The A-Team gets an F

Yesterday, somewhere over the North Atlantic there was a pristine Boeing 747, or rather the military variant thereof, in presidential livery and aboard was an anxious man stuffing confidential folders down his pants. No it wasn’t Samuel (Sandy) Berger reliving one of his lesser moments but rather Obama himself getting ready for his woodshed meeting with the “Capo di tutti Capi”.

The Chicago political machine made Obama and without it we would never even have heard the name. So when the “Capo” called, Obama in turn called Andrews Air Force Base and ordered them to fire up the presidential fleet.

The Capo is, of course, Richard M. Daley, the current Mayor of Chicago and he was calling in the favors. For a start, rumor has it that Daley’s connections were already penciled in to build the Olympic Village. And Valerie Jarrett’s slum apartments were due to be razed as well. But, none of that is now going to happen since Obama and his team blew it.

And Daley is pissed big time

It is unlikely that the International Olympic Committee has ever seen a presentation via a Teleprompter even from a “World Citizen” of Obama’s stature but even with a backing group consisting of such personages as Michelle and Oprah, it was all to no avail. And the nature of the actual presentation was pathetic in the extreme. At one point Obama said, and I paraphrase, that, “He was looking forward to the day when he could walk out of his Chicago home with his two daughters and welcome the world to his neighborhood”. Comment is superfluous except to say, Mr. Obama, that again you made it all about you.

And ,how could he have expected to be successful when, for the last nine months he’s been telling the world what a “G-d Awful” country the US is, and so who would want to come here for any reason whatsoever? Perhaps he meant that it’s a “G-d Awful” country except for a few square miles in Illinois.

This entire embarrassment shows several disturbing things and the first one is ignorance.

In decades past, much was made of so-called “Summit Meetings” when leaders such as Nixon and Mao would toast each other with some Chinese hooch or when Reagan and Gorbachev went through similar rituals except with decent vodka. All of these “confrontations” weren’t confrontational at all as months of behind-the-scenes diplomacy had preceded the main event which was little more than a photo-op.

Obama seems to have missed that unit in his presidential preparation classes and failed to understand that the President of these United States does not offer himself as sitting-duck target. The golden rule of top-level diplomacy is “No Surprises”.

Or, perhaps his sin was not ignorance but naivety. Perhaps he really thought that his charisma would carry the day. After all, the cable news networks were assuring themselves right up to the moment of Chicago’s rejection that it was in the bag and Obama either believed them or his own hubris. It’s one thing to fool other people about your brilliance and invincibility but it’s quite another when you start to believe in the myth yourself.

And, let us not forget, this is the same man who proposes to sit across the table from Ahmadinejad without pre-conditions and talk Iran out of its nukes. Heaven help us and Heaven help Israel.

Finally, let’s look at the fiscal implications not for Mayor Daley and his crooked allies but for the American taxpayer. Michelle flew over to Copenhagen in her personal Boeing 757. Air Force One doesn’t go anywhere without Air Force Two following in its con-trail and a further entourage of assorted hardware to provide logistical support. And all for an abortive attempt to procure an event that the vast majority of Chicagoans don’t want.

How’s that Hope and Change working for ya?