Olympic round-up: GOP blasts Obama; Brazil's bid; Soci's tab

NEW YORK (AP) -- President Obama's decision to travel to Copenhagen to boost Chicago's chances of winning the 2016 Olympics has drawn criticism from some Republicans, who call it a boondoggle for Obama's hometown allies and evidence the president has blurred his priorities.

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele denounced the visit on a conference call with reporters Tuesday. Calling it "noble for the president to pitch his home city, Chi-town," before the International Olympic Committee Friday, Steele said it nonetheless was a distraction from more pressing issues such as health care, job creation and other urgent demands on Obama's time.

However, Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and 2008 Republican presidential contender, said Obama was right to make an appearance.

"In the current environment, the presence of a head of state is important to get the Games," Romney, who headed the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah, said, noting that former British Prime Minister Tony Blair had set a new standard by personally lobbying for his country's succesful 2012 Olympic bid.

Steele said it raised questions about Obama's priorities.

"Where is the focus?" Steele asked. "At a time of war, at a time of recession ... I think this trip is nice but not necessary for the president. The goal should be creating job opportunities not seven years from now, but job opportunities today."

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs laughed when told of Steele's criticism of Obama's trip.

"Who's he rooting for?" Robert Gibbs said. "Is he hoping to hop a plane to Brazil and catch the Olympics in Rio? I don't know. Maybe it's Madrid."

Steele's comments echoed those of Rep. Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, the ranking GOP member of the House Intelligence Committee, who told reporters Obama should focus on the escalating conflict in Afghanistan.

Just last week Obama said he wouldn't make the trip to Copenhagen, citing his need to press for health care reform legislation instead. White House officials mentioned the economic benefits the U.S. would receive from a winning Olympics bid in explaining the president's sudden change of heart.

First Lady Michelle Obama was originally slated to represent Chicago before the IOC but will now share the duties with her husband.

The city's bid is competing with bids from Rio de Janeiro, Madrid, Spain and Tokyo, and the heads of state from Brazil, Spain and Japan are appearing in person to make their countries' pitch.

Indeed, Curt Hamakawa, director of the Center for International Sport Business at Western New England College in Massachusetts, said Chicago would likely lose the bid if Obama had chosen not to go.

"For the president not to attend would send a signal, and it would not be helpful to Chicago's bid. Almost certainly it would result in Chicago not having a chance," Hamakawa said, adding that if Obama had stayed home and Chicago wasn't selected, "Republicans would have been crabbing that he didn't do enough."

GOP strategist John Feehery said it was important for Republicans to pick their battles in deciding how and when to criticize Obama.

But Feehery, a Chicago native who said he is rooting for the city to win the Games, said GOP complaints about Obama's trip were well-founded.

"He's taking a bunch of Chicago cronies on an all expense paid trip to Copenhagen for just one reason, to get the Olympics," Feehery said. "For me it makes him seem unserious and look slightly desperate."

Grumbling about Obama's trip began to bubble up on conservative blogs and Web sites soon after the White House announced Obama's trip Monday.

"It's not like the president doesn't have anything to do, nothing important on his plate at the moment, right?" the blog Rightwing Nuthouse.com asked, while the conservative Drudge Report posted a television news story about a Chicago teen beaten and murdered in gang warfare there last week.

"Olympic Spirit," the Drudge Report declared in a headline.

Brazil keeps focus on bid

COPENHAGEN (AP) -- Rio de Janeiro focused its bid to host the 2016 Olympics on Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and sidestepped questions Tuesday about U.S. President Barack Obama's influence over the voters.

Obama's presence could have an impact on Chicago's bid when the International Olympic Committee votes Friday, but Rio's team noted Silva had 80 percent approval ratings in Brazil.

Bid leader Carlos Nuzman said the president -- known as Lula -- was the most popular in the country's history since his second election win in 2006.

"When he was re-elected he had 65 (percent), and now it's going up," Nuzman said at Rio's first briefing since arriving in Denmark. "During these last two years President Lula works this long campaign, not only beside us, (but) inside this bid team."

Silva arrives in Copenhagen on Wednesday and will meet with IOC members the next day, ahead of Friday's vote.

Obama arrives Friday and will take part in Chicago's final presentation to the IOC.

Rio and Chicago are seen as the front-runners in a tight, four-city race with Madrid and Tokyo for hosting rights.

The Rio team hopes it can sway voters after they meet the president whom Obama famously called "the most popular politician on earth" at the London G20 Summit in April.

Sergio Cabral, governor of the state of Rio de Janeiro, said Silva had been involved "body and soul" with the bid which was backed by national, regional and city authorities.

Cabral then borrowed an Obama campaign slogan in an appeal for the Olympics to be awarded to South America for the first time.

"As he asked the American people, we are now asking members of the IOC," Cabral said. "Yes we can, yes we can, hold the Olympics in South America.

"It is absolutely a historic moment for our country, our continent, our state. This is our moment. The moment of Brazil, our economy, our people."

Rio's historic appeal made a strong impression when the four candidate cities presented their cases in Lausanne, Switzerland, in June. But it must persuade the IOC's near-100 voters that urban crime levels can be controlled, and $11 billion of infrastructure projects can be financed and completed on time.

Nuzman said that Rio was ready, and would rise to the challenge in Copenhagen.

"We have the adrenaline, and the best players love to have high adrenaline," he said.

Soci 2014 budget tripled

MOSCOW (AP) -- A Russian business newspaper says the 2014 Sochi Olympics budget will be more than $33 billion, nearly triple the original estimate.

The newspaper Vedomosti, citing documents from the Ministry for Regional Development, reported Tuesday about $23 billion would come from the federal budget, with the rest to come from private investors.

The ministry declined immediate comment. But the president of Sochi' organizing committee, Dmitry Chernyshenko, said in a statement Tuesday that the cost is estimated at only about one-fifth of the figure.

"The projected budget for construction of Olympic-related projects, including Sochi 2014 sports venues and related infrastructure, remains about 200 billion rubles as previously stated by authorities," Chernyshenko said. "The final cost of Olympic venues will be confirmed when all contractors are selected. This will happen by the end of the year."

Almost all the arenas and other venues have to be built from scratch and the plan also requires complex infrastructure projects including construction of a light-rail line. The route will snake up the rugged Caucasus mountains to connect the snow sports venues with the ice sports arenas being built on the Black Sea coast.

Russia was awash in oil revenues when it won the bid in 2007, but the national economy has suffered with the plunge in oil prices over the past year and other effects of the global economic downturn.

Initial estimates of the games construction costs were around $12 billion, but officials this year reduced the projections sharply, claiming they had found significant ways to economize. In July, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak estimated the total cost at $6.25 billion, with slightly more than half that amount coming from the national coffers.

However, the state news agency RIA Novosti on Tuesday quoted Deputy Finance Minister Alexander Novak as saying $7.6 billion from the national budget would be spent next year alone for the Sochi Games construction.

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