Nobel Peace Prize

What can I say that hasn’t been said already? By commentators from every part of the political spectrum.

At the very least, it’s a joke. At the very worst, a travesty.

Let’s start with the peace prize itself. Can anyone now deny that it’s not a politically motivated medal? Liberals giving awards to liberals for being liberal. In the past ten years, Jimmy Carter, Al Gore, and now Barack Obama have won it. No conservative American politician has. And now it appears that one doesn’t actually have to do anything to win it, other than espouse the same liberal views that those five politically-appointed Norwegian panel judges hold. In fact, a leader can actually be waging two wars and be seriously considering escalating one of them by sending more troops in, and win the peace prize if he is an avowed liberal.

Okay. So the prize is meaningless. And now it is a joke.

Can we get this meme to soak into the public’s perception? Hammer away at it. It may have held some prestige forty or fifty years ago, but now it has lost it.

Any form of the words “prestige”, “honor”, or even “noble” should be forever severed from the words “Nobel Peace Prize,” unless, of course, the adjective “liberal” is thrown in. It’s prestigious only for liberals, not for the general public, who now regard the award as a meaningless, hypocritical, chucklefest.

I myself, as well as millions of others, have long viewed the award as hypocritical after the murderer and terrorist Arafat was awarded one in the early 90s and continued advocating murder and terrorism.

Now, the awarding of the Peace Prize for Obama’s 11 days of presidency.

Pure Komedy!

At first I was angry, because I thought a raging narcissist like our commander-in-chief would view the award as an affirmation of his big-government, pro-abortion, foreign-policy-founded-on-appeasement, high-tax ideals. And no doubt he will. Then I heard the idea that it is the Nobel committee’s attempt to influence American foreign policy, a “down-payment” of sorts to tie the president’s hands. No doubt it has, but I think Obama did not necessarily need the award to tie his hands. His ideology does that.

Then I thought it was ridiculous, if not downright funny. There’s a lot of mocking going on out in the blogosphere. Reason TV has a mock newscast (I saw it on National Review’s The Corner) where breaking news keeps coming in on Obama winning the Emmy, then the NBA MVP, then the Pulitzer, then the Heisman, etc, etc. Commentary spans the spectrum from lighthearted mocking to bewilderment to dismay over the blatant attempt for a globalized body to influence American policy. I agree with it all.

The noble thing for Obama would have been not to accept the award. Accepting it stating the money will go to charity is still giving validation to it. We need to remember that. Remember what our president gives validation to. I’ve heard it said that the money spent on plane fuel and secret service salaries and expenses will be far greater than the prize money gained in accepting the award. So us taxpayers are paying for it, as we keep funding this growing mess that is the Obama administration.

If Obama was truly the uniter his disciples claim he is, he would practice some humility and say no to this duplicitous award. He has done absolutely nothing to merit it. He has even admitted this. If he had rejected this dubious honor, it would have gone a long way toward disarming his ideological opponents. Instead, this vain politician has given them even more ammunition.

Bring on the mid-term elections!

But the most tragic thing, I think, and it’s something I haven’t heard much these past few days, is that this selection really denigrates those who truly work for peace in the world. Those who put their lives on the line and get their hands dirty, physically dirty, working for peace. Those who dedicate their lives to service, not self-service, those who rise above threats and very real violence, to work hard to improve the sad lot of a lot of the poor and the suffering. Their efforts are now somehow cheapened by this vanity award. It’s become devalued. And rightly so.

The 2010 recipient of the award should decline it. And so should every future recipient.