Barack Obama has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize today. It is striking that this award would be presented to a President who is so new to his post, and who is still struggling to gain his footing. The award appears to be given in large measure as a repudiation for all the errors that former President Bush committed in 8 years of misguided bravado. To Bush, you were either with us or against us. Obama recognized the fallacy in that logic. His efforts to begin to repair the damage caused by past errors serve as the predicate for today's announcement.
We do have a President committed to dialogue with our 'enemies'. He has opened up a line of communications with Iran. He has traveled to Cairo to speak of an understanding of the Muslim world and apologize for errors made in the past. He has attempted in his speech in Prague to begin anew the dialogue on nuclear disarmament. He has set the course of discussion on a rational path.
There must, however, be concern that his words have not yet produced concrete results. Jimmy Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his lifetime of efforts, including brokering of a mid-east peace between Israel and Egypt. Al Gore was recognized by the committee only after he produced a book and award winning film awakening us all to the inconvenient truth of global warming.
In contrast, Mr. Obama is at the beginning of his journey. Not only does he face a world where Iran and North Korea are ratcheting up their efforts on nuclear capabilities, but his own landscape for peace is strewn with obstacles in Afghanistan and Iraq today, and Pakistan in the days to come. Can a President who may be committing us to more years in what many now perceive as unwinnable war, be seen as the most shining beacon of peace?
I applaud the President for his efforts, as the committee states to "create a new international climate" and his ability to "capture the world's attention and give its people hope for a better future". He has fashioned a more positive global image for America.
Former President Bush set the bar as low as it could go for American diplomacy. President Obama now hopes to bring us back to a place where words do not always have to serve as weapons, but can be tools to move us in a forward direction. The Nobel Peace Prize committee, much like the American people, have expressed their belief in Obama's vision of change and hope for a better future. Only time will tell if words produce desired results.
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I was sleeping this morning when my wife announced the news. At first I thought I must be dreaming. When I shook off my sleep my second thought was this must be a joke, but I think the biggest joke I've heard today was Obama's "I'm humbled" response when he awoke to the news. This award will no doubt help further feed Mr. Obama's already overwhelming self-worship. This president has always had a high opinion of himself, but his rocket trajectory to "President of the World" as he sees his de facto self, will certainly put him totally out of control. I see that as an undisguised blessing for those of us who see his ascendancy as an existential peril to our American Freedoms and Traditions. The more he overreaches, the sooner we will see his tour reduced to a failed presidency, exceeding even the unbelievable incompetancy of the Carter Administration.
My third thought, after realizing it was no dream or joke, was that the wise men of the Nobel Committee felt bad about Obama's fiasco re Chicago's bid for the 2016 summer olympics, they decided to give him the consolation prize.
When in Stockholm Obama gave his usual pitch about himself, (even Michelle got into the act with her I was sitting on my daddy's knee watching Carl Lewis win his gold. She was 20 years old when that occurred) instead about what Chicago could do to enhance the Olympic experience, thinking the Europeans loved him so much they would award him the win automatically. When this effort flopped the Obamacrats trotted out their usual line: "It's all George Bush's fault."
Failure, thy name is hubris.
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