If Obama gets 2016 Games, Daley will be king, not mayor

[IndianaGreen]

If Obama gets 2016 Games, Daley will be king, not mayor

John Kass

September 30, 2009

"I don't want to get into a political game," Chicago 2016 Chairman Patrick Ryan told reporters in Copenhagen, as contingents from Chicago, Rio, Madrid and Tokyo politicked for the right to host the Olympic festival. "This race is about sports and competition. This should not be about a competition between heads of state. It's all about the athletes and Paralympians.

"President Obama is coming here out of respect for the athletes and the bid," Ryan said.

Oh, really?

Ryan may be many things, but dumb isn't one of them. He's a realist, worth a gazillion dollars. His former archrival, Near North Insurance boss Mickey Segal, is a broken man, sitting in federal prison, probably going stir-crazy. Someday, Ryan will end up owning the Chicago Bears. Yet he talks in terms of sport and competition.

If you think Chicago's Olympic push is about sports, you're mistaken. Sports has nothing to do with this. It's like in the old movie, with Michael Corleone telling truths to his future wife, saying, "Now who's being naive, Kay?"

Whether you want the games or not, please try muffling out those giddy broadcast news types and their frenetic cheerleading and understand what you're really watching.

If Chicago gets the games, the contracts and the grease and immense leverage to reshape a city will be used as originally intended. To rebuild the boss, to give a mayor facing deficits and taxpayer revolts and headaches a much-needed shoring up of his political infrastructure.

Surely the Obama White House, run by former Daleyites, knows that a Chicago Olympics will keep the mayor politically secure. That crown was once heavy and uncertain upon Daley's head, when the feds were raiding City Hall and sending his underlings to prison. Only a few years ago, the mayor ridiculed the Olympic idea. These days, he carries the torch in his teeth.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-kass-30-sep30,0,456539.column

[timeforpeace]

1. Daley will be indicted, not crowned (eventually).