“Nobel Peace Price”
or, if you prefer, Unhappy At Any Speed
a random pagemonkey rant

Please do not assume, Gentle Reader, that I am a rabid Barack Obama fan - I feel there is a lot he has not done as president, but, I feel he is making a reasonable effort to solve problems even as he juggles many more.

His nomination for and subsequent award of the Nobel Peace Prize is something every American citizen should feel satisfaction in.

Especially given that he had held office for less than a month when nominated, and received the award only nine months into his first term, at a point when many of his goals have yet to be acheived.

You can, of course, spin this event in a negative direction. Politically motivated. Glitzy payolla, atta-boy bribery. Perhaps, as the Wall Street Journal has inferred, the result of drug impairment. Or see the headline on Google’s news page, and assume that The Onion mistakenly got one of their satirical essays listed as hard news. Or consider it something to cause you to “lose respect” for the award, as one of our fine House-Mouses has said.

The right-wing stratosphere is literally aglow with resentment, hatred, scorn, and theatrical dismay. Representative Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) has been quoted as saying “I just lost all respect for the award. It used to be one of distinction, but it is hard to give it any credibility.” I did a rather extensive search. Apparently, Chaffetz didn’t publicly “lose respect” for the Nobel Peace Prize when it was awarded to white democrat Al Gore.

No objection to South African Secretary General Desmond Tutu’s, either. And none at all to liberal activist, civil rights activist, and African-American Martin Luther King, Jr.’s award.

Just Mr. Obama’s. Apparently, you have to be black, a centerist democrat, and a sitting president to tip Chaffetz’ scales unfavorably. Odd, that.

Even The Wall Street Journal, a respected publication, could not resist. In an article headlined with “What Are They Smoking In Oslo?” John Fund writes “The Nobel Committee is said often to make its final decision at its last meeting just before the announcement. If so, President Obama has gotten a consolation prize for the failure of the U.S. to secure the 2016 Olympics.” A snipe at president Obama is apparently worth alleging that Norweigan heads of state use illegal drugs in their legally-bound discharge of the terms of Alfred Nobel’s will.

And the right-wing bLogosphere is postively crawling with poorly written op-ed peices which disparage president Obama for having been nominated, and for having been awarded, and for having accepted. One yakker even suggested that there might be a problem should the committee ask for Barack’s birth certificate, thus reinflating the leaky Birther balloon with a gasp of halitosic breath.

At South Dakota Politics (.blog.com) Ken Blanchard, in his post titled “The Unbearable Lightness of Barack Obama” starts with “If you have a lot of hope invested in the Obama Presidency, this might be the moment to unload your stock. Barack Obama, a man who failed to qualify for an honorary degree from Arizona State University, has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.” and ends with “Just think: Obama can be awarded a life time achievement award at the Oscars for all the movies he will no doubt make when he leaves office! And maybe he deserves one of those genius awards, not that he has had any brilliant ideas. But he has created a better atmosphere for the idea of brilliant ideas! The only result of his prize is that it is harder to take the prize itself or Obama seriously.”

I’ll just have to say, as an Arizona native, that the value of legitimate Arizona State University diplomas has gone down a bunch in the last decade, so missing an honorary is no big.

That said, let’s liberate a snippet of this numbskull’s post, and play with it out of context a bit, just like the Rabid Right does with sound-bites.

I actually like “…not that he has had any brilliant ideas. But he has created a better atmosphere for the idea of brilliant ideas…” quite a lot, for that is one of the important things President Obama has accomplished so far.

Blanchard’s error is this: Creating a better atmosphere for brilliant ideas is, of course, a brilliant idea in and of itself.

One might assume: Ideas are easy, that’s how you usually decide what the fuck to eat for dinner. But when was the last time you (or I) had one that started to change the world for the better?

One must ask: Why is this so obvious to five Norweigans (whom the Wall Street Journal infers might be toking the good stuff) when it escapes us?

Blanchard’s opening advice of “unloading” your “stock” in Obama is ill-advised, at least in my opine. I hold with the old “buy low, sell high” theory. If you’re currently luke-warm to Obama, start paying attention. Forget Kenya, forget stupid remarks about death panels as part of the health care reform, and start thinking about how you can use this man and his ideas to improve your life.

I will, Gentle Reader, close at this point but I will leave two questions to be answered. Many of the rabid right yakkers are also very religiously inclined, so why, in this event, are they so willing to commit two of the Seven Deadly sins - Wrath and Envy - as well as a laundry list of the Venial sins, in their outpouring of protest over Mr. Obama’s award?

The other question is this. Why do we not find celebration in an American citizen winning a Noble Peace Prize - are we that disenchanted with each other?

~ pagemonkey