Tokyo flawless, but

 Though Chicago has an attractive big-city package with most venues near downtown, Tokyo's is close to flawless.

The Japanese also have a critical advantage - 100 percent guaranteed financing, no matter the cost of the Games, which usually run over budget. That's a blank check that no US city can write. So Chicago has devised an underwriting cushion from city and state guarantees plus private insurance and contingency funds, that the IOC might well accept.

One edge Chicago has, though, is one of its own in the White House. President Obama, who has promised to go to Copenhagen before the vote, could provide the kind of persuasive personal touch that Tony Blair did for London for 2012 and Vladimir Putin did for Sochi for 2014. (Obama might want to do a Berlitz blitz with French beforehand). Chicago might also want to bring Oprah along - she was a huge hit at the soiree the bidders threw for the evaluators. Full report from the Boston Globe