Makes sense. What better way for the international community to express its contempt for Bush’s policies than by … publicly humiliating the guy who got elected by repudiating him?

“There must be” resentment against America, the Rev. Jesse Jackson said, near the stage where he had hoped to give a victory speech in Daley Center Plaza. “The way we [refused to sign] the Kyoto Treaty, we misled the world into Iraq. The world had a very bad taste in its mouth about us. But there was such a turnaround after last November. The world now feels better about America and about Americans. That’s why I thought the president’s going was the deal-maker.”

State Rep. Susana Mendoza (D-Chicago) said she saw firsthand the resentment against America five years ago when she was in Rio de Janeiro. “I feel in my gut that this vote today was political and mean-spirited,” she said.

“I travel a lot. … I thought we had really turned a corner with the election of President Obama. People are so much more welcoming of Americans now. But this isn’t the people of those countries. This is the leaders still living with outdated impressions of Americans.”

U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) said she was approached by a consul general at the plaza as they waited for word Friday. “He said … he was hearing that there wasn’t enough time for Barack Obama to dispel the old image. … But I don’t know if that’s it.”

The implication, of course, is that it would have been justifiable and possibly even advisable to shaft Chicago if the Bushitler was still president and had gone to make the pitch. Good luck reconciling that with the left’s magnificent faux outrage at the right for not putting aside politics and rooting on America the city the corrupt Daley machine this time around. Frankly, for once in his life, Mike Lupica’s dead right: Chicago got lucky, whether they realize it or not.

Here’s George Will on “This Week” floating an alternative theory. And he’s not the only one.

Update: A nice point from the comments: Chicago was selected as a finalist for the 2016 games last summer, when the Chimperor was still president. So much for Bushism poisoning the city’s chances.