Chicago ? Whether it’s the picturesque views of San Francisco or the powerful story of New York, the United States is confident it has a winner.

San Francisco and New York beat out Houston and Washington, D.C. on Tuesday when a U.S. Olympic Committee task force chose two finalists to be the American candidate for the 2012 Summer Olympics.

“We are very confident we will bring the games to the United States in 2012,” said Charles H. Moore, a former Olympic gold medalist who heads the bid evaluation task force.

“I think the chances are very good for either one.”

The U.S. Olympic Committee’s board of directors will pick the 2012 candidate at a Nov. 3 meeting.

As many as a dozen cities including possibly Toronto, Rome, Paris, Moscow, and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil are expected to be in the mix. The International Olympic Committee will pick the host in 2005.

“New York offers the Olympic movement the chance to tell a powerful Olympic story,” said Dan Doctoroff, New York’s deputy mayor for economic development and former head of NYC 2012. “It represents the best of what the Olympics is all about, an international city where various nationalities interact peacefully every day.”