Remarkably Transparent as a Political Gesture
LOL! Evidently, the Nobel Committee fears the GOP will do well in the mid term elections. Or something.
Jimmy Carter called it a “bold statement“. Carter was probably thinking “Jesus, it took me twenty five years of building houses for the poor, monitoring elections, freeing prisoners and a Mideast peace treaty to get this kind of respect. WTF?”.
Smitten Eagle:
October 9th, 2009 at 10:40 pm
The society of good feelings bestows a prize worthy of Arafat, Carter, and Gore on one of their own.
Perhaps if he had gone to Norway instead of Copenhagen, Chicago would have gotten the Olympics, and somebody more deserving would have received the prize.
We truly live in an absurd world.
Lexington Green:
October 9th, 2009 at 11:50 pm
This is the best analysis I have seen:
http://roissy.wordpress.com/2009/10/09/photographs-of-the-nobel-committee-members/
zen:
October 10th, 2009 at 2:45 am
I will have to say something positive on behalf of the far Left types today; from what I have seen, scanning email lists and the internet, most of them see the absurdity unlike those liberals who are just left of center. In fact, most of them are a lot harsher in their commentary than was, say, Limbaugh. Start with Glenn Greenwald and keep going Left.
Leonard:
October 10th, 2009 at 4:07 am
Obama earned the award by his total neutering of the republican right. It is not that he can pursue policies they disagree with (any president can do that), he mocks them to their face (such as his calling himself Superman at the Al Smith dinner during the campaign last October and calling anyone who claimed the health care reform bills percolating through congress would establish death panels liars during his recent nationally televised speech). Their knee-jerk response is call him names (which is their only resposne). Even if the epithets make no reference to his race, they’re called racists. And they have no clue as to why this happens, so they keep doing it again and again., which is exactly what Obama wants.
Because a non-trivial minority is flinging literal racist insults/threats, their lack of any effective response is completely destructive to their coalition. This is a significant problem to a large segment of the religious right, who vote republican because of social issues, but who are explicitly opposed to any form of racism. Right now the religious right will never vote for a democrat because of social issues, but they are being forced to pinch their noses to vote for a republican. If the name calling by the right continues for another 7 years, who knows.
As the republican right is considered by europeans to be the greatest ememy to world peace, the award makes perfect sense. Moreover as virtually all of the criticism by the right of the award consists of ad hominen attacks on Obama, the fracturing of the republican right continues apace (which after all was the intent of the award). The beat goes on.
Mithras:
October 10th, 2009 at 2:51 pm
Zen-
I agree that it’s a very odd decision – Obama himself said he didn’t deserve it – but I don’t know if the Nobel Committee based their decision on an attempt to influence U.S. electoral politics as much as an attempt to influence the U.S. president.
Lexington Green-
Let me just clarify that you think the reason Obama won this award is because some older white women want to have sex with Barack Obama?
Also, I take it this is part of the analysis you find so compelling:
<blockquote>"[Y]ou can date the decline of America to when women got the vote."</blockquote>
Wow, that’s great. I love the Republican party.
zen:
October 10th, 2009 at 5:00 pm
hi Leonard,
.
Both the GOP and the conservative movement are deeply divided and without any compelling new ideas ( neither are the Democrats, fortunately – Health Care is Truman’s plan, for example). A greater intellectual investment needs to be made in finding 21st century applications for expressing conservative principles and less effort towards creating reactive noise.
.
hi Mithras,
.
Yeah, I think if Obama had received this treat in year 3 or year 7 after some major milestone, he’d have been a lot happier and his political upsides far higher than getting it now. Today it comes with an asterisk or like an advance from a publisher for an unwritten book
Lexington Green:
October 10th, 2009 at 8:42 pm
I meant it was the best analysis because it made me laugh the hardest. Plus, of course, it is as good an explanation as any I have seen.
Mithras:
October 11th, 2009 at 2:35 am
Oh, okay, conservative humor. That’s even better, actually.
Lexington Green:
October 11th, 2009 at 5:31 pm
Yeah, humor. Remember, no matter how much anyone may dislike Mr. Obama’s policies, it cannot be denied that the existence of the entire Obama phenomenon has been uproariously funny.
zen:
October 11th, 2009 at 5:58 pm
This essay on the Obama Nobel is quite amusing, hat tip to Chris Messerole:
.
http://unqualified-reservations.blogspot.com/2009/10/robert-lowell-on-obama-prize.html
toto:
October 12th, 2009 at 9:26 am
the entire Obama phenomenon has been uproariously funny.
Only if you forget that it emerged primarily as a (not entirely unreasonable) reaction to the preceding, not-so-funny Bush Jr. phenomenon.
In fact, I agree with those who read the Nobel attribution as a "thank you for getting us read of the Bush administration" gesture.
Leonard:
October 12th, 2009 at 2:12 pm
Inartful or clumsy or down right ignorant criticism always enhances the political legitimacy of the government/leader, oftentimes exponentially. The best approach is no ad hominen attacks on the leader with very carefully crafted fair attacks on the policies. Human nature being what it is, this approach has no chance. Obama recognizes this dynamic and exploits it by “overexposing” himself in the media and by regularly making provacative and insulting statements to his enemies. It’s like waving the cape at the bull or winding up an opponent on the basketball court. Because some of his enemies make explicit racial insults/threats, this tactic will be far more powerful/successful for him than for any previous president.
Also I completely agree with your assessment of 10/10/09 at 5:00 P.M.