It’s not your enemies you have to worry about
Just about everybody has opined on it, but I’ll add my two cents to the igNobel Prize controversy.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee may have thought that they were doing President Obama a favor. In fact, they have put the White House and his fiercest defenders in the position of having to defend the absolutely indefensible position that he is worthy of the award.
For a president already struggling with (a) a reputation of having not accomplished anything, and (b) diminished credibility even among the Far Left, this prize is not the kind of help the President needs.
If he doesn’t already, President Obama is going to soon regret not taking Mickey Kaus’ advice to graciously decline the award.
October 10th, 2009 at 3:33 pm
The Nobel prizes are associated with accomplishment. The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded by a government committee of Norway. It has already been demeaned by its past award to Yasser Arafat. I don’t know of any positive accomplishments by Arafat, other than becoming the Dear Leader for the Palestinians.
Now, it is awarded to President Obama for what he has said that he will accomplish. This exposes the awarding committee as starry-eyed leftists. This is an embarrassment to the Left, because it exposes wishful thinking at a high level of leftist government. If this high committee can be so biased and childish in awarding praise, then how bad are their other analyses and thinking?
This does not automatically reflect badly on Obama. He doesn’t control Norway. But, he has accepted the prize and is going to speak at the ceremony. That reflects badly on him, because he is accepting their analysis. This is either agreement with the committee, self glorification, or just opportunistic.
Obama said that he interprets the award as recognizing the accomplishments of the U.S. I presume that this accomplishment is the election of Obama. He should contribute the prize to the U.S. Treasury, as repayment to the people for doing that electing.
October 17th, 2009 at 3:15 pm
Krumm: Glad you’re back!! Don’t even know you but I know you’re a great/smart guy!! Now I’ll keep checking/commenting. Is your health alright? What state do you pay taxes to? Low, I hope! (percentage!!). Hope you’re not destitute! Sincerely, StvB, Maryland