Four years ago, London was in the final four fighting for the 2012 Summer Olympics.  Prime Minister Tony Blair spent three days and three nights campaigning for the games to go to London.  He met with the IOC delegates, he wined them, dined them and he set a new standard for a senior representative of a government to try to bring an Olympic games to his country.  Tony Blair is considered the first to make such an effort. 

Other country’s took note.  Two years later, Vladamir Putin did essentially the same thing to help Sochi, Russia successfully be awarded the 2014 Winter Olympics.

With these two examples of winning strategies, what did President Obama do?  Did he match the efforts of Blair and Putin?  No.  Not even close.  President Obama did not spend three days and nights working the IOC delegates for Chicago.  He essentially flew in for a cameo.  He came in and gave a speech and then left several hours before the voting began.

History clearly shows what successful, winning strategies look like by heads of state.  If a President is going to get involved today, his involvement will be compared to those of the past such as Blair and Putin.  President Obama’s involvement pales and fails the test of history.

Surely his advisors researched what had been successful in the past.  But to be frank, the actions on the part of President Obama could demonstrate that no such research was in fact done.  Because after President Obama’s brief appearance, you could just see the IOC delegates saying to themselves that he was almost insulting their intelligence and that he thought himself so important that he could just show up and get the games for Chicago. 

We would suggest that because Chicago was voted out in the first round, this could be the result of President Obama’s brief appearance and the comparisons that were drawn by the IOC delegates to the efforts of Blair and Putin.  The comparison would not have been pretty.  This could explain a backlash that caused Chicago to only get 18 votes in the first round and to be out.  Today, if a President or head of state is going to get involved in assisting a city to obtain an Olympic Games, they will be compared to the successful efforts of Putin and Blair or to the failing strategy of Obama. 

It appears that President Obama has made a place for himself in history after all.  But it is not a place that he ever wanted; that is, how to not assist a City in its bid to obtain the Summer Olympic Games.