April Fools Day comes early: Obama gets the noblest Nobel of them all
My first reaction was to check my calendar when I heard the news that President Obama had won the Nobel Peace Prize. But since it stubbornly remained October 9 rather than April 1, and the TV I turned on insisted on treating the event as reality, I came to realize that it’s actually rather appropriate, because of the direction in which the Prizes have been trending in recent years.
But even as debased and nakedly political as the Peace Prize had previously become, this award still surprised me, despite my attempts to look at it from the proper Leftist point of view. For example, I almost immediately thought: boy, must Jimmy Carter be pissed! After all, he had to actually broker a peace agreement between Egypt’s Sadat and Israel’s Begin in the late 70s, and then suck up to the dictators of the world for decades, before he finally got his. And Gore had to produce a movie.
So what has Obama done? I was puzzled at first because I figured that, even on the Nobel’s own bizarre terms (for example, need I say more than Yassar Arafat, Nobel Laureate for Peace?) Obama has actually done nothing.
But after some reflection, I realized it makes sense to award the Peace Prize to Obama for a few months of lofty rhetoric. That’s because the Left and the world of the Peace Prize has become all about good intentions and blah-blah-blah, and it feels so good to hear Obate orate about exactly the things they so want to hear. That’s accomplishment enough, isn’t it, to put him in the ranks of illustrious predecessors Carter, Gore, and Arafat?
One can look at the Peace Prize to Obama as a kind of “A” for effort, akin to the Miss America (actually, Miss World) Congeniality Award. It’s also in line with the trajectory of Obama’s previous political career, in which all he’s usually had to do is show up, say a few things that sound good, and stand back to receive the accolades.
I joked only a few weeks ago that Obama’s next role should be as UN Secretary-General. US President just didn’t seem to be enough for him and doesn’t quite suit his real skill set, which is to mouth platitudes that appeal to the internationals. So in retrospect I should have seen this coming.
But I didn’t. I guess I retained a smidgeon of unjustified respect for the Nobel committee—I thought they’d at least wait a few years. As some have pointed out (take a look at this; funny stuff), Nobel nominations must be in by February 1, and so at that point Obama would have been in office for twelve days. No matter.
But no wonder Obama said he was “humbled” (one of his favorite words) by the decision, and that he sees it as not having been given in recognition for his accomplishments. In this case I think he actually may be sincere. Even egotist Obama may have been surprised by the sheer audacity of this award, as are almost all of us.
But in retrospect I wonder why. In retrospect, it seems inevitable.
[ADDENDUM: Mickey Kaus thinks Obama should turn it down. Fat chance. And even Glenn Greenwald thought the news was an Onion gag.]
[ADDENDUM II: And this is worth reading, for a more serious take on the subject.]
[ADDENDUM III: Here’s another point that had occurred to me as I wondered why give the Prize now: since the Committee wanted so badly for Obama to get the Prize, they had to award it to him before he had a chance to act in some way that might make it more difficult for them later. I’m not at all sure they had anything to worry about on that score, but why not make sure by a preemptive Prize?]
It seems pretty strange to me, and a lot of my friends, too, Neo. I don’t think it was wise for the Nobel Committee to have awarded Obama the Peace Prize at this stage in his career.
Mitsu: glad to see you agree. There’s hope for us yet!
But since when has the Nobel Committee been “wise?”
You are misunderestimating Obama’s major accomplishment, which is not being George W. Bush or Dick Cheney. Seriously. I know the prevailing attitude here is a general sense of disbelief at the number of people who are blind to Obama’s flaws, but that leads you to discount the overwhelming sense of relief and hope that many people felt upon the exit of the previous administration.
As long as Nobel can be tarred (justly so) as the group that gave an award to Carter and Arafat their impact on the national debate can be restricted and ridiculed. It is a hysterical reaction by the international Left to try and prop their man in Washington up. To distract the sheeple way from the hammering the O has received this summer and continues to get for his blunders on the economy and the Global war on Terror.
He fits precisely the profile of the Nobel recipient. A man committed to the dismantling of his country’s security. That’s what the original intent of Nobel was and he’s playing his role beautifully. This is the new ‘Peace in our time’ moment in history.
Well, it diminishes the stature of the Prize, it seems to me. The Nobel Committee used to wait a while before awarding their Prizes (not just the Peace Prize), and in recent years they’ve taken to awarding it earlier and earlier — I think that’s an odd, and not entirely advisable, trend. I think it’s meant to perhaps encourage Obama to follow through on his potential, but, for example, perhaps it would be an attempt to sway him, for example, not to commit as many troops to Afghanistan as he should; that would be an unfortunate consequence. There are times when you have to put in more military forces to avoid more casualties and improve stability down the road. I think this is one of those times (in Afghanistan), and I hope this doesn’t create political pressure to do a half-assed thing there.
