Friday, October 9, 2009

Now What if Obama Actually Accomplishes Something Significant?

When my son told me the Obama had won the Nobel Peace Prize, I thought: "Poor kid, the victim of another internet scam." But come to find out the scam is being perpetrated by the five members of the Nobel Prize Committee. It is hard to react to something this crazy except with sarcasm and the internet has been buzzing with sarcasm from commentators on both the left and the right. The National Post has a nice collection of comments from The Economist to Slate to Time. My favorite is from Foreign Policy:
"Thank God for Yasir Arafat because by winning a share of the Nobel Peace Prize
in 1994, he at least assures that no one can say that U.S. President Barack
Obama is the most ludicrous choice in the history of an award that has a pretty
dubious history."

The Times of London Online is not exactly a right-wing rag, but it is pretty blunt:

"The award of this year’s Nobel peace prize to President Obama will be met with widespread incredulity, consternation in many capitals and probably deep embarrassment by the President himself.

Rarely has an award had such an obvious political and partisan intent. It
was clearly seen by the Norwegian Nobel committee as a way of expressing
European gratitude for an end to the Bush Administration, approval for the
election of America’s first black president and hope that Washington will honour
its promise to re-engage with the world.

Instead, the prize risks looking preposterous in its claims, patronising in its intentions and demeaning in its attempt to build up a man who has barely begun his period in office, let alone achieved any tangible outcome for peace.

The pretext for the prize was Mr Obama’s decision to “strengthen international diplomacy and co-operation between peoples”. Many people will point out that, while the President has indeed promised to “reset” relations with Russia and offer a fresh start to relations with the Muslim world, there is little so far to show for his fine words."


Nominations for this year's prize closed 12 days after Obama was sworn in. So this would appear to be the first time anyone has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize just for getting elected - let alone the first time anyone has won just for making nice speeches about peace and hope.

What I want to know is: "Now that Obama has won the Noble Peace Prize for accomplishing nothing whatsoever (other than making leftist Europeans feel that America is finally coming round to their superior way of thinking), what will they do if he does, at some point in the future, actually accomplish something of significance?"

Will they resurrect some of the titles of the ancient Roman Emperors in the late period when their divinity was being asserted for him? Will they institute an Obama-cult in which all the intellectuals of Europe and all the technocrats of the European Union will gather on a newly-declared public holiday to burn incense to his image, while recordings of his speeches are played on all TV networks in lieu of regular programing? Will they attempt to crown him Emperor of the World?

I don't know if enough thought has gone into this or not.

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