The Big Guns On Chicago 2016

Obama's pulling out his heavy ordnance for bringing the Olympics to Chicago in 2016: Oprah and the First Lady.

Michelle Obama began the day today with a very important meeting with the president. But it wasn't President Obama she was meeting. It was Jacques Rogge, president of the International Olympic Committee, and probably one of the most sought-after leaders in the sports world this week.

The first lady is leading the U.S. delegation to bring the 2016 Olympic games to Chicago, with some star athletes by her side, and not to mention some very high powered help.

"I'm sort of an ambassador, am I not?" A laughing Oprah Winfrey said. "I've appointed myself ambassador for Chicago."

Mrs. Obama has likened the trip to the presidential campaign. From the moment her feet touched the ground here in Denmark, the first lady has been in campaign mode, lending her clout to Chicago's bid for the 2016 Olympic Summer Games.

"We are fired up and ready to go," she said at a welcome reception for Chicago boosters, employing a familiar phrase President Obama has used on the campaign trail.

Take THAT, Brazil. Oprah!

And the GOP continues to complain about this. They'll complain right up until Chicago wins, give it a day, and start complaining again the day after the announcement.

Chicago's bid is drawing protests at home, with some saying the games will bankrupt the city's economy, rather than helping it grow. Tom Tresser, who runs "No Games Chicago," is among those.

"It's the wrong project for the wrong city at the wrong time," he said. "We think the bills are going to go through the roof and the taxpayers will be soaked."

Experts say the economic impact is positive when the games are held, but the large investments that have to go into infrastructure can add up.

"If we're trying to sell the games on the economic boost it provides the economy, I think that it is a straw," said Robert Baade, a professor of economics at Lake Forest College in Chicago and president of the International Association of Sports Economists. "But if we sell the games on what it might do for a city psychologically, that is a much more compelling argument."

In Washington, critics are panning Obama's decision to fly to Copenhagen Friday for a brief trip to persuade the judges that Chicago should be the next site.

"Now the president is going to go to Copenhagen when we've got serious issues here at home that need to be debated," House Minority Leader John Boehner told reporters Wednesday. "I think it's a great idea to promote Chicago, but he's the president of the United States, not the mayor of Chicago."

The president will be on the ground for merely three hours, long enough to headline the final presentation and make the final pitch to undecided IOC members, like Ung Chang, who has been an IOC member for the last 13 years.

When asked what can convince him of his vote, Chang replied, "Last presentation, that's important."

Which is funny, because if Bush were doing this instead of Obama, it would be a "new era of international diplomacy" for Republicans, and "showing the world what American elbow grease can do". Instead, because Obama is doing it, it's "soaking taxpayers."