Given the date of nomination, apparently the “Hope and Change” mantra and the “Yes We Can” chant used to mesmerize the masses, mesmerized more than intended Americans. It is said that Obama did not want to use the “Yes we can” slogan because he thought it juvenile and childish, but Michelle Obama convinced him to “trust [her],” that it would work.
It did, obviously. Also, one can consider that the Democrats’ campaign, specifically when the fight was down to Hillary and Obama, was little more than Bush bashing in the extreme, which no doubt was music to the ears of the observing Nobel Committee.
No doubt, the multiple Apologist Tours the President has made since taking office, where he did little more than criticize his own country for all the evil we have perpetrated (I’m being cynical and ironic) only cemented the Committee’s belief that this is the “Change” they have wanted. One must wonder if we pulled our 25% financing of the U.N., discontinued quietly slipping $100 million here and there to the Palestinians every time they have a conflict with Israel, pulled the untold billions we give in aid around the world each year that might reduce our own obscene deficit that is indebting us to foreign countries in a big way, and ceased the massive spending that Obama has instituted as general policy, acceding to Russia’s demand that we drop planned missile shields weakening our allies, and so forth under his leadership, if he would still have been such a scintillating candidate.
Then again, the Lily Ledbetter fair pay law Obama announced on his first day had some amazing effect that resounded round the world.
Bottom line, if even the most arrogant, self-serving Obama was shocked and surprised at winning the Nobel Peace Prize, considered with past recipients in the last couple of decades, only cements the dubiousness of this “award.”
thats ok.. the award became meaningless years ago, and has only been a nifty way to give money to those who no one else would support (but communists). its what happens when a cultural edifice is taken over, its meaning gutted, and it serves another end. the end justifies the means, and so this is one part of that process. after all, it would be impossible for them to start their own organizations that would come with a ready made barrel of followers who take a long time to realize that things have changed and drop their support. this island ofpeople extends the group of people who do support them!
on another note. Reichsfé¼hrer-SS Eric Holder, is doing some interesting things…
he has been taking tax money, hiring liberals, and then paying them to come out to blogs like this one and disrupt them. (i guess the other guy cant get the truth squads desist program up fast enouhg).
to rephrase this into a shorter wittier form as often requested.
Reichsfé¼hrer-SS Eric Holder has created a program of state funded agitpropagandists to wrestle with the public to prevent messages other than what the Reichsfé¼hrer, obermeister fuhrer and of course Fé¼hrer Obama would want (along with their minions)
they are also tasked with fostering anonymous comments at conservative leaning blogs such as the Free Republic
the obama peace award is meaningless. no one controls the board but the board, and our opinion means nothing. its an empty argument that will jsut waste our life energy and distract us from the other issues that ARE more important as they actually do affect our lives.
so technically the Reichsfé¼hrer would work with the “REICH MINISTRY FOR PROPAGANDA & PUBLIC ENLIGHTENMENT ” (these are actual titles from german state govt structure)
i am not sure who that will be as several are vying for that position. though i would guess that that will be Mark Loyd..
and i guess the REICHSERZIEHUNGSMINISTERIUM, woudl have to be Kevin Jennings. for those who are not polyglots, thats CH EDUCATION MINISTRY (he has the same place as Berhnard Rust).
so in this case they are repeating different parts…
there msm stuff and the radio, film stuff.. and now i guess blogs reminds me of Vé¶lkischer Beobachter
just to be clear here is a list of the upper ‘parts’.. then one can see if they match up in functions and domains (closely) to history.
remember these work in different combinations and exist at different levels to each other.
REICH MINISTRY FOR PROPAGANDA & PUBLIC ENLIGHTENMENT (these are the people who are going to control the message over any other message. they will declare what is truth and what is not… mark has already started this process.
REICH EDUCATION MINISTRY (REICHSERZIEHUNGSMINISTERIUM)
the original was very dissapointing.. rust didnt do enough.. but jennings will. but to insure success they take another organization to work with them.
(HITLERJUGEND UND BUND DEUTSCHER Mé„DEL)
Reich Youth Leader: Baldur von Schirach (1932-1945) i dont know who his parallel is yet.. who is running obamas youth now? but anyway.. like in germany that group will be under the REICHSERZIEHUNGSMINISTERIUM, that way they can push in schools certain things.
combine with this the new FEDERAL LAW that makes it a FEDERAL CRIME to say a disparaging thing to a gay person. and you got thugs who can beat up on people for their ideas, and a created excuse which creates the sitution repeatedly for punishment. very very quickly the asymetric power that a false accuser can have against an oppressor (as in germany), will create a polarization of fear with the easiest way to stop it is to join the other side. clever adgenda to push. no?
