Apparently many conservatives are unhappy that President Obama is to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. I don't want to be ranked with conservatives, not for a moment! But I have to agree it seems a problematic choice.
I have no doubt that Mr. Obama is a very admirable man. I think that, in time and with a retrospective view, he might even be viewed as a great man. But note that I said retrospective, not prospective.
This is not a case of looking back over a man's long career. Mr. Obama is still a rather young man, not to mention that he has been President for less than nine months.
It might seem less startling if, at least, the award had come after he had been in office for five or six years. Most Nobel prizes--for example, those in Physics--come only several decades after the work or discovery that they are being given for.
Mr. Obama, to his credit, might even be a bit embarrassed by receiving the award, and in his speech he himself pronounced himself unworthy, saying it was really for the nation's efforts to establish a new path for international relations.
Give that man very high marks--no, a prize!--for modesty.
Copyright (c) 2009 by Richard Stein
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What conservatives are really unhappy about is their own failure. It's easy for them to sit back and attack since they didn't have what it takes to arouse vaters and motivate constructive change. President Obama has had a big job on his plate to turn around a sad mess left by that Bush disgrace. Bitter republirants have complained, fussed, obstructed, and sounded off ever since. In my state every single republirant congressman has voted against hate crimes protections for gay people. Republirants left the world in shambles with debt, wars, loss of national and international respect, use of torture, lies, corruption, and unsurpassed conceited deceit. President Obama has had to address a failed economy left by W with an economic stimulus, bail-outs of failing financial institutions and auto industries, initiated a pulic option to achieve real healthcare reform, and going abroad to enhance prospects for things like world peace, worldwide environmental protections, and restored international relations. If President Obamas initiatives of change aren't deserving of an international award for averting catastrophe and turning disaster around then I'd like to know exactly what is.
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ReplyDeleteYou may be perfectly right in much of what you say. However, the Nobel Peace Prize is not for accomplishments relating to the economy or for social or political actions within the country. This is what Wikipedia says about the Nobel Peace Prize:
According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize should be awarded "to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses."
It is not clear to me that Obama meets those qualifications. He has not held peace congresses nor achieved (so far) any reductions in standing armies, etc. He has made very nice-sounding speeches. He has exhorted Israel and the Palestinians to make peace, he has chided Iran for working on nuclear weapons, and he calls for a world free of nuclear arms. Nice speeches, but I don't see concrete results. Meanwhile, he is Commander-in-Chief presiding over two wars.
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ReplyDeleteInteresting comments are coming from the Oslo Nobel committee regarding President Obamas award. Thorbjoern Jagland, the Nobel committee chairman, recently commented that most criticism about the award to President Obama was politically motivated and coming from the media. Jagland went on to say most world leaders are positive in regard to the award given President Obama and that the committee did not take US politics into consideration when making its decision. Jagland defended the award given our president by saying "Alfred Nobel wrote the prize should go to the person who has contributed most to the development of peace in the previous year." Jagland said, "Who has done that more than Barack Obama?" Aagot Valle, a left-wing Norwegian politician who joined the Nobel panel this year, also dismissed suggestions that the Obama decision was without merit. Jagland singled out Obama's efforts to heal the divide between the West and the Muslim world and scale down a Bush-era proposal for an anti-missile shield in Europe.
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