As opposed to "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," the President of the United States, the leader of the free world, the man with problems such as near double digit unemployment at home, decides to go help his fellow Chicagoans win the 2016 Summer Olympics [article link]. I suppose President Obama still thinks of himself as a community organizer since this would help Chicago out so much. But, he has a bigger gig now. He doesn't seem to realize that despite being 9 months on the job.

The strange thing about this (well, besides the President going off on quite possibly a fruitless junket) is that the people of Chicago seem evenly divided [article link] over whether they want the 2016 Olympics in their city. Now, there is probably a good reason for this even split among the people. Half seem to think the Olympics would be good for the overall economy of Chicago and would provide many jobs (temporarily of course) that are desperately needed. The other half are concerned about the cost that the city would incur. Chicago Mayor Richard Daily supposely "... told the IOC he'd sign a contract promising the city would take full financial responsibility for the games after long maintaining he wouldn't."

There has to be a place in the Obama Administration for a man like Mayor Daily who makes financial promises when he has no idea how he can raise the money...without increasing taxes, of course. He will raise taxes, he has no choice. And there is the rub; even in Chicago, people are tired of their taxes constantly being increased. It comes down to just how cost effective the Olympics would be. Do the increase in taxes justify whatever economic boon the Olympics would bring? Quite possibly it would not. Just ask the good people of Atlanta about that.