In a 2005 article written in the aftermath of New York losing its bid for the 2012 Olympics, the Chicago Tribune claimed, the “United States is no longer life of the IOC party.” Two guesses as to they blamed:

The Bush administration’s policies are widely reviled worldwide, and none of its leading officials came to Singapore to support New York’s bid for the 2012 Olympics. The political leaders of the countries whose cities were the top three finishers in the 2012 vote, Britain, France and Spain, all spent time in Singapore lobbying IOC members.

“A lot of things don’t help us,” [Bob Ctvrtlik, one of three International Olympic Committee members from the U.S] said. “Geopolitically, we are swimming upstream.

Four years later, with a new president with deep roots in the Chicago political machine, and who does the Chicago Sun-Times blame? But of course:

Some Chicago officials say anti-American resentments likely played a role in Chicago’s Olympic bid dying in the first round today.

President Obama could not undo in one year the resentment against America that President Bush and others built up for decades before, they said.

“There must be” resentment against America, the Rev. Jesse Jackson said, near the stage where he had hoped to give a victory speech in Daley Plaza. “The way we [refused to sign] the Kyoto Treaty, we mislead the world into Iraq. The world had a very bad taste in its mouth about us. But there was such a turnaround after last November. The world now feels better about America and about Americans. That’s why I thought the president’s going was the deal-maker.”

State Rep. Susana Mendoza (D-Chicago) said she saw first hand the resentment against America five years ago when she was in Rio de Janeiro to speak as a surrogate for then-presidential candidate John Kerry.

“This vote today was without a doubt ridiculously political and mean-spirited,” Mendoza said. “I travel a lot. I was literally nearly killed in Rio three years ago when I was there representing the U.S. Government. I thought we had really turned a corner with the election of President Obama. People are so much more welcoming of Americans now. But this isn’t the people of those countries. This is the leaders still living with an outdated impression of Americans.”

Via the Rhetorican, who spots the predictability of it all.

Meanwhile, Newsweek wonders why “GOPers Snicker Over Obama’s Loss” — including, I guess, those rightwing neanderthal deathbeasts at the New York Times…