July 11, 2017

Can Trump succeed where Obama failed?



ADDED: "The International Olympic Committee has voted in favour of naming hosts for successive Games on 13 September with just Paris and Los Angeles bidding. The IOC - which oversees the Olympic movement - wants the cities to reach an agreement on who hosts in 2028 by then."

70 comments:

LYNNDH said...

NO NO NO!!!!!!! They cost too much. I am not an Environmentalist but they should be opposing the Olympics too.

MadisonMan said...

I can't think that having the Olympics is a very worthwhile goal. You end up greasing the many many palms of the IOOC. Why?

Steve said...

Bringing the Olympics to the US would be the failure.

traditionalguy said...

The Olympics are overrated as games. But that much mass publicity all over the world is worth something. And our Modern Presidential guy knows that.

Dave from Minnesota said...

Word out there is Paris gets 2024 and Los Angeles gets 2028.

WisRich said...

Only if Mitt Romney runs it. However, it's L.A. so I don't even think Mitt could salvage it.

Lyle Smith said...

America is the only place where the Olympic organizers usually cover their costs. We'll bet getting another Olympics. Trump hosting the Olympics would be bad ass. Democrats would have the opportunity to compare him to Caligula or Nero.

Sebastian said...

Wait, Trump could succeed where O's I/me life story failed to get the Games for Chicago? Unpossible! The world hates T and us!

Paddy O said...

Boo!

LA would do the Olympics quite well. But the Olympics are no longer great. Totally corrupt and commercially controlled.

Dave from Minnesota said...

News headline:

May 2027
"Olympic progress way over budget and behind schedule. Millions of dollars have been spent on questionable contractors"

Jim Gust said...

Count me among those who don't want the Olympics to ever be in the USA again. The Donald is wasting his political capital, and he should not be doing it in public.

victoria said...

He has been as involved in the Olympics for LA as much as I have. Not at all. He will probably take credit for it, though. Gag


Vicki from Pasadena

victoria said...

I lived in LA,still do, during the 1984 Olympics. Wonderful experience for everyone. Let's do it again.


Vicki from Pasadena

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Bring the Olympics to Wisconsin, so Althouse could cover the men in shorts competition.

Ralph L said...

It'll be too late for Trump to bankrupt whichever network overpays for the TV rights.

Nonapod said...

Everything around organizing the Olympics always seems to me to be steeped in corruption, payoffs and payouts, huge sums of money disappearing, all ending up with a substandard product. It's a great example of everything that's wrong with globalism.

madAsHell said...

I used to enjoy the Olympics when I was a kid, and then it became PeepHole magazine.

Michael K said...

The LA Olympics succeeded because they were run by Peter Ueberroth who knew how things work. Mitt Romney did the same for the winter games in SLC.

Ueberroth was an entrepreneur.

Does anyone think the idiots who now run California could run the Olympics at a profit ?

readering said...

It's pretty much a done deal. After Boston awarded US right to bid but had to back out due to public opposition, LA swooped in with replacement bid. Then all foreign competitors but Paris withdrew. Paris sentimental favorite because 100 year anniversary of last hosting (think Chariots of Fire) but LA bid so good that IOC has decided to award '24 and '28 at same time while has the chance. Trump has nothing to do with it.

Kevin said...

If we're going to have the Olympics in this country, it should be held in a city that can host it with minimal investment - likely someone it has been held before.

I shudder when I think about putting it somewhere to jump-start a massive public works boom, requiring massive government spending, and leaving venues which have little use after the games are over. And it's not something to be used as a Federal government slush fund, to take care of all the needs your citizens won't pay for themselves.

Let's pick a couple of cities - LA, Atlanta, Salt Lake - have them be our Olympic cities, and leave it at that.

Bill, Republic of Texas said...

I am not an Environmentalist but they should be opposing the Olympics too.

I agree the building if these venues every four years is a huge waste of resources. Better to have permanent site for the Olympics. Give Greece the summer Olympics and somewhere reliable cold and snowy the winter Olympics.

But that will never happen because not enough opportunity for graft.

rhhardin said...

Take it to Juarez, across from El Paso. They already have a stadium, at least they did in the 60s. Move the bulls out for the summer. They could use the money.

traditionalguy said...

