Assessing the fallout from Chicago's Olympic-sized loss

Chicago called in all the political heavy hitters, ranging from Oprah to President Barack Obama, in its drive to win the Olympic bid.

Chicago called in all the political heavy hitters, ranging from Oprah to President Barack Obama, in its drive to win the Olympic bid. Yet, it remains to be seen what, if any, fallout the surprising snub will have on those who led the effort.

For the president, it is arguably his first failure on the international stage, having enjoyed great popularity abroad.

Chicago advocates had hoped to ride his coattails to the 2016 Olympics and Obama appeared to begrudgingly bow to local pressure to speak before the IOC after first saying he didn't have the time. Barack and Michelle Obama's presence among the celebrity-studded Chicago lineup helped fuel the front-runner media hype that had raised expectations and turned the rejection into humiliation.

At the same time, Obama faced partisan criticism for heading overseas to lobby for his adopted hometown while so many critical issues remain unresolved on Capitol Hill and elsewhere on the world stage.

Conservative pundits who blasted Obama Thursday for making an in-person pitch to the committee, pointed to the bid's early bombing Friday to further diminish the president.

But in the suburbs, Republican congressional lawmakers largely took a pass on the critique. U.S. Rep. Judy Biggert of Hinsdale wouldn't take calls from the press and neither would U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk, who is running for Senate. But the Highland Park Republican did issue a statement, saying: "We are a city of big shoulders. Let's move on, focusing on longer-term policies that put Americans to work, reduce debts and reform our state's government." Kirk's staff didn't offer any elaboration.

However, given the outcome, the president appears to have been in a no-win situation, criticized for being involved but likely to have also been criticized if he'd not gone and the Olympics went elsewhere. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said as much to reporters flying back from Copenhagen on Air Force One.

"I can only imagine that somebody - they probably had a news release queued up that said, if Chicago didn't get the Olympics and the President didn't go," Gibbs told reporters after being asked about the criticism. "You know, there's people trying to solve problems and there's people playing games, and I think we know where a bunch of that is."

For Daley, pulling off the 2016 Olympics could have been a fitting final chapter for the family's storied political legacy. Instead, inability to even get past the first round of IOC voting Friday is a major blow to the mayor who spent three years working, cajoling and insisting that the games would be a boon for his city. He'd invested a great deal of personal political capital, convincing aldermen to get the city to fully back the bid's financing.

The 67-year-old Daley, who has been in office for 20 years, is left grappling with already low approval ratings and growing national scrutiny of the violence on his city's streets.

Former Chicago Alderman Dick Simpson says he doesn't see the Olympic bid failure killing Daley's political career, however embarrassing the defeat may have been.

"These kinds of things happen in government and politics and I don't think it will be any sort of major political blow to Daley," said Simpson, who now heads the political science department at the University of Illinois at Chicago. "This does have the hidden blessing that there won't be any corruption and cost overruns that might have been the case if we did get it."

Elsewhere in the state's political spectrum, officials and candidates were searching for the silver lining like Cubs' fans after another season of futility.

"While we are understandably disappointed, we should not be discouraged by today's outcome. Chicago's bid was a great example of effort, energy and teamwork. People from across our state came together in an unprecedented manner to support this excellent bid. Going forward, we must apply what was learned from this process and continue to make Chicago and Illinois even stronger and better," Gov. Pat Quinn said in a news release.

For Quinn, who traveled to Copenhagen to support the bid, there's likely little fallout. He only became governor in January following the impeachment and ouster of Rod Blagojevich. Even a potential Republican rival in next year's elections applauded the effort put forth.

"I commend Mayor Daley, Pat Ryan and the entire 2016 Committee for their hard work and gold medal performance. While the decision is, indeed, a disappointment, it certainly wasn't for a lack of effort," said Hinsdale Republican Kirk Dillard. "To the contrary, their efforts and leadership helped provide a much-needed boost to our state's reputation at a very important time as we return our state to its rightful prominence."

At least one prominent Chicago Democrat, however, gave a Chicago-style shot back at the IOC, calling the decision, "the world's loss."

"Hosting the Olympics would have been a wonderful opportunity to showcase our great city and state to the world, and, in that regard, it's the world's loss," said Democratic state Comptroller Dan Hynes, a Chicagoan planning to challenge Quinn for the party nomination for governor. "I am proud of the bid and, as always, proud to be a Chicagoan."

Daily Herald news services contributed to this report.