[edited for length by neo-neocon]
Honestly, I have no comment.
I’ll let others guesstamate about the motives and likely impact. For me, the word disgraceful sums it up.
And he didn’t have the personal honor to refuse it.
First, you guys are premising your reactions on the Nobel Prize being something which is legitimate. It is not, as seen by it’s being awarded to Jimmy Carter for criticizing GWB. The Nobel Prize Committee is good for one thing: bringing laughs into our lives. It is the Jerry Lewis of committees.
Second, this award demonstrates that the Nobel Committee recognizes both President Obama’s fundamental weakness and President Obama’s fundamental narcissism. This award is bestowed in an attempt to flatter President Obama; in an attempt to influence his future actions in directions of which the Nobel Committee approves. It will work. President Obama is just that weak. President Obama is just that narcissistic. Even the laughable fools on the Nobel Prize Committee can see it.
bad haikumenter: I didn’t get into that aspect in my post, but I agree 100% that the award was given to try to influence Obama’s future actions.
My reaction to this prize, which I had some fun with, is posted at http://www.urgentagenda.com/ if you’d like to have a look!
This nonsenseis putting the world’s elites on the knife-edge of self-parody, that’s what I think.
What stature could the Noble Prise possibly have left? Gandhi was passed up 5 times. Yassar Arafat got one. The prize in the box of Cracker Jacks has more stature. I’m still waiting for Adolf Hitler to receive one posthumously.
I’m sure in the true spirit in which these things are now handed out , as a reward for propping up the causes of liberal left, no one deserves one more than Barack Obama.
Carter’s signficance in the Egypt/Israel peace deal should not be overstated. The key points were all agreed upon before he was pulled aboard. The reason Carter was part of the plan was because they needed funding to complete it, and so they natuarlly wanted to bring in the American taxpayer, er, Carter.
Hmmmmm.
You know. I havent done anything either, world politics wise…
Wheres my prize??
Prior to WW2, the US was involved in a small fight on some island that resulted in the awarding of (IIRC) 52 Congressional Medals of Honor.
Most of the men who won the MoH there went on to distinguish themselves in WW2, since they had to earn the medals they were awarded. Or at least this is what I once read in one of the many military history books I have read.
Obama may lack the integrity of these men, and hence feel less need to “earn” what he has been awarded, but I suspect he will still feel some need to act as an American leftist thinks a Prize winner should act.
Upon hearing that Obamphiles were going to nominate him way back in Januar 2009 I had an uneasy hunch that the Nobel Prize Committee would pull off this particular insulting stunt.
The deadline for this year’s nomination was February 1, 2009. Barack Obama was POTUS for twelve days! Have no doubt the Nobel Prize Committee in Oslo will be mocked by the Fates and punished by the gods for their presumption and arrogance. If Pres. Obama is wise he will either refuse the award or accept on the condition that the entire monetary award be paid to the George W. Bush Presidential Library trust. Obama has nowhere to go but down after accepting this prize. Victory Davis Hanson warns, Nemesis is everywhere …
The Power of Payback by Victor Davis Hanson, October 7, 2009.
… one would do well not to tempt the fates …
Here’s a (rhetorical?) question in one comment from Roger Kimball’s blog on PJM:
“By the time Obama was nominated for the Peace Prize, he had been in office for less than two weeks. Now that he has been awarded it, he has been in office for only 9 months. He has accomplished little or nothing, certainly none of his main campaign pledges, since taking office. Hence, either the Nobel Committee has taken to awarding prizes to people who have done nothing for peace or else they are trying to influence his future policy. Yet, for a government official to accept a substantial sum of money from a foreign government which hopes to influence his policy, doesn’t that amount to bribery?”
By the way, congrats for your new piece on PJM
that should be – congrats Neo
I actually feel more heartened than I’ve felt in months by this — specifically by the way reaction has cut across partisan lines. As long as people are still able to scoff at absurdity, all is not lost.
And the net result is that Obama looks ridiculous.
Never having had an original thought in my life, ‘ll repeat a couple of other’s original thoughts, hoping that it’s not bad form to post from other blogs.
A Mark Steyn reader called it a Lifetime Pre-Achievement Award.
At Althouse the joke was made:
Question:Why wasn’t Obama given the Nobel in Literature?
Answer: He’s written two books.
