Obama Loses to Rio
It took an estimated $1 million worth of taxpayer money to send President Obama, his wife and his aides to Copenhagen in a last-ditch effort to win Chicago the 2016 Olympics. While leaders from the other bidding countries showed up as well — and past flesh-pressing by Britain's Tony Blair and Russia's Vladimir Putin had helped secure their countries the 2012 and 2014 Games, respectively — many questioned whether the President should really be taking time off from the bitter fight for health-care reform to travel to Denmark. So when the Windy City was knocked out in the first round of voting with just 18 of 94 votes, Americans wondered why the President even bothered to show up in the first place. Didn't he have more important things to worry about?