Let Him Get Some Sleep

Was Obama's trip to Copenhagen to push Chicago for the 2016 Olympics a product of possibly the two most powerful in people in his life steering him there: his wife Michelle and their friend and presidential adviser Valerie Jarrett? I believe Andrew Sullivan says so:

Most of all, it was a dreadful piece of judgment. The president deserves every inevitable brickbat from the right; and David Axelrod should know better than to have left his boss this vulnerable at this critical juncture. I suspect the input of Valerie Jarrett and Michelle Obama. But the buck stops with Obama and he blew this one big time.

I mean, it may be hard to blame anyone since both Jarrett and Michelle have Chicago in their blood. And Obama isn't far behind. But I think he's onto something when he says it was still arrogant (but not narcissistic) of Obama thinking his clout as the American leader meant a lock. I don't think that's unfair to say. Good intentions mixed with the status of high power is quite intoxicating, I'm sure. But this happens with every president. I don't think this will hurt his political status much, if at all. But at the same time, no one will forget when Obama went to Denmark on a tight schedule in the middle of many major ongoing policy debates in Washington in attempt to deliver the Olympics to Chicago and didn't succeed. Just a historical observation.