preferred training immediately after getting off an international flight to “acclimate quickly” but hasn’t done so in decades. The demonstration, however, forced him back into the judo club last week.

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Pitching the Chicago brand

COPENHAGEN | Michelle, Oprah will put personal appeal to work in last push for Olympic votes

BY LYNN SWEET - Sun-Times Columnist

WASHINGTON — Oprah Winfrey and first lady Michelle Obama are global brands.

And these two world-famous women will try to translate their personal appeal into Olympic votes for Chicago as they buttonhole targeted members of the International Olympic Committee for one-on-one lobbying this week in Copenhagen in advance of the Oct. 2 vote to choose a host city for the 2016 Summer Games.

At this stage of Chicago’s long quest for the Olympics, the only thing that matters is finding more than 50 people from the 106-member IOC to vote for Chicago over Tokyo, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro.

The politics in this campaign are very “retail” — face-to-face — at this point.

Mrs. Obama and Valerie Jarrett, the White House senior adviser overseeing the Olympic push for the Obama administration, arrive Wednesday in Copenhagen with lobbying lists in hand. Winfrey also will arrive as early as Wednesday.

When Winfrey lands in Copenhagen, “Oprah will have a full schedule from the time she hits the ground as well,” Jarrett told the Chicago Sun-Times on Friday.

“She is an international icon, widely respected throughout the world, and her presence and her willingness to put her reputation behind Chicago — a city she both calls home and loves and knows so well — I think will have a very significant impact on the IOC,” Jarrett said.

By now, Chicago 2016 organizers have done their homework and have zeroed in on the concerns of the IOC members they have identified as undecided and who might be swayed by meeting with an official from the Obama administration.

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Chicago’s Olympic lobbying blitz; Valerie Jarrett meets with Tony Blair

By Lynn Sweet

Valerie Jarrett meets with Tony Blair over Chicago’s 2016 Olympics pitch

Rep. Bobby Rush’s “call list” to African ambassadors to get out the IOC vote for Chicago

WASHINGTON — White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, overseeing the Obama administration’s drive to land the 2016 Olympic Games, met Tuesday with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair in New York, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned. Jarrett’s huddle with Blair comes as international lobbying intensifies in advance of the Oct. 2 vote in Copenhagen and Chicago organizers are working on their home stretch strategy.
Blair’s personal lobbying with the International Olympic Committee in Singapore in 2005 is credited with helping London win the 2012 Games. First lady Michelle Obama — and possibly President Obama — will be in Copenhagen to be part of Chicago’s final sales pitch.
It’s down to Olympics election math as Chicago competes with Madrid, Tokyo and Rio de Janeiro.

There are 106 IOC members from around the globe. A majority vote determines the host city. However, it could take more than one round of voting to yield a majority. IOC members from countries with bidding cities can’t vote until their city is eliminated. Out of the 106 IOC members, then, it could take about 50 to win.

On Tuesday, InsideTheGames.biz, an outlet specializing in Olympics coverage, was reporting that an IOC member from the Rio de Janeiro 2016 committee was claiming to have 20 votes locked in from IOC members.

The IOC members who are perceived as undecided are the subject of targeted lobbying, including a Sept. 10 letter from Obama obtained by the Sun-Times.

Obama wrote, “As President, I see the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games as an extraordinary
opportunity for America to renew our bonds of friendship and welcome the world to our
shores with open arms.

“If you honor Chicago with your selection, we will ensure that the
Olympic and Paralympic Games are a key priority for our Nation. We have already
established a White House Office of Olympic, Paralympic and Youth Sport to serve the
Games, and you can count on our government to support Chicago’s quest to host an
unforgettable event and strengthen the Olympic Movement.”

Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) has been through a lot of election days, and he is approaching this next big one with his call list in hand. When Rush hits the phone to get out the vote for Chicago, his targets are more than a dozen African ambassadors representing nations with, collectively, 15 IOC members.

Atlanta won the 1996 Olympic summer games, Rush said, because they “went out of their way to lobby these African nations, ask for their votes and they were successful. They are really going to be key to Chicago winning.”

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Jarrett hints Obama likely to attend IOC meeting

President Barack Obama personally gave the order to send a White House advance team to Copenhagen and would ”love” to be there himself next week to argue Chicago’s case for the 2016 Olympics.

