Obama and the Nobel Peace Prize

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