Perhaps while watching yesterday's breaking news regarding the arrest of Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich you said to yourself, "Surely Chicago politics couldn't get more absurd." Well, try this one on for size.

One of the first things Barack Obama did after the presidential election was to make a pitch to the European Olympic Committee for Chicago’s 2016 Olympic Bid.

Chicago is up against Tokyo, Madrid and Rio. The winner gets announced in October. While hosting the Olympics would present opportunities, it would also present challenges.

June 6 2008 - At a Daley Plaza Olympics rally to mark the city making the first cut in the contest to win the right to host the games, the South Side Democrat also noted that his home is only a few blocks from the proposed site of the main Olympic Stadium in Washington Park.

by Bob Quellos, October 24, 2008, Socialist Worker (USA)

THE INTERNATIONAL Olympic Committee's (IOC) choice of a host city for the 2016 summer Olympics is still a year away, but Chicago's Olympic bid is already coming in over budget.Mayor Richard Daley tried to assure residents that the Olympics won't cost them a dime. At the same time, the IOC has told the Chicago 2016 bid committee that at least $1 billion of public money should be set aside for potential cost overruns. Judging from past Olympics, cost overruns are inevitable.

.

Chicago's 2016 bid committee hopes the 80 pages of information it sent last week to the International Olympic Committee will help distinguish the quality of the city's Summer Olympic bid from those of its six rivals. After all, the IOC will pick finalist cities in June largely on the basis of that information.

The American city of Chicago is such a hot favourite to win the right to host the 2016 Summer Olympics that only they can mess it up, a senior International Olympic Committee (IOC) member told AFP.

ANYBODY GOT $500 million collecting dust under the couch? If you live in Chicago, take a second look between those cushions. The United States Olympic Committee (USOC) has let it be known that the people of the Windy City could pay out as much as $500 million if they are awarded the 2016 Summer Games.