Ah ha. This is Trump's latest attempt to welcome Russians into the United States. the Insane McCain and Graham-Nasty never-Trump duo will never let him get away with it.

Wilbur said...

The Olympics? Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

This sports fan hasn't watched a minute of it for 30 years.

I'm for whatever venue causes NBC to lose the most money televising it.

Comanche Voter said...

LA 84 ran the Summer Olympics at a profit. The Los Angeles metroplex has all sorts of existing facilities sufficient unto an Olympics. I agree with Michael K. that the current "ruling class" in Los Angeles is unlikely to generate another Peter Ueberroth. But the point is that it can be done--it was done once.

Kevin said...

Trump has nothing to do with it.

Who does? Obama? But now that he's gone the president is irrelevant? No one in the federal government at all? Although it will take Federal funding and resources to make it all happen?

How is it that we keep hearing "Trump had nothing to do with it", when other people in his seat and running their administrations likely played a central role?

Does his "nothing to do with it" stop at the awarding of the bid, and he starts getting credit for the outlays of money that will be required? Does his "nothing to do with it" encapsulate the cutting of regulations which will make it cheaper and faster to build or upgrade the facilities which will be required? If he had signaled his disapproval and worked to kill the award, wouldn't he have something to do with it? And by encouraging the award, even in its final stages, doesn't that lend confidence to the Olympic Committee in awarding the games?

Rational people can debate his role. But to say "nothing" is to misunderstand or misrepresent reality.

Sam L. said...

LA is less smoggy than Beijing, but I don't care.

Dave from Minnesota said...

I'm always fascinated by how many condoms they go through at the Olympic village. That's one hell of a spring break frat party. I wonder if they have to get oral confirmations before.....

exhelodrvr1 said...

Too many people on the IOC would vote against Trump just because he's Trump, not based on the merits.

stever said...

Suffice to say Trump won't approach it like Obama did which was to rely on the same "love" that got him elected to anything, ever or got him the Nobel Prize. I short, you got to work for it.

Thorley Winston said...

The Olympics are a boondoggle and I don't want taxpayer dollars used for them regardless of who the President is or which American city is hosting them. It was a bad idea when Obama tried to bring them to Chicago and it's a bad idea for Trump to try to bring them to Los Angeles.

WisRich said...

The only redeeming value of the L.A. bid is that most of the infrastructure is already in place meaning at least half of the graft is already been paid for.

Once written, twice... said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
traditionalguy said...
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traditionalguy said...

The Atlanta bid for the 1996 Olympics was a long shot done entirely by dedicated local Georgians. It was done for World Publicity in the era after the cold war ended and we had won. And it worked. World Politics had once again become who bribed whom among Europe's Aristocracy. Those are the Globalists today headed up by Germans who now see the USA as an enemy that dares to want its money back.

But after the crazy time, there was a great influx of educated immigrants with money that came into Atlanta. We overnight became the new world favorite over Texas. And after we got the selection, the Feds jumped in and provided funds to relocate slums and widen roads.

Thorley Winston said...

Even though I voted for Trump and still think he’s less awful than Hillary Clinton, he is showing himself to be a pretty disappointing president. We are Twenty Trillion Dollars in debt, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are breaking the budget and he’s doing nothing to fix these problems or to help get a bill through Congress to repeal (or repeal and replace) Obamacare.

Yet he wants us to pat him on the head for “working hard to get the Olympics for the United States.”

Don't we deserve better?

Witness said...

Please no...

MAJMike said...

Waste of time and money. Let the games go to Ulan Bator in Mongolia or to Riyadh in Saudi Arabia.

All of the money wasted could be better used in numerous other venues.

Boxty said...

If Trump can bring the Olympics and get it done on time and under budget (he has a history of that) then it will be just another jewel in the God Emperor's crown. I would love to see the Olympic torch bearer running beside a big, beautiful wall at the border with Mexico.

Los Angeles is a third world slum these days. A little bit better than Brazil, but not by much. It's fitting the Olympics should be held there.

Bricap said...

Living here in Chicago, I am so glad we didn't get that Olympics. Most of the planning would have happened under Daley. It would have been a patronage and graft bonanza from which we'd never recover.

LA has a distinct advantage in that it doesn't have to spend nearly as much money on facilities, as WisRich posted above.

