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Bronze isn't good enough

The International Olympic Committee has released its site evaluation report. As expected, Paris and London were given the highest marks with New York and Madrid in the second tier. (Moscow shouldn't have bothered - post-Communist bloc, Russia will never have the votes to get an Olympics.) This should be enough to give Sheldon Silver and/or Joe Bruno the political freedom to spike the project.

Not content to take defeat like a man, Dan Doctoroff, twists the report's conclusions about New York:

"We are absolutely delighted by the I.O.C.'s Evaluation Commission report today," Mr. Doctoroff said in the statement. "The report makes clear that this race is neck and neck and that New York is firmly in the top tier. The I.O.C. report had made crystal clear that we're in a great position to win in Singapore on July 6, so long as the stadium is approved."

He says this even though the report notes "New York could not provide a guarantee for the use of the Olympic Square site"; "Compulsory purchase procedures may be required to obtain the proposed site for the Olympic Village" (more eminent domain abuse!); "...levels of the pollutant ozone, while diminishing, remain a problem, particularly in summer... The USA government has not ratified the Kyoto protocol on greenhouse gas emissions" and "Tendering and approval processes for the Olympic stadium and IBC, sites essential to the hosting of the Games, were still in progress at the time of the Commission’s visit and no guarantees were provided that these sites would be available for the construction of Olympic infrastructure."

There are kinds words about New York in the report, but this is a diplomatic document. Compare the New York report to the Paris report and tell me that the IOC is still taking New York seriously. New York is peppered with phrases like "adequate," while comments about the Paris bid are usually more like "comprehensive, innovative and integrated." Plus, Paris got screwed last time because a lot of the IOC felt obligated to give the 2008 Olympics to Beijing. Paris isn't getting screwed twice in a row.

This should mean that state support for the project is dead, but we'll see.