Speaking as a guy who prefers President Obama over anyone the increasingly deranged Republican Party has to offer, I have to say that no, he didn’t earn a Nobel. Wonkette editor emeritus Ana Marie Cox summed it up quite succinctly on Twitter: Apparently Nobel Prizes now being awarded to anyone who is not George Bush.
Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo has this to say:
This is an odd award. You’d expect it to come later in Obama’s presidency and tied to some particular event or accomplishment. But the unmistakable message of the award is one of the consequences of a period in which the most powerful country in the world, the ‘hyper-power’ as the French have it, became the focus of destabilization and in real if limited ways lawlessness. A harsh judgment, yes. But a dark period. And Obama has begun, if fitfully and very imperfectly to many of his supporters, to steer the ship of state in a different direction. If that seems like a meager accomplishment to many of the usual Washington types it’s a profound reflection of their own enablement of the Bush era and how compromised they are by it, how much they perpetuated the belief that it was ‘normal history’ rather than dark aberration.
You can expect to hear much sturm und drang from the already-verging-on-deranged conservative side of the political spectrum; even among officials, the expected window of graciousness through gritted teeth has been skipped. So much for their calls for people to “Respect the Office” when their guy was in charge.
Were I in the President’s shoes, I’d say: “Thanks guys, I’m honoured, but I’m sure that there are more deserving people and I haven’t earned it…YET.”
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You got that right. I am amazed at the number of posts of people complaining about Republican articles decrying the Nobel award to Obama.
Far too many people have stars in their eyes.
Joey,
Check out Obama's published remarks on the prize at whitehouse.gov. I think he's got it in perspective.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/Building-a-World-that-Gives-Life-to-the-Promise-of-Our-Founding-Documents/
I sort of get the "he hasn't earned it yet" sentiment, but that kind of presumes that the NPP is a straight-up competition that there are rules and qualifications for... which it isn't, and there aren't. It's easy for us to just see a president in his first term, but if he's made a big enough impression on the rest of the world already, then who are we to say that the prize committee made a mistake (he's not even the first politician to receive the award "preemptively")? The truth is, a bunch of people said he hadn't earned the presidency yet (maybe LATER, they'd say, after he'd accomplished some more), but the majority voted for him anyway. Apparently the same thing happened in Oslo, so who are we to judge them? Also, should we really think that he will act any differently during the next four years whether he gets the award now or later? I certainly don't, so I don't think there is any problem with celebrating the fact that the international community thinks he's as awesome as I do now (that's why I voted for him). I care more about his continuing the work he's begun than whether it would "mean more" or if he'd "earn it more" later—in fact, I think it's unhelpful to spend time questioning it.
(And, arguably, ending the Bush administration, preventing McCain/Palin from getting in, and being the first Black president elected to the US presidency are all pretty impressive and significant accomplishments)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMJuEOaF84o
Then shouldn't the award go to the American people? Awarding him for not being Bush (even as he continues Bush's pre-emptive war policies, Bush's habeas corpus denial, Bush's extraordinary rendition policies, Bush's domestic spying policies, etc) only 12 days into office seems really patronizing. Obama should be pissed (and maybe he is). Obama's legacy, thus far, is that of a disappointing squandering of America's optimism for his presidency. But he still has plenty of time to turn it around and roll back the policies Bush enacted. Award him for that, an actual action, rather than for the swiftly-fleeting feeling of hope the world has. Maybe that's why they awarded him now — get it in there before he starts bombing Iran and it becomes obvious that he's actually not the anti-Bush.