Washington has had a rough baseball history. They're the only city in America that has had TWO teams move from there- the Twins and the Rangers.
But besides that, I think that this might be a blessing in some ways for Strasburg. Now there is an outside chance that the Nationals will be able to put together a pretty strong team in a couple of years- meaning that Strasburg won't have to pitch on a crappy team next year, which may help his numbers in the long run. Not only that- there is a very good chance that this is not a career ending injury. Because he is returning from an injury, he will get better match-ups and he won't be considered the ace once he comes back, and that is going to allow him to get a good foothold on being the ace. And the more favorable match-ups also may help his numbers as opposed to him pitching against everyone else's ace.
The thing about the Cubs is that they are "lovable". I don't think that really applies to the Nats. The Cubs are America's favorite underdog, bad luck team.