Wow....

I think Boston Mayor Marty Walsh may have just busted Boston2024 in the head with a business end of a shovel.... In essence he just told a press conference that based on what he has seen so far he could not sign off on any financial guarantees to the USOC/Boston2024. Now that is not a ringing call to Pile The Bodies Up on the Battlements in a last stand to Stop The Olympics....but it's pretty indicative that the data and plans so far aren't beguiling the Mayor. And if they can't carry the Mayor along with them, then Boston2024 is in big trouble. Keep in mind Boston is the very last bastion of a "strong mayor" system, even the studied & qualified neutrality of City Hall can pretty much doom the whole damn project. Now I am really really curious as to where Charlie Baker is gonna land on this thing, right now given his money worshipping moderate GOP pose I'd always scored him as Pro Olympics at the end of the day. But then again, Charlie's first priority is reelection and a fight with City Hall over something as ephemeral as the Summer Olympics is not gonna help Baker towards that goal. So as I've said before our best hope in the "Anti-Olympics" camp is that the Governor feels nervous about the purely electoral impact whole proposal to back off however passive aggressively and hope the IOC takes the hint. In short we are counting on Charlie Baker's cowardice to save the day. *** On the other hand (because "no art form tracks it's own opposite" to quote Lenny Bruce), this has always been a town where Big Money Gets What It Wants and this is definitely a project that the monied classes just seem to love to death. But so far I have to score this heavily in favor of the antis, they've debated better they've used their resources better and imposed a heavy burden of proof on Boston2024....so far anyway.