It was announced today that President Barack Obama of the United States had won the once-prestigious Nobel Peace Prize. Obama was awarded the prize "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples."
There was no accompanying 'rimshot' sound effect to the announcement. This was not a joke.
Obama was nominated for the prize within a couple of weeks of being sworn in to the office of the Presidency. A couple of weeks during which he earned the nomination by, uh, doing...er, uh. Well, he made a couple speeches, right? Uh, he, er, uh said some pretty good things, I think?
A year ago, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Martii Ahtisaari, the former President of Finland who after leaving that office had established the Crisis Management Initiative in 2000, a non-governmental group that helps mediate and resolve crisis around the world. Ahtisaari had worked for decades in places like Kosova, Iraq, and Indonesia to promote peace.
Barack Obama, in just a couple of weeks in office, made some "extraordinary efforts" that got him the same award. What it took Ahtisaari and all other Nobel laureates a lifetime to achieve, Obama managed through those extraordinary efforts to achieve in mere weeks.
For his part, Obama on one hand seemed to understand that his nomination was out of place saying "To be honest, I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many transformative figures who've been honored by this prize." However, Obama went on to say that he would accept the prize anyway as a "call to action" and "as an affirmation of American leadership on behalf of aspirations held by people in all nations."
Come on, folks, this is an organization that honored Al Gore with a straight face. This was nothing more than a purely political endorsement by a European organization that has found a sympathetic figure it hopes will further bolster the EU's efforts to undermine American strength and drive us closer to a new Socialist world order.
CBS news chief Bob Schieffer, a liberal spokesperson for a liberal news organization, believes this was purely a slap at the Bush administration's aggressive policies in the world, and suggested that the award may have been a prize "for winning the election." The conservative National Review wondered if Obama would next be honored with Major League Baseball's prestigious Cy Young Award as it's top pitcher.
Alfred Nobel himself is probably rolling over in his grave right now. In his will, Nobel stipulated that the prize should be awarded to someone "who shall have done the most or the best work" on behalf of peace. Man, that Obama sure is something, getting all that work done in just a couple of weeks in order to be nominated.
To use boxing terms, if giving Al Gore a Nobel Peace Prize for what is at best a controversial and at worst a fraudulent global warming presence was the 'left hook' then giving Barack Obama the award is the 'right cross' and the final blow that knocks the Nobel Prize out of the credibility fight.
Barack Obama noted when he took office that America is "at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred" and yet he has done nothing since taking power to keep America safe from these Islamist terrorists. In fact, his words and actions have undermined that process and made America even more vulnerable today, and set up the processes by which we will become increasingly more vulnerable going forward.
Obama stated in his inaugural that "earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions." What he failed to state was that there are no longer nations with the moral backbone to stand up for their convictions as allies for true freedom, only cowards who surrender to maintain peace, hiding behind the apron strings of socialism as they await the onrush from the forces of Islamism.
The legacy that Barack Obama is forging here at home is certainly not one of peace among Americans. It is one of being a divider, not the uniter that he said he would become. He is a partisan leader of a partisan political party in a partisan environment in which roughly half of the people of his own country do not support him or his policies.
Be it at home in the United States among fellow Americans, or within our own hemisphere in dealing with situations in places like Cuba and Venezuela, Obama has done little or nothing to forge peace. In the Middle East with our friends in Israel, or with or Islamist enemies in Iraq and Afghanistan, Obama has done little or nothing to forge peace. In relations with major powers such as Russia and China, Obama has done little or nothing to forge peace.
Webster's defines 'noble' as "possessing outstanding qualities" and "possessing, characterized by, or arising from the superiority of mind or character or of ideals or morals." Combined with the Gore award, today's awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Barack Obama can only leave us with the notion that the award is now purely political, and the Nobel organization has surrendered all nobility.
