Copenhagen-bound, ready to sing Chicago's praises to the IOC

I am absolutely thrilled today to have been invited to join the delegation going to Copenhagen to try and win a bid for Chicago to host the 2016 Olympics. Absolutely.

Thank you, President and Mrs. Obama, for this honor.

It's no secret that I love the State of Illinois. And I am pleased to have the opportunity to tell the folks at the International Olympic Committee about our great state and about the many, many virtues of Chicago as a host city.

I will be busting with pride to help support an Olympic bid for a city that I--and many other Obama Administration officials--believe will make a fantastic host.

With Mrs. Obama, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, and Chicago media icon Oprah Winfrey, among others, we ought to field a pretty good team.

It's an easy sell; Chicago offers the Olympics the complete package: great transportation, great facilities, great food, and--most of all--great people.

And for Chicago to host this event will be a blessing for the entire state.

So, yes, I am fired up for this mission, and I will do my absolute best to represent Chicago and the Great State of Illinois.

Comments

[Fred_Gn]

Dear Sir,

Just a short comment from the north of the Netherlands (a.k.a. Holland).

For minute I thought you would be attending the climate summit which will take place in Copenhagen in december 2009.

For you, as the secretary of transport it would be a great meeting to attend anyway, seperate from the Chicago Olympic adventure.

Also a good oppertunity to fathem the new German goverment coalition.

Good luck and do persevere with projects to transform the US infrastructure :)

Venceremos, Fred_Gn

[Michael E. Bailey]

Chicago is a nice city that has everything anyone could want. Chicago probably would not need to do alot of extra building to get ready because it already has everything. I have heard a lot about Chicago but seen little. I went through Chicago once in the early 1970s with my mother who was living then. And we flew into Chicago O'Hare International from Los Angeles and had a 3 hour layover for an Allegany Airlines plane to take us to Danville, Illinois where we were picked up to go to Rockville, Indiana, to visit relitives. Best wishes, Michael E. Bailey.