A Prize For A Nobel President?
A
lot of people had asked me this weekend what I thought about President
Barack Obama winning The Nobel Peace Prize. One of my wife’s co-workers
called her up and asked her if I’m going to publish something on this
site. A lot of people have been waiting patiently, just
knowing this is going to be a great rant before I even started it.
The mere fact that people are waiting for this rant is going to effect it’s outcome. It better be really good and not disappoint people! I better knock this one out of the park! Just as I’m sure people are wondering if this honor is going to effect the way Obama is going try and run the country and if he's going to earn this medal.
Flashback To Last Friday Morning ...
When I heard that he had won The Nobel Prize, the first thought that popped into my mind is that I needed some more coffee. I had laid down on the couch in my office and shut my eyes while the coffee was brewing. I was drinking some cold stuff that was made the Thursday afternoon and the microwave hardly took the October room temperature chill out of it. Doug was on the phone and asked me if I had heard, and what did I think.
Little did he know, he was the first one who told me. I thought I must have been dreaming. That’s been happening a lot recently, I’ve been having dreams that seem just as real to me as the keys underneath my fingers.
In my under-caffeinated state all I could think about was how the committee that granted him with this high honor was trying to influence the next election. Why else would they have nominated him so soon after his swearing in. That’s when the process begins, in February of every year. He was only in office for how long? How many weeks? And they gave him the Nobel Nomination?
For what, can I ask? What exactly did he do in a few short weeks? Or did they give it to him for his speeches during the Presidential campaign? Or as someone said on our forum, was he granted this honor for simply not being George Dubya Bush?
What I also said is that I think it’s way too premature to give it to a guy who hasn’t even been in office for the whole year. I’m not alone in asking if this is a little early. The rest of his term in office will seem anti-climactic. What else could be done that could top this? Besides winning another term, maybe? And that brings be back to my original thought – that this seemed to me to be an early attempt at swaying the election.
I’ll be blunt. I really don’t care what awards our President wins
from any international committee, I couldn’t care less if this cat gets
The Nobel Prize. Who cares if they want to throw a piece of metal at
this guy, so long as it isn’t a small capsule of lead traveling close to
the speed of sound. If this will help our “International Reputation,”
then fine. If this huge gold coin hanging from his neck will give him
the clout he needs to get people moving on putting the breaks on evil
regimes like the ones currently in Iran and Venezuela, then it's great.
It just seem to me that these people are setting themselves up for a huge embarrassment in the near future. What if he’s not the man of peace he says he is and they’ve given him this award prematurely. What if Obama decides to escalate the situation in Afghanistan or starts a war with Iran over UN Weapons inspectors not getting full access to the second Uranium enrichment facility? [I’m getting a weird feeling of Déjà Vu here...] What if his critics and conspiracy theorists were right about him, and some Saturday Night in the future he’s having cocktails with Weather Underground front-man William Ayers, the two decide this is the weekend we start atomic Armageddon with the former Soviet Union just because they can.
Realistically, what if the President of The United States who just won the Nobel Peace Prize has to respond to a terrorist threat with violence? Is this guy going to have second thoughts about what he has to do every time he looks at this medal that’s proudly sitting on his desk or in a frame-box on the wall or fire-place mantle?
You’re now a Nobel Laureate, for peace. That’s not something one can easily suspend in one's mind, that kind of thing that sticks with you. Unless you’re someone like Yasser Arafat. Name someone else since the end of World War II that worked harder to prevent world peace. If anything, he tried his best to start World War III in his own basement, incited riots and encouraged everyone to choose sides in his Anti-Zionist quest. Here's a guy who pushed to extinguish a group of people and continue Hitler's work in genocide. How did THAT guy get The Nobel Prize? While answering that, remember all the things he did (or was accused of doing) after becoming a Nobel Laureate. Giving such a “peace prize” to someone who’s dedicated his life to hate or giving it to someone who hasn’t done much yet seems to cheapen the honor, and not in a minor superficial way.
As a brief aside, didn’t they Inconveniently give the same award to someone with a really good Power-Point presentation?
I half expect to see one in my mail box any year now for the times I’ve suggested that all of us who share a common interest should get along better. Quick, nominate me for the next round before they come to their senses!
I would like to see the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences take an approach like this, let’s hand out awards to people BEFORE they make film. Let’s give George Lucas and Steven Speilberg an Oscar for Best Picture even before they start filming the next sequel to the Indiana Jones series and see if it’s more acceptable to die-hard fanatics and casual fans alike. Let’s just pluck some kid out of film school and give him a lifetime achievement award and see what he or she will do with that kind of pressure. Will they succeed, or just kick back and coast since they already WON the award with no incentive.
As if Barack Obama didn’t have enough to worry about; unemployment, a
slow economic recovery, atomic-saber rattling in other countries,
budget-busting stimulus packages, floundering auto-sales after
“cash-for-clunkers” and bank bail-outs. Now he has the pressure of being a
“Nobel Laureate” and now he really has to earn it. Is it just me, or
does he look as if it’s more hassle than it’s worth? For this past
weekend and the weeks to come, winning this award for nebulous reasons
has done more harm then good. It’s only served as a distraction from the
issues he has to deal with now.
