My first reaction to the news this morning aligns almost exactly with Matt Welch’s…
| My wife woke me with the ridiculous news that Barack Obama, who has been in office for eight months and achieved no notable peace, won the Nobel Peace Prize. |
| “Seriously, what has he done?” I asked. |
The short answer is: speak. We didn’t pay much attention on this side of the pond, but Barack Obama’s speeches in Cairo and Berlin were smash hits. The guy is a star. He gives the world hope that the U.S. isn’t fucking nuts after all. This is not a small thing. But there is a huge difference between promise and delivery. Gas alone is not transportation. You gotta drive.
Obama ran (and voted) against the wars in Iran Iraq and Afghanistan. Both continue under his command. He backed off on missle installations in Poland and got warm reciprocal sounds out of the Kremlin, which is … something, I guess. He has led efforts toward peace between Israel and its neighbors, but every U.S. president since the founding of Israel has done that. Or tried. Results so far–on any of this? Nada.
I’m all for giving the guy a chance, but why hang a garland on him when the race has hardly begun?
The generous take is Andrew Sullivan’s: “I seem to be one of the few who sees this as a downpayment on a potential transformative period in world history. History alone can judge that, and history hasn’t happened yet.”
Add one more burden to those the president carries already: proving that the Nobel committe hasn’t jumped the shark. Peace of cake.
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October 9, 2009 at 1:16 pm
Mary Hodder
To repeat my earlier tweet:
. @Meryl333 If Nobel committee wanted to award a tone change, they should have given peace prize to american ppl who elected change.
October 9, 2009 at 2:11 pm
Francine hardaway
Bingo. I thought he should decline.
October 9, 2009 at 8:25 pm
Eric T. MacKnight
Obama himself said all of this better than everyone else: http://bit.ly/17wMGL.
First he gets blamed when the Olympic Committee doesn’t vote for Chicago. Then he gets blamed when the Nobel Committee does vote for him. ‘Sheesh’ is the mildest response possible. Too many opinions, not enough thought.
October 10, 2009 at 3:42 am
Hanan Cohen
The 1978 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Mohamed Anwar al-Sadat & Menachem Begin for their success in signing a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt that is kept until today.
The 1994 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres & Yitzhak Rabin “for their efforts to create peace in the Middle East”
October 10, 2009 at 10:04 am
Dale
Doc,
I blogged (http://wp.theoblogical.org/?p=5347) and tweeted (@dlature) agreement with you yesterday when I saw this post (your #wtf tag still has me chuckling)…..I saw this today, which also makes sense, and somewhat tempers my “wtf” feeling about it…..http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMJuEOaF84o&feature=player_embedded
(Rachel Maddow on the prize)
October 10, 2009 at 8:16 pm
Doc Searls
Woops! Corrected. IraQ.
October 13, 2009 at 5:14 am
Chip
Behind in reading, but finally spotted your post
Have had a few of my own, but best to give some links
Tom gets it this time:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/11/opinion/11friedman.html?_r=1&em
Why Europe seems to think like it does:
http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/20091012_nobel_geopolitics
Friend traveling in Cuba says his Latin American friends ask the same : “What HAS he done?”
October 15, 2009 at 1:59 pm
Ian Clark
Don’t forget also pulled the plug on Guantanamo and Torture.
But who says the Nobel people award for deeds done?
Consider Desmond Tutu and Aun Sung Li…