So President Obama went to Copenhagen, to "convince" the IOC that Chicago should get the 2016 Games.

He failed. Rio got them instead.

And all along the way, some of the most popular, widest-read, most influential conservative columnists were getting it wrong.

For example, Allahpundit:

There’s no way The One would risk his political capital on a personal appeal in Denmark unless he’d been assured that Chicago will get the games if he makes a cameo. It’s a done deal.

Jim Geraghty:

The fact that Obama is going signals that Chicago is getting the Olympics, right? Would Obama go if he hadn't been told that his attendance was the difference-maker?

Ramesh Ponnuru:

Does anyone seriously believe that the president would take a quick trip to Copenhagen with the possibility of coming back empty-handed? If the president is going, it's because he knows that Chicago has already won.

And…TrogloPundit:

…he’s only going – in this last-second whirlwind kind of way – to maximize the credit he’ll get when the IOC announces Chicago. That’s where my money is. Deal’s done, and Obama wants the applause.

That's right. Allahpundit, Geraghty, Ponnuru…TrogloPundit. You pretty much think of them all in the same breath, don't you?

All of us, making exactly the same mistake. And what mistake was that? We gave the Obama administration credit.

We assumed they were thinking things through. We assumed that they understood the fluid nature and amorphous importance of political capital. We assumed that, Obama's obvious lack of experience aside, grayer beards would be there to advise and protect the president's prestige and influence, not to mention his headlines.

We – people who make their living and/or their fun by ripping Obama and his allies – assumed that they would act like experienced professionals, and we were wrong.

One of us, at least, had the foresight to also ask:

Maybe the Obama White House is just that incompetent?

But I'm sure that writer wouldn't want to rub that in.

(The TrogloPundit is very disappointed to miss his chance at competing in the bratwurst-eating event, which he's sure would have been included by 2016.)