10/02/2009 09:55 PM

I feel sorry for Chicago and the Irish-American team that put together their Olympic bid.

Pat Ryan of AON, helped by Mayor Daley and businessman Andy McKenna, used every trick in the book to try and win the games for the Windy City, including bringing in the president.

To not even make it past the first round was a crushing blow.

I know Pat Ryan and consider him an honorable and decent man. He deserved much better as did the other Chicago leaders involved.

Read New Yorker magazine this week about the gang problem in Rio and shudder. The International Olympic Committee has taken a big chance in my opinion.

South America certainly deserved the games but the notion that Rio is a safe and comfortable city to visit is really blown away by the New Yorker article. Put it this way – it will not be on my itinerary in 2016.

Chicago is big enough to rise up and thrive again. There is a deep strain of anti-Americanism among the elite in other nations abroad and the International Olympic Committee leadership is no different. I've grown sick of it frankly.

Of course when it comes to sponsorship the IOC will all be flocking to the American corporations and American primetime programming will dominate the scheduling of the event.

By denying Chicago and treating them so shabbily the IOC may well have bit the hand that feeds them. No American city will bid again for a long time given the humiliation Chicago has experienced.

That is greatly to the detriment of the games themselves.