As far as expiration dates go, this is small potatoes, but it illustrates that a strongly held position can change quite quickly in this White House:
The president said in a Sept. 14 interview that he was too occupied by the health-care debate to make a final pitch for Chicago and that his wife was the best choice to represent the U.S.
“I’m in the middle of some very important decisions around health care,” he said, adding that he is “deeply invested” in winning the Olympics.
Fourteen days later, we’re told Obama is going to Copenhagen.
The fact that Obama is going signals that Chicago is getting the Olympics, right? Would Obama go if he hadn’t been told that his attendance was the difference-maker? Would the IOC have the nerve to reject the hometown of the president, after every international elite spent the last two years telling Americans to elect this man?
And with allied reinforcements in Afghanistan few and far between, Iran shooting off missiles, trade wars brewing with China, Mexico, and Canada, and Russia ignoring the “reset button,” doesn’t Obama need a big foreign win right now?
If Chicago doesn’t get the Olympics, we’ll hear a lot of people noting that Obama can’t find time to meet with General McChrystal to decide on his Afghanistan plan, but he could find the time to go Denmark to get rejected . . .
UPDATE: Ramesh had the same thought at about the same time, which is usually a good sign for me.