Badly Played, Obama

Jillian Bandes | October 02, 2009 11:44 AM

He schlepped out there with his wife, his advisors, and Oprah Winfrey. He took two jumbo jets on the taxpayer's dime and tried to slip a $1 billion expense right under American taxpayers' noses. And the Olympic committee threw it right back in his face.

"Cue audible gasps around the auditorium," said the BBC live commentator.

How about: cue audible gasps from sea to shining sea? Obama's cred is going to suffer, badly, but only because he built up the hype.

"There's a reason the president is rarely dispatched to a summit whose outcome is uncertain... The White House staked, and lost, some prestige on that one," said Ben Smith at Politico.