With the ABC News revelation
of the IOC committee bribery scandal, the fate of the 2002 Olympics on U.S.
soil, and a predominately Mormon city in the balance, the organizing committee
searched for their white horse to salvage not only the Olympics, but Salt Lake
City.

When it came to the Olympics,
the relationship between Mitt Romney and the LDS church was symbiotic. The LDS
church needed Romney to aid in ushering in the Mormon Kingdom on earth while
portraying the Mormon faith as a wholesome, mainstream religion. With his eye on
the Office Of the Presidency, and just coming off his loss to Senator Edward
Kennedy, Romney needed the LDS church and its vast network to finance, support
and promote his political aspirations. Nowhere was this more apparent than the
Salt Lake City Olympics – the Greatest Show on Earth for the Mormon Church and
Mitt Romney – all funded in part by you, the U.S. taxpayer.

Did businessman Romney deserve
the “White Horse” reputation of saving the Olympics?

Let’s
review:

According to the Bob
Hohler of the Boston Globe,

His determination to present
himself as a white knight came at a cost. Some colleagues now say he magnified
the extent of the Olympics committee’s fiscal distress, risked some possible
conflicts of interest among board members, and shunted aside other people whose
work had been instrumental in promoting the Games.

A perceived enemy of Romney
was Tom Welch. Tom Welch and David R. Johnson were accused of defrauding the
organizing committee:

• Romney urged Welch to
  accept a plea bargain, which he refused. All 15 felony charges against Welch
  were thrown out by Judge David Sam who said “I can only imagine the heartache,
  the disappointment, the sorrow that you and your loved ones suffered through
  this terrible ordeal. My hope is that you will now be appropriately recognized
  and honored for your efforts.” Romney refused to acknowledge his efforts or
  accept Welch’s innocence, calling the prosecutors “inept.”(Source:
  Bob Hohler, Boston Globe)
• Quoting an article by David Baumann, “Romney Helped
  Salvage Olympics.” St. Petersburg Times: Sydney Fonnesbeck, who was on
  the Salt Lake City Council and a friend of Welch’s, said, “He” (Romney)
  “just came in and gathered the money that was already (pledged) … He didn’t
  want to give anyone else any credit. We became nobodies. A lot of us were hurt
  and angry. It didn’t surprise any of us when he ran home and ran for
  governor.”

Lisa Roche wrote in the
Deseret News,

• Mitt didn’t save the games.
  It was a publicity ploy from the beginning to build his platform in
  politics,
• Mitt’s objection was to look
  as good as he could.

Bob Drogin of the Los Angeles
Times reported:

In 2000 Senator John
McCain, railed against the “pork barrel spending” and “fiscal abuse” of tax
payer money used for the Salt Lake Games”. “The American taxpayer is being
shaken down to the tune of nearly a billion and a half dollars,”he
said. “He(McCain) repeatedly denounced ‘pork barrel subsidies’ for
the 2002 Games, identifying earmarks for construction projects, road
improvements, new post offices and other infrastructure in and around Salt Lake
City.

In their December 2001
Sports Illustrated article “Snow Job,”Donald L. Barlett and
James B. Steele (Barlett, Donald L., and James
B. Steele. “Snow Job.” SI.com. CNN/Sports Illustrated, 10 Dec. 2001. Web. 25
Apr. 2010).,wrote For the past few years, while attention was
focused on the Great Olympic Bribery Scandal…private and public interests have
siphoned an estimated $1.5 billion out of the U.S. Treasury, all in the name of
the Olympics.

Bartlett and Steele further
cited four “Olympic records” set by the Salt Lake City
Olympics:

1. Federal Handouts:
   The amount of federal taxpayer money spent in Utah was more than “the amount
   spent by lawmakers to support all seven Olympic Games held in the U.S. since
   1904 – combined. In inflation-adjusted numbers.
2. Private Interests:
   For the first time, private enterprises – primarily ski resorts and real
   estate developments – stand to derive significant long-term benefits from
   Games-driven congressional giveaways.
3. Milking of
   Government Agencies: Utah’s five-member congressional delegation has used the
   Olympics to drain money from an unprecedented number of federal departments,
   agencies and offices – some three dozen in all, from the Office of National
   Drug Control Policy to the Agriculture Department.
4. Most Amount of
   Taxpayer Money per Athlete: Federal spending for the Salt Lake City games will
   average $625,000 for each of the 2,400 athletes who will compete. (Not a penny
   of it will go to the athletes.) That’s a 996% increase from the $57,000
   average for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. It’s a staggering 5,582% jump from the
   $11,000 average for the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles. Again, these are
   inflation-adjusted numbers.

On her blog, Debbie
Schlussel (What’s So Great About the Olympics?
Part II)wrote in February 2002:

U.S. taxpayers will pick
up nearly $1 out of every $5 spent on the Salt Lake City event…That doesn’t
include the $1.1 billion in federal transportation funding of projects like
Interstate 15 reconstruction and building light rail in Salt
Lake

Contrary to previous practices
of the US Olympic Games, Romney’s Olympic Games used more US Federal tax dollars
to enhance the long term worth of for-profit non public Utah business interests
than any of the former US host states.

Cronyism was demonstrated at
its best when Kem Gardner, friend of Romney, was awarded the contract to build
the Olympic Legacy Park in his shopping mall with millions of tax dollar
reimbursements at his disposal. Funny how there was no competition for the bid
to do so. Could it not have been built on public land?

It is further interesting that
25 of the board senior manager’s severance pay was boosted. They obviously felt
so good about it that they donated to Romney’s campaign for governor of
Massachusetts soon after the games ended, along with additional donations from
the board of trustees.

According to the Globe,
All told, Romney reaped more than $1.5 million in campaign funds during his
governorship from individuals and families with ties to the Olympics.
Moreover in 2007, Many of his Olympic-related donors have since
joined a massive fundraising movement for Romney’s presidential campaign.
(Source: Bob Hohler, “Romney’s Olympic Ties Helped
Him Reap Campaign Funds.” Boston.com)

Did Mitt Romney’s business
experience truly save the Olympics or did he USE the Olympics to save his
political career on his gubernatorial road to the White House?

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