Etienne said...
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I'm Full of Soup said...

What Paddy O said at 9:43AM.

Etienne said...

Put the Olympics in Mosul, Iraq. It needs a good stadium to be built.

Big Mike said...

Thoughts ...

Obama came into office with a negotiating style that amounted to "Here's what I want, now give it to me." At the end of eight years he wasn't much better. Lefties don't like it that Donald Trump wrote what many regard as the book on negotiating, but he did.

As a real estate developer in New York (city and state alike) Trump is no doubt used to negotiating in an environment where a convenient "donation" speeds things along.

I'm perfectly aware that if the US wins the Olympics and it turns out well, the position of the media and the Democrats will be that Trump had "nothing to do with it," while if the US loses the bid, or wins and it turns out negatively, it will be all his fault. I think we can safely ignore them.

I hope they don't go to a dysfunctional blue state like any on the left coast, or Illinois, or New York and points northeast of there. That's asking for a disaster.

And when all's said and fone, I agree with LYNNDH and the first comment on this thread.

Chuck said...

If we don't get the 2024 Summer Olympics, can we get the 2024 Miss Universe Pageant?

donald said...

Two words: women's beach volleyball.

That's funny cause I used three words instead of two.

MaxedOutMama said...

If he did, it would be definitive evidence of Russian collusion. But he won't, because of Climate Criminalism.

Shawn Levasseur said...

After the scandals around the Salt Lake City Winter Games, the IOC will not give the US any further games. The bribery and corruption required to get the games alone will prevent any US based games. On top of that is the lingering hostility from the IOC towards the US for bringing attention to their corruption. Recent prosecutions of FIFA (the international soccer federation) officials in US courts, show that the US is not likely to look the other way on such matters.

Even beyond all that, the IOC has routinely been getting host countries to enforce restrictions on speech and commercial activity in host cities that cannot be done in the U.S. The 1st amendment prevents much of that, and the commercial restrictions give local businesses a reason to oppose an olympic bid in the first place, adding political opposition locally.

The U.S. will likely be out of the Olympic hosting game for decades to come. And we'll be the better for it.

rehajm said...

Los Angeles??

That's stupid. The state is bankrupt.



Trump knows this very well: When you owe the bank a million dollars the bank owns you. When you owe the bank a billion dollars, you own the bank. Los Angeles, and California for that matter, own the bank. Cali needs the cash influx from a big public works project to prop up the asset side of their balance sheet. They'll park the obligations off balance sheet and Presto!, improved public finances!!!

They'll need two Olympics to do it though. One's not enough

rehajm said...

I liked the Lake Placid games: Team USA is still using most of the facilities for training future Olympians. The media center was the Lake Placid High School, adjacent to the speed skating rink...

Lillehammer had high school bleachers at many venues. The ice hockey rink was in a troll cave.

Hunter said...

This is brilliant.

California and LA will jump at the prestige chance to host the Olympics. Another shiny new toy, like the high speed train that is already set to bankrupt the state.

Once taken on, they will spend even more money they don't have to build new stadiums and convention centers. Leaving them even more broke.

Thus speeding the economic collapse of California which is, let's be honest, completely inevitable and unavoidable given the political makeup of the state. And when it happens, it will be very obviously 100 percent the fault of those running California i.e. leftwing Democrats, since they spent all the money chasing all the shiny new toys. They will not be able to blame it on Trump or on Congress.

And in the aftermath, perhaps enough Californians will wake up to economic reality and turn over their government. Maybe. It's a small chance, but...

CJinPA said...

Prof must be working on something on the newly released Trump Jr. email string. It's going to add fuel to the fire.

Anonymous said...

@shawn 11:03 Solid analysis. The question outstanding is: Is the IOC a bigger bunch of crooks than FIFA?

Kate said...

Summer Olympics in Anchorage! Completely impractical, impossibly expensive, but, oh, so beautiful.

n.n said...

There is a bipartisan interest in hosting the Olympics. The left likes all things non-American, and many and most Americans enjoy the drama of athletic competition.

roesch/voltaire said...

So according to Don Jr, and the released emails, he went to the meeting to collude, but because, according to him, there was no information to collude about they left. Really this is what we are to believe?

Rick said...

