Fellow, Unruh Institute of Politics, University of Southern California
We may never know the real reasons for Barack Obama’s failure to bring home the gold for Chicago – poor lobbying, anti-Americanism, inadequate venues, or the never-ending drumbeat of let’s blame Bush. The above notwithstanding, few can argue that the issue of geography played a large role. South America had never hosted the Games, Europe will host in 2012, Asia hosted in 2008 and North America has hosted most frequently of all in the past 50 years.
Everything else being equal, it made sense to send the games to a highly competitive attractive South American city such as Rio. Score one for Brazil, 0 for the United States.
Had Chicago won its bid to host the games in 2016, Los Angeles would not have had a legitimate shot in most of our lifetimes. Seriously, if the IOC already thinks the US has hosted too many games in recent years, does anyone really think LA would get to host the games anytime in the early 21st Century had Chicago won the bid?