The utterance of sane words from a seat of power is both refreshing and welcome, but I also believe the Peace Prize should be awarded based on more substantive results, and not just because the new occupant of the Oval Office has pledged to discontinue the meatheaded policies of his predecessor. Because Obama’s Presidency is still very new (to say nothing of the fact that he was quite possibly nominated before he was even elected) his “contributions” are far from concrete, and thus lack a sufficient level of merit. Essentially, he’s been given an award because he hasn’t managed to fuck things up as bad as the last guy. Don’t get me wrong; I’m glad he is breaking with many of the bad policies we’ve labored under for the last eight years, but what has Obama really accomplished as President so far? The Nobel seems cheapened as a result.
Comments:
2 Comments posted on "The C+ Valedictorian"
nmw on October 9th, 2009 at 11:24 PM #
Here’s the thing: the Nobel isn’t necessarily a lifetime achievement award. As noted here, it’s often an “A for Effort” prize; Gorbachev, for example, got it in 1990, before the all-out collapse of the USSR and the end of the Cold War. And yeah, in this case, it’s also a “Thank you for not sucking as hard as the last guy” award. But it’s also the, “Here you go; now don’t fuck it up!” award. I also don’t think the Nobel can be cheapened any further, after Henry Kissinger got one. Though it’s been hella fun watching the wingnuts’ heads explode.
B-Man on October 11th, 2009 at 3:45 PM #
It’s like the Academy Awards; A shiny spectacle that is basically just a popularity contest. Obama was pre-selected as homecoming king… Another good and ‘noble’ concept has been politicized. |
Even though I’m a huge liberal pinko and support most of the Obama administration’s foreign policy goals, I can’t shake the feeling he was