I agree with Mickey Kaus. President Obama should graciously decline the Nobel Peace Prize. It would be in the highest tradition of American values. It would enhance his prestige, if anything, more than accepting it would. He certainly doesn’t need the money.
The Nobel Peace Prize has been a highly politicized and therefore greatly diminished award for years now.
Note over at OTB Rodney Dill’s observation on timing.
It makes the committee look like fools.
I had the same musing as Kaus and Dave, he should decline or risk being forever attached to such foolishness. I don’t have much use for the guy’s policies, but he doesn’t deserve the indignity of getting entangled like some puppet in the committees’ cheap stunt.
I agree, Dave, but mostly because I think the Peace Prize has become too trivialized. It once actually used to mean rewarding a peacemaker, like when Teddy Roosevelt won it back in the early twentieth century for negotiating peace between Russia and Japan after the War of 1905 (the Russo-Japanese War).
Oh come on. It’s like the Oscars, maybe the other nominees just weren’t all that as to bringing peace to the world. He put the nation back on track on arms control agreements, thus lessening the overall danger of global warfare to noncombatants. He actually set a date to get of Iraq, which was an impossible feat for the last administration. He actually resourced forces in Afghanistan, which again was an impossible feat for the last administration. He’s taking a serious look at national security and homeland security issues instead of submitting to knee-jerk reactions to overblown threat assessments. He put Israel on notice that its two-state solution will not stand. He’s treating Russia and China as serious players instead of afterthoughts. It’s a significant change of events.
Oh, and he’s not CheneyBush, and McCain/Palin aren’t in office. I think that bore a lot of points. Seriously you guys need to chill. It’s an award to the American people, not to the personality of Obama.
That’s much what I wrote in my post on this subject over at OTB.
“It’s an award to the American people, not to the personality of Obama.”
I must have missed the sudden national transformation.
Wait up a sec. Are you saying that the American people are being “rewarded” for electing the Democrat, or a mulatto, or whatever aspect of Obama is important to them? Because I would find that offensive, whereas the award in my view is merely comedic: it’s like giving Obama the Cy Young award for his opening pitch. At least Carter had the Camp David Accords – a real accomplishment – even if the timing suggested his award was for being not Bush.
I would have to give Obama kudos if he did decline; it would be an act of humility that would become him greatly, and raise the prestige not only of himself, but also of the nation and possibly of the Nobel Peace Prize, which has been losing a lot of face lately with its lamely political awards. But I don’t expect it of him, frankly.
Nope – turns out he won’t decline it, although he said (in what is rather typical Obamanistic hedging) that he doesn’t deserve it. I suspect that part of it is that he’s never met a speaking venue he doesn’t like since getting elected, and he’s got the opportunity for another podium.
I think this is more evidence that my character analysis of Obama is right: he’s a ruthless pragmatist.
Look, the smart political move would have been to decline. He must know this is ridiculous in the American political context. But it might give him just the slightest bit of leverage in negotiating with NK, Israel, Iran, Russia, etc… Not much, just a tiny extra something because it shows in a concrete way that the West is backing Obama’s play.
In other words, Obama can use it. That’s the Occam’s Razor of Obama: can he use it or not?
Obama’s in interesting guy. Reptilian.
I suspect that the Nobel Peace prize was given to Obama to send a message… to whom and for what purpose, who knows