Since the announcement that President Obama would travel to Copenhagen to add his international prestige to the weight of Chicago's bid for the 2016 Olympics, there's been much speculation as to his reasoning. Some have even suggested that Chicago's victory must already have been decided, and must already have been known to Obama, else he would not have agreed to go -- going, and failing to bring back the Olympics, would, in this view, have caused irreparable damage to presidential prestige.

But anyone who believes Obama would not dare make the trip without knowing ahead of time that Chicago's victory was already assured doesn't understand the politics of Chicago -- the fact is, Obama simply had to go, for his own personal and parochial political reasons.

In this, his decision resembles nothing so much as an updated version of French philosopher Blaise Pascal's famous wager.