MadisonMan said...
I can't think that having the Olympics is a very worthwhile goal. You end up greasing the many many palms of the IOOC. Why?


It's a huuuuge spectacle. How could Trump not be drawn to it?

Martin said...

I hope not. I am in Chicago and we REALLY dodged a bullet when Rio got the 2016 Olympics instead of Chicago.

It's a losing proposition in the US, where central govt support is very limited. In Choi it was supported by the usual crony pols and business/labor interests who would have derived direct financial benefit, everyone else either didn't care or saw it would cost them tons. It is the quintessential elite vanity project.

LA doesn't need the Olympics to establish itself on the world stage, it is already there. It will just cost the taxpayers a ton of money, disrupt everyone's lives for a month, and substitute one group of tourists for another, maybe paying more for rooms and a few people will make money via Airbnb, but otherwise for little or no net gain.

Big Mike said...

Really this is what we are to believe?

A reasonable human being would not believe that offering to take a meeting amounts to collusion in the first place. Nothing happened in the meeting or as a consequence of the meeting so, yes, only the most desperate of the hard core Republican haters would conclude otherwise.

Big Mike said...

And, BTW, you posted your comment on the wrong thread, you ignorant wuss.

readering said...

Another main reason Paris likely to get 2024 and LA 2028 is that Paris needs to build housing and the money budgeted for that may not be available for 2028. LA has the housing (USC for media and UCLA for athletes). LA also might like extra four years for ongoing LAX improvements and light rail extension to UCLA. Pro football and soccer are already building new stadiums but by 2028 there's a chance the Clippers will also build a new arena for themselves that will also be available. The one way Trump could have gotten involved would have been to make his golf club available, but there are lots of alternatives there and more centrally located.

Bricap said...

Martin echoed what i said earlier about Chicago. I don't mind infrastructure improvement where it is needed here, but this was idiotic on so many levels, and the idea of Daley and his cronies basking in the ensuing sh*t show would have been too repulsive to contemplate.

I think LA could be done if they stuck with existing facilities and didn't have to build that many new ones, much as was done last time. Hollwyood is all about sequels and remakes now, anyway. It is probably the only city in America that has a shot at doing this relatively cheaply, cheap enough for it to be profitable for the city and environs. If the IOC demands too many costly upgrades, then yes, walk away, obviously.

Bob Loblaw said...

Yeah, Los Angeles already has the necessary facilities.

Still, with the end of the cold war and all the recent scandals, I don't think the Olympics has anywhere near the prestige it used to have.

Chuck said...

Geeze, I sure hope Trump is not "working hard" on the 2024 Olympics.

I want Trump to be working hard on healthcare reform, a tax code rewrite, the North Korean crisis, trade agreements, federal judiciary nominations, and overhaul of the Department of Education and election security.

And maybe a hundred other things. And not the Olympics.

Mark Jones said...

Hunter said, "And when it happens, it will be very obviously 100 percent the fault of those running California i.e. leftwing Democrats, since they spent all the money chasing all the shiny new toys. They will not be able to blame it on Trump or on Congress."

I think you seriously underestimate their ability to lie, cheat and dissemble. They'll ALWAYS blame anyone and everyone but themselves, especially Republicans.

When I was a kid, my family made a big thing out of watching the Olympics every four years. Nowadays the coverage is so bad, so slipshod, that we don't bother. Plus, the corruption in the IOC and the economic sinkhole that most ex-Olympic venues become means I think we'd do well to let some other poor saps have the "honor" of hosting.

Bob Loblaw said...

I want Trump to be working hard on healthcare reform, a tax code rewrite, the North Korean crisis, trade agreements, federal judiciary nominations, and overhaul of the Department of Education and election security.

Half of that list isn't in the president's scope of power. Trump can't do healthcare reform or a tax code rewrite.

Achilles said...

This is stupid.

rcocean said...

No more olympics in USA. Waste of money. We all have to watch on TV anyway - and its a damn headache in you have olympics in your city. Traffic, cost, high prices, tourists.

NO NO NO.

rcocean said...

"Take it to Juarez, across from El Paso."

Best suggestion ever.

Or just permanently locate it in Athens.

Anonymous said...

Detroit came within one vote of hosting the 1968 summer games. Imagine running the marathon in the middle of face riots