Never at a loss for words on 2016 bid

Random thoughts on losing the 2016 Summer Olympics to Rio, which is no big loss anyway:

• OK, this clinches it. Copenhagen doesn't get an NBA expansion franchise.

• Forget about Michael Jordan not being over there for Chicago's pitch party. Where was Al Capone when we needed him? Or Kanye West to go nuts on the IOC?

• Maybe voters simply preferred the girl from Ipanema to the talk-show host from Chicago.

• We'll get over this. It's not like we aren't accustomed to losing a sports competition, or even to finishing last. Just rationalize that we were fourth among thousands of cities in the world.

• Apparently there just weren't enough dead IOC voters to give Chicago a chance.

• Mayor Daley should have to pay for squandering $70 million in organizing money. How about taking his father's name off the Richard J. Daley Center, selling the naming rights and making it the GoDaddy.com Center?

• Guard your wallets now that politically connected developers need to dip elsewhere.

• Maybe the IOC was afraid we would try to replace synchronized swimming with synchronized corruption.

• At the Bulls' media day, Derrick Rose was asked how he would feel if the 2016 Games were in Chicago.

The opportunity was perfect for Rose to gush about how great it would be to represent his country in his hometown.

I almost choked on my free lunch when he said, "I'm hoping that would open up some marketing opportunities, give me more sales in shoes, get me in more stores."

Don't blame Rose for his Illympic spirit. At 20 he has lived his entire life in an environment of Games officials and athletes going more for the green than the gold.

• Maybe IOC voters prefer umbrella drinks to Old Style.

• The experience reminds to never be drawn into anything that involves a secret ballot among scoundrels.

• The good news is if the 2016 Cubs contend for their first world championship in 108 years, they won't have to go on a three-week road trip in the middle of the season and return home in fourth place.

• Any chance the IOC will pull a Favre and change its mind?

• How humbling this must be for chronic winners Barack Obama, Richie Daley, Pat Ryan, Oprah and others who stumped for Chicago? Well, at least they all can be thankful this morning that they aren't David Letterman.

• Maybe IOC voters weren't impressed by Mayor Daley's performance in the pageant's swimsuit competition.

• In a way the result is poetic, or political, justice after so many have been frustrated dealing with our elected officials over the years. Gang, this is how it feels to bang your head against the arrogant.

• My goodness, what is anybody going to find to do in Chicago in the summer of '16? Yikes, we all might have to go to the Dells.

• Maybe IOC voters in the end agreed with those around the globe who simply don't like us.

• Finally, news that Chicago was eliminated arrived simultaneously with news that five Americans were killed in Afghanistan.

Losing is relative in international affairs.

mimrem@dailyherald.com