Things in Oslo look different, it seems, than things do here. I think in the US this is seen by many liberals, too, as being kind of a strange thing to do. But I guess in Europe people really do have a different impression of things than we do here. Even my friends who think this is a good thing recognize that it seems odd to give Obama the prize so early in his presidency, and most, so far (at least based on Facebook and Twitter reactions) seem to think this was premature at best.
Mitsu: Yes, Europe (not just Oslo, but a great deal of Europe) is different—it has swallowed the entire pitcher of KoolAid and gone very far down the rabbit hole (yes, I know that’s a mixed metaphor).
And premature? No! It’s a bribe in hope of future services rendered, as one of the comments above suggested.
This reflects also on how disoriented and soft-totalitarian Europe has become during the last decades. In the seventies Mother Theresa could still win a Nobel price. In the nineties and later John Paul II could no longer get one. But Arafat, Gore and now Obama could.
It is an utter shame and it says a lot of our degraded time and culture.
Elite, caviar leftism, the horrible fruit of the Sixties, is the curse of our time.
Almost everything is upside down as its result; I get so angry each day when I think on the many victims I have seen, good people that were treated like scum. And on all the villains that were treated like hero’s.
May God give Justice to them all, the Justice that our time so sorely betrayed.
My best guess is that we are now living in a prolonged contact high LSD flashback from all the tripping done in the past fifty years.
In the same week that SNL lampooned Obama for accomplishing exactly “jack” and “squat”, the Nobel committee gives Obama a Nobel Peace Prize, and Time Magazine grades Obama with an A-.
I only pray that the LSD flashback wears off soon. Even I know that we couldn’t have elected a president named Barack Hussein Obama who was friends with leaders from the Black Power movement and the Weather Underground, had no executive, military or corporate experience, no substantive accomplishments, and ran on a content-free platform of hope and change.
Mike O’Malley:
I’m not surprised that an Obamaite would nominate him for the Peace Prize in January. (He may even have been nominated before he was sworn in as President; that wouldn’t surprise me either.)
If people are willing to repeal the 22nd Amendment for him, so that we don’t have to send him home after only eight years… well, what won’t they nominate him for?
respectfully,
Daniel in Brookline
I assume it’s the apology tour that put him over the top. I don’t believe simply not being GWB was enough; after all, most folks aren’t — GWB, I mean.
Meanwhile even in Norway people are stunned.
There were a few critics in Norway when Al Gore was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, but the Obama award is quite different. Members of parliament have been sending out incredulous tweets all morning, and the national subject matter experts are surprised and say Obama does not have a sufficient track record yet.
huxley: but the Nobel Committee loves jack and squat.
This award is an interesting contrast to yesterday’s literature award to Herta Mueller, whose work has described the evil of tyranny. I wonder how Obama’s post-mod relativism would have worked with Ceaucescu. Somehow I think the Iranian protesters will be more inspired by Mueller.
BTW, I wonder whether someone hacked into the TOTUS to prevent yet another embarassing speech by the POTUS.
There are really only two reactions to this:
1. Quote Lewis Carroll:
“This question the Dodo could not answer without a great deal of thought, and it sat for a long time with one finger pressed upon its forehead (the position in which you usually see Shakespeare, in the pictures of him), while the rest waited in silence. At last the Dodo said, ‘everybody has won, and all must have prizes.’”
… and all did!
2. Demand honest news headlines:
“Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize, Launches Attack on Moon On The Same Day“
Surreal reactions? True. But this is a surreal event. This editorial comic sums it all up for me.
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Hy Rosen – yes, we’ve heard rumors that people were dissatisfied with Bush and Cheney and are relieved merely that they are gone and some respectable lefty person is in. The reason we don’t mention that angle so much is that it is a profoundly primitive and tribal attitude and has proved impervious to reason. We’re trying to stick to actual events here.
We “get it” that Obama is the Right Sort Of Person and GWB was not, and that this trumps all data. What surprizes me is that an intelligent person such as yourself seems to have a vague sympathy for this feeling – or at least, for those who feel that way. I know you don’t think you were putting it that way, and were suggesting that there were actual good reasons behind their relief which we have somehow not engaged here. You forget: A significant percentage of this group used to be liberal and even radical. We know the tribalism to the bone, even if it still looks rational to you.
I’m in the “more liberal faster” group – I like Obama, felt the same hope and relief, and am annoyed that he isn’t doing more, and more quickly. (DADT should have been ended on day one, he should be pushing for a law to end DOMA, should already have closed the Cuban prison, etc.)
Prediction is difficult, but I think he’ll turn out to have been a relatively good, relatively ordinary president, generally coming up with reasonable center-left policy, and avoiding the crazy.
