To win a Nobel Peace Prize
The question I want answered from anyone who bemoans Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize a bit muchly. Who should have won it? Take your pick from, for instance, these seven individuals:
 Yes, all seven figures in that image are probably are more fitting for a “Nobel Peace Prize”, unless you go ahead and figure the Prize as a “spur for action” and “Symbol” (ie: Good thing Bush is no longer around), but you will search in vain in rolling up and down the am dial of conservative talk radio to hear anything about the people in that montage of images in their diatribes about Obama being awarded the thing. And these were realistic candidates they should be discussing, as opposed to their Dream of the man who “Liberated Millions of Muslims”, George W Bush.
I know a guy, sort of drearily and pessimistically holds to the view that Obama’s election represents and significant long term break and spiral downward. “I’m sorry, but Obama was SOLD TO US.” It is a pretty wide-spread and not altogether unbalanced view, albeit a bit ahistorical. See, for instance “The Selling of the Presidency”, 1968, Joe McGinnis looks wearily on the campaign of Richard Nixon. And see too, the “Log Cabin and Hard Cider” election of William Henry Harrison, 1840.
The awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Barack Obama will feed his outlook that the Jig is on.
I also point to the weekly Friday march and vigil that occurs at Pioneer Square. It’s taken place every Friday for the past eight years. I have seen as few as four people in it, and as many as several hundred. The sign that has edged into that mix is “Afghanistan: Now Obama’s War.” Unnoticed by just about everyone, when Obama vacationed this summer to Marth’s Vineyard, Cindy Sheehan shadowed him, as she did Bush at Crawford, and was as usual arrested yesterday outside the White House. And, Code Pink is getting a bit jittery right now, as things roll.
I am a bit curious as to what the demonstrators at Pioneer Square have to say about Obama’s Award. They should be a bit more coherent and straight-forward than the “Talk Radio” crowd. A week ago, we heard from The Drudge headline “THE EGO HAS LANDED!” and (I can hear Limbaugh’s voice gloatingly) “The World Has Rejected Obama!” So, today, to flick over to Limbaugh and then Beck. Limbaugh: “Can you imagine how big Obama’s Head is today?” […] “This fully exposes the illusion that is Obama!” […] And a bunch of angst against the “World Elites” and Nowegians.
The comedic bit came in with the “announcement” from the NFL that the Kansas City Chiefs had been declared Superbowl Champions, with the citation of approval for this 0-4 team for starting the Rebuilding Process. This is an interesting analogy which, following its natural course, would have the logical idea that Obama is doing that tough job of rebuilding after Bush.
Glenn Beck rolled into a phone-in question of “Name the other two sitting presidents who have won the Nobel Peace Prize.” This would present him with the opportunity to do something he dearly loves to do, which is go on the attack against Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson.
So the “World Rejects Obama” meme is dead. I could never understand the point of that line anyways. And, just to add insult to my general sense of loathing, the National Democratic Party is referencing that debris with “Republicans are siding with the Taliban”, a marker that has me yelling, “Oh, Go to Hell!”
Obama, meanwhile, is a little embarrassed by the win, and if left to his duthers would prefer not to have won it. It contemplates his road ahead. But this is the Nobel Prize Committee’s attempt to put pressure on him, and Obama does not get to control external events and decide the world environment with which he works. One upside, Obama now has a ready excuse — meet with a fellow Nobel Peace Prize winner — to meet with the Dalai Lama that he can offer to Hu.