Peace In Our Time
This takes a lot of the heat off. The big question is, who nominated him. Vladimir Putin, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or Mullah Omar?
Hang on, he hasn’t actually accomplished any peace, or much else yet, though he has had several schools named after him and has promoted accord to the extent schoolchildren weren’t pelting each other with spitballs while they were singing about him.
It’s well established that the Nobel Peace Prize judges don’t require any actual peace (Jimmy Carter), any intention of fostering peace (Yasser Arafat) or even more than the stated desire to thwart a highly theoretical future conflict (Al Gore) as preconditions for bestowing the coveted prize. In fact, if you look at some of the prior nominees (Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin) you can see that rampant imperialistic war-mongering gets you in the game. But the Norwegian Nobel Committee members have set the bar of conditions approximating peace very high in recent years and are now in the position of having to top themselves.
Giving the award to a president who is in the process of or on the verge of ceding to belligerents in at least three highly volatile geopolitical arenas neatly accomplishes that, and coming at the beginning of Obama’s term, will encourage people view his actions and their consequences in terms of “peace.”
It also makes up for the gross slight to Neville Chamberlain in 1938.
OK, enough kidding around. Here’s what he actually got it for:
“ … his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples”
Jinx! Ha ha, no really, just kidding. So it turns out that box set of DVDs was more considered than all the wags thought. Looks like the committee’s reasoning also encompasses keeping his yap shut while the Basij militia was striving for cooperation between people in Tehran’s Azadi Square last June.
HotAir: “In other words, they gave him the prize for being Hopenchange-y.”
Michael Graham: “What do Barack Obama and Yasser Arafat have in common? They both hung out with anti-Semites who think Israel should be pushed into the sea.
Riehl, with the full text, cautions, “Try not to throw up in your mouth!”
Reynolds, hurtfully, “Not bad for a guy who’s been acting like Bambi caught in the headlights of hstory.”
Tweet, via Tigerhawk: “YO OBAMA, I’M GONNA LET YOU FINISH, BUT I JUST WANNA SAY THAT MARTIN LUTHER KING JR WAS THE BEST NOBEL PRIZE WINNER OF ALL TIME.”
Tigerhawk also accurately observes that the real fun today is going to be on the left half of the blogosphere.
Crooked Timber:
Peace, dude
Wow, that was fast! President Obama has won the Nobel Peace Prize.
I am sure many Americans (and others) will be thinking “It’s too soon. He hasn’t done anything yet!” Or even “Dude can’t even pass health care already, but he’s been elevated to international sainthood?”.
But this isn’t about domestic politics, or about what he’s done yet. President Obama has changed how the world feels about America. He’s lifted the planet’s mood. This guy is global Prozac.
There’s more to it than just the Bush presidency being a total downer for everyone in the world who cares about multi-lateralism or just wants to do business with the US. The tidal wave of bad faith Bush’s presidency created washed away any chance of progress in so many international initiatives.
Obama’s not a game changer per se, but he’s changed how people feel about playing the game, or whether they even want to.
You know, I pretty much agree with almost all of that. The tidal wave of bad faith that Bush’s presidency had to deal with did wash away so much that could have been accomplished. Obama is like Prozac. A bit of a pill, and if you swallow it, you’ll think your problems have gone away.
Brilliant at Breakfast is a little defensive:
Cue the wingnut howl!
In thoughtful, considered academic reaction, I just heard a somewhat gobsmacked Robert Dallek, having been woken up by NPR, opine that while this is somewhat early in the new president’s term and predates his greater accomplishments, it might help him pass health-care reform. NPR’s Juan Williams right now is audibly raising his eyebrows and acknowledging being “startled” while the host whose name escapes me at present counters with a couple of backflips to note the remarkable changedness of the international environment. Juan gets into the mood with a couple of observations about how Obama is now in a league with Mother Theresa and Nelson Mandela, so maybe that will encourage people to let him to do stuff like they did. Something like that.
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