Like many people are this morning, I was shocked by the announcement out of Oslo that President Barack Obama has been awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.
Inaugurated just two weeks before the February 1st deadline, many Nobel watchers were surprised at his nomination and believed it was the longest of long shots, given the brevity of his time on the world stage.
I will admit that I am disappointed that, once again, former President Bill Clinton was passed over for the award. While his presidency was not without major flaws, and we can all recite those chapter and verse, he showed a committment during his time in office to fostering peace and cooperation, most notably in the Middle East and Northern Ireland. In the decade since he left office, he's done remarkable work with the Clinton Global Inititive and the Clinton Foundation, not to mention relief work in the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, and more recently, in Haiti.
I'm also disappointed for President Obama. I think this award does him little good, because it reinforces the stratosopheric expectations that are quickly becoming his albatross.
"Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future," the committee said in their announcement. "His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world's population."
Barack Obama is a fine human being, and may yet be a great president. Yet, at the end of the day, politics and diplomacy are dirty, grotty businesses with a high risk of failure and a lot of dissatisfied customers along the way. Less than a year after winning the election, we're already seeing the limits of his personal charm and some of the less attractive attributes of his governing style. The more he slips off that pedestal of perfection that he was hoisted onto during the Endless Campaign, the harder its going to be for him to function down here amongst us mere mortals.
Being President of the United States is not a passive office. We should judge our presidents by what they do, not by their pretty speechs, not by who they are, or who we think they are, or who we think they are not. (yup, I'm looking at you, birthers!) By giving him the Peace Prize so early in his presidency, the Nobel Committee has robbed him, in a sense, by judging him for who his is, not what he does.
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Comments
If the award was for an accomplishment, I dont see it. If it was for his promise, then I want one for Chemistry based upon the crap I used to mix up in my basement when I was 10. I coulda been a contendah.
I mean, let us not forget, by contrast, everything the man who STARTED the two wars Obama's stuck with did to destroy and undermine peace around the world.
Yeah, I'm surprised by this too. Seems way too early, but at least it's a serious nod from the rest of the world saying "Some of your people may be gun-toting screaming paranoid loons who think you're a Kenyan Antichrist, but we're grateful your brand of diplomacy extends beyond 'If you don't like what I'm doing, you can suck it.'"
@BBE...I know it's harder to try to grapple with the complexity of reality than to say, "If we all just waved our magic fairy wands of hope and change together, the Iraq and Afghan wars would have ended in a pink pouf on Inauguration day," but still.
Yes it takes time to pull troops out, but Obama is escalating in Afghanistan.
What part of escalating don't you understand?
Stop being a Good German and making excuses for a war criminal.
But who knows. I am a pacifist and do believe Bill Clinton is more deserving. However, he still has time to get it and his work's not done. Neither is President Obama's. Let's have enough audacity to hope that maybe the Prize will remind him what he promised to do just a year ago.
My thoughts here: An anti-war, anti-nuke, Obama supporter says 'WTF?'
Cheney/Bush did nothing but look for nuclear weapons in a country they knew they did not exist. This is a win for diplomacy, not just Obama. Bigger picture and half glass full please.
Then again, he certainly has talked the talk.
-Nikki-
Congratulations President Obama.
Whether you like, don't like, agree, disagree with the President or the Nobel committee---your title is almost un-argueable. From all sides it looks like an albatross
Yes, he needs to stand up for equal rights and a public health care option. Aside from that, is there anything people can legitimately gripe about? Would you like to be in a bread line instead of angry about unemployment benefits? Because that's where we would be if the GOP had won.
What if we save the snark for people who deserve it? And what if we took one whole day to celebrate the fact that we now have a president the world respects? Would it hurt us? Apparently.
The petty reaction here to astonishes me. It was not so long ago a very different fate was hanging in the balance for the country and for the world. What a small, cynical place this has become.
This feels like a more balanced approach on the matter than others I've seen. I particularly resonated with:
"I'm also disappointed for President Obama. I think this award does him little good, because it reinforces the stratosopheric expectations that are quickly becoming his albatross."
One thing I do think we as Americans overlook is how well Obama is being received on the world stage. I have people I speak with regularly in Switzerland, England, Russia, and Costa Rica (Ex Pats from France). They don't seem as riled as we are internally about this? It is hard to have that external view from our internal outlook. It is worthy to note however in why they may have chosen this as early as they did. Maybe. :)
And Clinton, yeah, he was so peaceful, he let Osama Bin Laden go when he had him on the radar. Could have nipped a world tragedy in the bud back then.
ROFL!!!!!!
Behind Blue Eyes - you're so right - Obama is an evil fuck for letting 9/11 happen, going into Afghanistan, attacking Iraq without provocation and opening Gitmo. And this just goes on!!!! IT'S ALL HIS FAULT!!!
This is not an award he gave to himself. He even said he doesn't really feel as though he was as deserving as other. So why is he being taken down? It's ridiculous.
He accepts the award graciously, and will probably just move on...let people talk all they want. It's NOT his fault.
You are making a huge presumption. I think much of the United States is making the same presumption, pro and con. That presumption is that President Obama was given the Nobel Peace Prize for what he has done as President. This is not an award for presidents. It is conceivable that he was under consideration for what he did as a Senator, or for what he did as a candidate, for what he projected as President of the United States, and/or all of the above. The trajectory of change does not necessarily only extend from Jan 20th. That trajectory of change could have projected from as far back as Feb. 2007. You are restricting yourself to a comfortable window to make your analysis more plausible. The fact of the matter is, you do not know when the world or the committee began to perceive the change and influence of the man, not merely the President.
We all know that Obama didn't start those two wars, but he is escalating the one in Afghanistan, he doesn't appear to be in any hurry to withdraw from Iraq and then there is that pesky problem of Iran and the bomb. There is also the insane U.S. War on Drugs that has caused millions of people to be incarcerated, allowed gangs from Central and South America to destroy huge parts of our country and left 70,000, 000 chronic pain patients to suffer horribily, every second of every day, because their doctors are too afraid of the DEA to treat them appropriately. Last I heard Obama's Drug Czar Gil said, "Legalization is not in my vocabulary and it's not in the President's either." Nice.
Let's give everyone a prize.
No doubt!