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Another Perspective

The Nobel Show Horse

If you thought the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to President Barack Obama was undeserved, you have been looking through the wrong end of the telescope. Consider this:

When the Committee of Five Obscure Norwegian Socialists awarded him the prize they did not realize they had done two great services: (1) made it official that Mr. Obama is a show horse, not a work horse; and (2) proved definitively that the Nobel Peace Prize reflects nothing more than the outlook of five Norwegian Socialists.

It is said that when Alfred Nobel created the foundation that bears his name and makes the various annual awards, included one for “peace” it was to atone for inventing dynamite, but dynamite wasn’t used in weapons. It’s more likely he was influenced by his peace activist friend, Bertha von Suttner, who won the prize in 1905 (nine years after his death) for leading a peace organization.

Through most of its history, the Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to people for doing something specific or representing some widely recognized and positive movement. Among the winners were President Theodore Roosevelt for a peace agreement to end the Russo-Japanese War; General George Marshall for the Marshall Plan that rebuilt Europe; Andrei Sakharov the human rights dissident in the Soviet Union; Bally Williams and Maired Corrigan, for organizing widespread peace marches in Northern Ireland of Protestant and Catholic women; Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin for the Camp David Accords; Nelson Mandela and Willem DeKlerk, for the South African transition to democracy.

Nowadays, however, it goes to people not for action, but for talk. Jimmy Carter, hardly a success at the presidency and now an international scold, won it in 2002. The five Norwegian Socialists fell for the global warming hoax and, in 2007, awarded the Peace Prize to its chief propagandist, Al Gore (they may have been worried that rising sea levels would swamp fishing villages on the fjords). Now it goes to President Obama, as the citation puts it, “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.”

The Committee of Five Norwegian Socialists believes that lions will lie down with lambs. As there are no lions in Norway they can be excused for not knowing that when lions are hungry, a lamb makes a good lunch. Similarly, when President Obama offers to talk with despots and shake hands with thugs, the Committee thinks rays of comity and peace will emanate from the exchange.

The deadline for nominations for this year’s prize took place 11 days after Mr. Obama had sworn to uphold and defend the nation and its Constitution, so they must have had high hopes based on the rhetorical rhapsodies of his campaign. Even now, eight months after that deadline, the Norwegians are still banking on “hope” and “change.” If talk, talk and more talk is an achievement, the prize is well-deserved, for Mr. Obama is a master of talk -- at endless pep rally “town meetings,” at prime time news conferences and on Sunday shows.

By awarding the prize on the basis of hopes and not accomplishments the Norwegians helped Americans bring focus to an uncomfortable, widely held feeling that with Mr. Obama it’s all about him, all the time. 

At the recent International Olympic Committee in Copenhagen his pitch -- and his wife’s -- were filled with personal pronouns.

On the eighth anniversary of September 11, he spoke at the Pentagon memorial service. He looked glum and his words had a flat quality, as if he wished he were not there. After all, the event was not about him. The next day, however, it was once again all about him. He was back in roaring good form at a rally for his health care scheme before a union audience in Minneapolis. He was revved up just as if it was another election campaign rally. 

Mr. Obama may yet accomplish important things, but he hasn’t yet. Instead we have seen him in full campaign mode “24/7,” as the saying goes, making false promises about his health insurance scheme, waffling on his Afghanistan strategy, spending the nation into trillion dollar deficits as far as the eye can see. No wonder those Norwegians rested their decision on hope alone. 

Letter to the Editor

topics:
Barack Obama, Global Warming, Alfred Nobel

Peter Hannaford was closely associated with the late President Ronald Reagan for a number of years and is the author of Recollections of Reagan. After many years in Washington, D.C. he has returned to his native California. His e-mail address is: pdh3292@aol.com.

Comments

Pingback| 10.14.09 @ 8:15AM

Twitter Trackbacks for The American Spectator : The Nobel Show Horse [spectator.org] links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:

…American Spectator 115 Show more Shortened Links Linking to the spectator.org page http://bit.ly/3RoHT1 info http://bit.ly/ZHYRm info http://bit.ly/17Hxxw info   3 tweets Tweet The American Spectator : The Nobel Show Horse spectator.org/archives/2009/10/14/the-nobel-show-horse – view page – cached If you thought the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to President Barack Obama was undeserved, you…

Richard Baker| 10.14.09 @ 8:36AM

Don't forget the Peace Prize to that noted advocate, Ya sir-that's my baby Arafat. Remember him? He's the one who was allowed to give a speech at the UN with a pistol on his hip.

Al Adab| 10.14.09 @ 1:42PM

"Peace through superior firepower."?

Alan Brooks| 10.14.09 @ 7:27PM

"Peace through superior firepower."?

Why yes. The bigger guns rule. The bigger phalluses rule, too. But this is Amspec, not the Toddard Gay blog.

PAmela| 10.14.09 @ 11:18AM

Sir: You make several excellent points, and my favorite among them bears remembering: the decision to award Talker-in-Chief I-bama with this Prize was made by five closeted Norwegian socialists. Wow. Of course! And I agree this brings interesting clarity to the Obama situation in a very interesting way. Thanks for the paradigm shift.

davelnaf| 10.14.09 @ 11:21AM

The Nobel Peace prize was degraded years ago; it is not the same thing as a Nobel in the other categories. Therefore, Americans should not get overly exercised by its being awarded to Obama. He was awarded the prize because Europe is once again rife with a traditional anti-Americanism that is only quieted during periods when the Euros have needed our help. The current period is not one of those times. Occasionally, we elect a president they like and the image they have of the US improves, but the underlying anti-Americanism is always there, a constant, like death and taxes.

S.L. Toddard| 10.14.09 @ 12:10PM

They should have awarded the Nobel prize to the teleprompter company.

Al Adab| 10.14.09 @ 1:44PM

Just wait till next year. A-Jad should win hands down for either NOT nuking Israel or alternatively, nuking Israel. Either way the UN and Nobel Committee will love him.

ATLmedia| 10.14.09 @ 2:02PM

True, Obama bested more deserving winners...
On the other hand, since there was no
'Causing the Deaths of Innocents' Nobel for Bush/Chaney/Rumsfield to win, perhaps it's more of a 'Most Improved Country' award for us all to share. I shall accept this honor on behalf of all those who voted the Bush Crime Family out of office. Thank you!

DAC| 10.14.09 @ 5:21PM

My, how witty. Admit it - Obama's done NOTHING to warrant a Nobel Peace Prize - less that the twin dolts Carter and Gore. While I disagreed with many of Bush's policies, this country is not improved with Obama, and the price he will exact on future generations will be profound. Bush Crime Family indeed. Bush did more for the Africa AIDS problem than any world leader ever. Other than passing the $787 Stimulus debacle, making numerous commitments yet to be upheld (closing Guantanamo - another "brilliant" idea), he's talked much and done little.

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