Will Obama's Support For Chicago Olympics Hurt Him?

Last month president-elect Barack Obama vowed to end the old system of awarding federal goodies to friends.

But I'm not sure the call for productive and prudent public spending applies to the expensive wish lists of his hometown the same way it does to those of, say, the Detroit auto industry.

With modern capitalism crashing around our ears, the city is moving forward, full speed ahead, with its plans to stage the 2016 Olympics. Mayor Daley and his Olympic planners were just in Istanbul , wooing members of the International Olympic Committee. Among the highlights of their trip was the presentation of a videotaped pitch from Obama, made at their request, telling Olympics organizers that he'd be proud to see the games in his hometown. In January the city will submit its official bid to the IOC, and next October the IOC will choose Madrid, Rio de Janeiro, Tokyo, or--gulp--Chicago to host the 2016 games.

So far the prospect of hosting the Olympics hasn't inspired widespread opposition in this city. Daley contends this is because Chicagoans are 100 percent behind the games. I, on the other hand, have long suspected that most Chicagoans simply aren't paying much attention--it's been hard enough to keep track of the presidential race and the economic meltdown without looking eight years down the road.

Furthermore, Daley has done a masterful job--and you really have to give him credit for this one--of shielding the public from any specific details of his Olympics plans: almost no one knows enough about them to decide whether the games would be a boon or a boondoggle.

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