Obama Fever May Boost Chicago's Olympic Bid

Chicago hopes to have an ace up its sleeve when it makes its bid to host the 2016 Olympics next fall: the city’s most famous resident. With Vladimir Putin and Tony Blair helping cinch their countries' bids to win over previous Olympic organizers, officials hope Barack Obama will travel to Copenhagen to make the final presentation in person, writes Philip Hersh in the Chicago Tribune.

But the president-elect may have already given the Windy City's bid a boost. The global media got an eyeful during Obama’s Grant Park victory speech, which showed off a "striking city" and a well-managed crowd. "What the world saw Tuesday, what it will see every time President Obama returns to his home in Chicago, what it will read about after every reportorial trip to trace Obama's history, should expose the city in a way Chicago 2016 officials could never have done on their own." (More Barack Obama stories.)