Meanwhile, I am enjoying having the shoe on the other foot, watching the right wing experience the same apoplexy I felt during the previous administration, shooting themselves in the foot when they express their inchoate rage, and relegating themselves to the status of permanent ankle-biting minority.
It is not the the Left is impervious to reason, rather they reject what the Right offers as reason. Just take a look at some of the comments on this site, especially the Godwin’s law ones. Put yourself in the place of an impartial observer, and try to imagine how you would feel about their authors. Once actual reason returns to the Right, after they have spent years in the wilderness, they will find a more accepting attitude.
Oh, and Obama will be donating the award money to charity. Wags on the Left (and Right?) are suggesting ACORN.
Hy,
The Euros might be celebrating the end of the Bush era, but that doesn’t mean their anti-American snark will end. Yesterday when I was reading about Herta Mueller at Spiegel on line (German version–they don’t translate items that show their bad side), one of the heads for a side story was, “Americans Don’t Even Know Who Herta Mueller Is.” Strange that they never ask whether Russians or Cubans or Venezuelans know about her.
I’ve lived with arrogant hypocrisy of the Euro elites for years, and I wouldn’t have minded if Bush had punched a couple of these jerks–unilaterally.
Hy Rosen: Sometimes, though, one side is right and the other wrong.
Consider how the left laughed at Churchill when he was “in the wilderness” or Reagan when he was putting the final touches on pulling down the USSR. The left was not only useless in both cases but in effect pulling for the side of totalitarianism.
I would also note that you rarely present anything approaching content and argument — just smug posts like the above or links that you haven’t really thought through.
Prediction is difficult, but I think he’ll turn out to have been a relatively good, relatively ordinary president….
Hy Rosen: Based on what exactly?
He’s not Bush? You get a good feeling about Obama?
He’s got a good beat and you can dance to him?
So far Obama has accomplished nothing beyond speeches — ruling out “relatively good” and he has presided over one of the most blatant power grabs to the left in our history — ruling out “relatively ordinary.”
Are you capable of supporting your claims, sir?
Obama should pray to — whatever it is he prays to (his own portrait, perhaps?) — that reality doesn’t follow the rules of drama in this case. Because right now he has been rewarded beyond all conception of proportion to anything he has actually accomplished. In a work of fiction his fall would be a long one, with hard and spiky stuff at the bottom.
We can only hope that Charlie Marx was right:
History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.
Otherwise, given how unserious the leaders of the free world are today, I’d say we are heading into another world war.
Hy, though he certainly should donate the prize money, it’s not at all clear whether he can accept it in the first place — at least unless Congress acts to allow it. See the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution, Article I, Section 9, Clause 8:
No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.
This clause was adopted unanimously at the Constitutional Convention and was intended to protect US government officers from attempts by foreign governments to use undue influence or bribery. (For example, see the Nobel Prize Committee’s statement that they awarded the prize in an effort to “promote” the president — in other words, to influence his actions in certain directions. Or, in still other words, to bribe him.) Even if he gives away the money, the prestige of the prize is certainly an influencing factor. Is he going to want headlines like “Nobel Peace Laureate sends 40,000 troops to Afghanistan?”
Of course, the Nobel committee isn’t a King, Prince, or Foreign State, so perhaps the clause has no relevance. Eugene Volokh apparently posted an article on this question this afternoon, but the site seems to be down — maybe because it was Instalanched.
The Nobel has not been a serious award for many years now. Awards to Arafat, Gore, Carter, and other such “giants of good works” have rendered it a joke. It is a lefty popularity contest and that is all.
Poor Alfred Nobel must be turning in his grave. He had good intentions. Surely the Nobel Foundation could find a better use for the money. Some way to truly promote peace.
On behalf of the Nobel Committee, I wish to clear something up. President Obama was presented with the “Nobel Appeasement Prize”.
We sincerely apologize for any confusion.
From Hy’s point of view, is the most blatant power grab by the left a bad thing?
As one who tries to find the good in everything, I am happy to report the following. The fact Obama has a Nobel prize has brought Mitzu to the center on at least one issue.
I presume zero is going to be simultaneously saying to himself, “What would the Nobel Committee want me to do in the spirit of the prize they gave me?” and, “When I say something, people will be more inclined to go along because I have the Nobel Prize.”
I doubt the second, although I can see his sycophants insisting the rest of us get in line on account of the prize.
If I were ∅bama, I would’ve turned it down and made a speech that highlighted the abuses of this committee
After Al Gore won it in 2007, it comes as no surprise!
Next week, he should get the Heisman.
Hey, I was Not George Bush before Obama was even born! I certainly deserve the Prize.