I'm a long-time lurker who has the perspective of being born in SF, raised in the Bay Area, and having lived in that area long enough to understand the politics and lay of the land (in fact, just visited over the holidays) that has been discussed here at length. But I've also lived in Chicago the last 8 years and adopted it as my home, so I understand the politics here in this currently frigid place just as well. Given my background, I couldn't resist chiming in here. I can relate to the ambivalence in many of the comments above.
While a part of me wishes that the USOC fails here in their 2