That’s the word from key presidential aide Valerie Jarrett in the latest and perhaps strongest sign that last week’s suggestion that Obama would skip Copenhagen has changed.

In a phone interview Monday, Ms. Jarrett, a senior adviser to the president who heads the White House’s new office on the Olympics, said the decision to send the advance team to Copenhagen to prepare for a possible presidential visit “was his”: Mr. Obama’s. Sending the team will “preserve the option” that the president can join first lady Michelle Obama, who already is scheduled to travel to the Oct. 2 IOC meeting.

“(Mr. Obama) would love to be there,” Ms. Jarrett said. “He (just) wants to make sure his absence won’t be harmful” to ongoing negotiations in Washington over national health care reform.

Ms. Jarrett said the president several days ago personally communicated his desire to be in Copenhagen to Mayor Richard M. Daley.

“The president has been an ardent supporter from the beginning,” Ms. Jarrett added. “He cares passionately about bringing the Olympics to Chicago. . . .It’s good for the U.S. and it’s good for Chicago. We talk about it every day.”

Ms. Jarrett did not say when a final decision would be made. But that is likely by this weekend or very early next week, sources familiar with the matter said.

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Michelle Obama, Obama lobbying for Chicago Olympics at UN, G20

Michelle’s story to figure in Copenhagen pitch

By Lynn Sweet

WASHINGTON — Friday afternoon, first lady Michelle Obama huddled for 90 minutes with a close circle of senior advisers in her East Wing office to map strategy for her biggest solo assignment to date: traveling to Copenhagen to lead Chicago’s drive to land the 2016 Olympics.

The coming days will put Mrs. Obama on the international stage at a level she — and the world — has not seen before as she lobbies in Copenhagen, New York and Pittsburgh for Chicago’s bid.

Wednesday evening, the Obamas headline a reception in New York for about 190 world leaders gathered for the opening of the 64th session of the United Nations General Assembly. From there, the first couple jump to Pittsburgh to host the G20 global leaders’ summit on Sept. 24 and Sept. 25, where Mrs. Obama will have her own separate schedule of events. She lands in Copenhagen on Sept. 30 in advance of the International Olympic Committee’s Oct. 2 vote to name a host city for the 2016 Summer Games.

Pinch-hitting for the president — who is staying home to battle for health-care reform legislation — Mrs. Obama will be in the spotlight as one of the key figures in Chicago’s final presentation to the 106 IOC members. Mrs. Obama’s biography — a daughter of Chicago’s South Side who grew up near where many of the proposed Olympic venues will be located — will figure heavily in her pitch.

The first lady will be competing with presidents and prime ministers, the leaders of rival nations Spain, Japan and Brazil who will be promoting Madrid, Tokyo and Rio de Janeiro.

Until now, Mrs. Obama has taken on a supporting role with a small portfolio of noncontroversial issues, generating gobs of positive publicity when she has traveled overseas. Leading the homestretch of Chicago’s Olympic charge, however, puts pressure on her to deliver the votes.

“I think what she appreciates is the unique role that she can play in bringing the Games to Chicago. She is very comfortable with the role, she is comfortable advocating on behalf of a city where she grew up, the city that she loves,” White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett told the Chicago Sun-Times in an interview Friday in her West Wing office. “So I think she is feeling quite confident. Our job is to prepare her and make sure she is ready to go.”

Mrs. Obama’s presentation will take on a personal note — something, Jarrett said, that will be important to IOC members.

“A lot of this is they are looking for passion, they are looking for people who actually care. The Olympic movement is more than just the Games, it is a spirit, a philosophy and an approach to life, and I think they are looking for kindred spirits, and in Michelle Obama they will find one.”

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Barack Obama’s adviser talks about strategy

By Katherine Skiba - Tribune reporter

WASHINGTON - – President Barack Obama is briefed daily on Chicago’s prospects for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games and next week will use meetings with foreign leaders to bolster his adopted hometown’s hopes. That’s the word from senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, his go-to person on the Olympics and one of eight White House staffers working to bring them to Chicago.

Jarrett, in an interview Friday in her West Wing office, called Chicago’s bid “spectacular” and said Obama’s upcoming meetings at the United Nations and at the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh were “two venues that present a very good opportunity for him to advocate.”

