Oct. 3--JUDGING from criticism of President Obama going to Copenhagen to lobby for Chicago getting the Olympic Games, you'd have thought the president was spending two weeks on a beach somewhere while pressing issues were left wanting. He was gone less than 24 hours.

Republicans, and even a few Democrats, took issue with Obama's change of heart. He originally said he would leave it to the first lady and others to try to sway the International Olympic Committee; that changed this week. Obama left Thursday evening and returned Friday evening.

Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., called the decision "baffling" and complained, "His number one responsibility is to keep our country safe." National GOP Chairman Michael Steele howled, "Where's the focus?"

Please. Without question, health care legislation, the economy and the war deserve Obama's close attention. Suddenly deciding to fly to Europe while waffling about whether to increase troop levels in Afghanistan, for example, is an invitation for criticism. So is the fact he pitched his adopted hometown, Chicago -- would he have done the same if it was another U.S. city in the running?

But like it or not, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair changed the game years ago when he went before the IOC to tout London's (successful) Olympic bid. If Chicago had any chance, insiders said, then our president needed to ask in person. Obama did so, and is paying for it. It wound up not helping -- the 2016 Games were awarded to Rio de Janiero.

Guilding the lily Perhaps finding it a tough sell to whip up much enthusiasm for President Obama in this area, the Oklahoma County Democratic Party turned instead to interjecting itself into the fuss over a pay raise for county officials. This donnybrook was largely an internecine fight between two Republican county commissioners. Tom Guild, secretary for the county Democrats, harshly criticized pay raises (which never happened) by saying, "I mean people are out on the streets -- people are hungry -- people are living in poverty." He also said, "I respect these people but being a county official is not rocket science." As a professor at the University of Central Oklahoma until 2006, Guild was paid $5,629.83 a month during the spring semester that year and got a final payment of $16,073.17 in June. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to determine that his concern for the poor isn't based on personal experience. By the way, county officials don't enjoy tenure.

He's still plugged in Jim Roth's all-too-brief service on the Oklahoma Corporation Commission was distinguished by his passion for innovation and alternative energy sources.