http://www.usatoday.com/sports/olympics/2009-10-02-chicago-local-reaction_N.htm Gaines said the IOC vote may have represented, in part, a "political hangover of the previous eight years" of American policy under President Bush, a sentiment Jackson endorsed. Both added America's international standing is improving under President Obama.
Kent Redfield, political science professor at University of Illinois-Springfield, said "Obama is personally very popular internationally, but the U.S. as a country is still suffering the fallout of eight years of the cowboy foreign policy under Bush. Any acting out of negative feelings" by the IOC "is more a repudiation of the U.S.'s image and standing in the world, which Obama is trying to repair."