Obama’s emissary, First Lady Michelle Obama, will arrive in Copenhagen on Sept. 30, Jarrett said. That’s two days before the Oct. 2 vote in which the 100-plus member International Olympic Committee will choose among Chicago, Madrid, Tokyo and Rio de Janeiro.

As the first lady’s schedule is drawn up, it’s all about retail politics, Jarrett said.

“It is important that we work tirelessly to demonstrate, just as the athletes do when they compete, that we’re prepared to work down to the last second. Our intent is to meet with as many individual members of the IOC who we think we can swing to our side.”

Jarrett, who leads the White House Office of Olympic, Paralympic and Youth Sport, ducked a lingering question: Will the president attend the closing argument for Chicago 2016? “What I can tell you today,” she said, “is it is presently not on his schedule.”

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Michelle Obama will lead Chicago 2016 Olympic bid in Copenhagen

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Below, official White House announcement…

FIRST LADY MICHELLE OBAMA TO REPRESENT THE UNITED STATES IN COPENHAGEN

MRS. OBAMA TO LEAD EFFORT IN SUPPORT OF 2016 CHICAGO OLYMPIC BID

The White House announced today that First Lady Michelle Obama will travel to Copenhagen, Denmark, in support of Chicago’s historic bid for the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games. On October 2, 2009, Mrs. Obama will attend the 121st International Olympic Committee Session at the Bella Center – Copenhagen Congress Center. It is here that the host of the 2016 Summer Olympics will be selected from the remaining four candidate cities: Chicago, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo. President Obama informed IOC President Count Jacques Rogge today that the fight to pass health insurance reform keeps him from committing at this time to travel to Copenhagen on October 2, but he will continue to work to support Chicago’s bid along with the First Lady and Valerie Jarrett, senior advisor to the President, who will accompany the First Lady to Copenhagen.

“One of the great honors I have as First Lady is to represent America around the world and it is with great pride that I will go to Copenhagen to make the case for the United States to host the 2016 Olympics,” said Mrs. Obama. “There is no doubt in my mind that Chicago would offer the world a fantastic setting for these historic games and I hope that the Olympic torch will have the chance to burn brightly in my hometown.”

Mrs. Obama was born and raised on the South Side of Chicago, not far from the suggested locations for the Games. In her role as First Lady, Mrs. Obama has been committed to bridging the gap between the White House and underserved communities around DC and across the country – opening the doors of the White House and bringing new opportunities to young people. Visiting Copenhagen is an opportunity for the First Lady to carry this commitment to the international stage.

“As President Obama has said, hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Chicago would be a valuable opportunity for our nation to welcome the world to our shores, and strengthen our friendships across the globe,” said Valerie Jarrett. “I know that it would serve as a beacon of hope and lift the aspirations of so many young people in Chicago, in America and across the world even higher.”

Chicago’s diverse communities and vibrant neighborhoods, paired with a scenic waterfront, soaring architecture, and innovative technologies and infrastructure would make the city a perfect stage for the 2016 Olympics. The city’s pledge to encourage the involvement of children through the distribution of over 500,000 tickets to local youth and its commitment to the environment through the Blue Green initiative, reinforce Mrs. Obama’s belief that the city of Chicago would be the ideal host for these Olympic Games.

The President and First Lady will be hosting an event with the White House Office of Olympic, Paralympic and Youth Sport and Chicago 2016 on Wednesday, September 16, 2009 to help promote Chicago’s bid for the Olympics, as well as helping promote our commitment to healthy living and youth sport. There will be Olympic athletes and Paralympic athletes in attendance as well. This event will help highlight the Obama administration’s commitment to giving our nation’s children every possible tool they need to grow, learn and succeed in life. A key part of this is increasing access to healthy, constructive activities like sports for our nation’s children. The Olympic athletes will be visiting local schools in the morning and then joining the President and First Lady at the White House in the afternoon. More details will be released in the coming days.

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Valerie Jarrett to Copenhagen to bolster Chicago 2016 bid

Will Obama go?

By Lynn Sweet

White House Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett–who heads the Obama team drive for Chicago’s 2016 Olympic bid–will be going  o Copenhagen in October for the city’s final pitch, I’m told. Chicago’s Olympic champions hopes President Obama decides to also travel to Denmark to seal the deal. The White House as of Tuesday is not ready to say one way or the other. Betting is: Obama will go if it looks like it is worth his time.

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