Waning Moments of NYC's 2012 Olympics Bid

It's less than 20 hours until the 2012 Olympics city is selected - 7:30PM in Singapore, which means 7:30AM tomorrow morning for us. And the NYC 2012 team has been doing its thing all over the world, having Mayor Bloomberg stump one last time, along with athletes like Muhammed Ali, Nadia Comaneci and Ian Thorpe, helping out. Gothamist loves the idea of Mayor Bloomberg giving "I Love NY" t-shirts to anyone and everyone he meets. The NY Times has had a series of articles looking at the Mayor and Olympic bid team's continued efforts to woo the International Olympics Commitee, including one from today that shows the importance of power tables at restaurants. And, today, Senator Hillary Clinton arrived in Singapore to lend the offensive her support. Gothamist was amused by the media's attempt to make this bipartisan trip controversial:

Clinton, a potential Democratic presidential candidate, and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a Republican, deflected questions at a news conference about possible political ramifications of the senator's role in the bid campaign.

"This is not a political thing, it's a New York thing," said Bloomberg, asserting that it was important to convince IOC delegates that the bid has bipartisan support.

Three of New York's main rivals — Paris, London and Madrid — are sending their countries' top government leaders to Singapore to lobby in person for their bids, whereas U.S. President George Bush — a political rival of Clinton's — is not coming. But Bloomberg said no hidden meaning should be read into this. Bush, he said, "couldn't be happier" that Clinton had made the trip. "Just the logistics of moving a president around in this day and age, with all the security, really takes away from the focus on the Games," Bloomberg said.

Yeah, in other words: The President's advisers don't want him to be too closely associated with a losing NYC Olympics bid! Honestly, Gothamist loves the idea of the Olympics in NYC, since it would be an incredibly exciting time. But we're not sure about actually having the Olympics here, because we also worry about infrastructure and everything working (which it probably would in the end)... Anyway, Gothamist would be very very surprised if NYC won the bid for 2012, because Paris has been the odds-on favorite for a while, with London in second. Our advice for NYC 2012 folks: Start refashioning the 2012 gear into 2016 goods!

Gothamist on the Olympics bid.