The Nobel Committee jumps the shark

For a long time the Nobel Peace Prize has been nothing but a way for decadent liberals to celebrate their own decadent liberalism and inflate the egos of other decadent liberals along with those of their barbarian “peace” partners. But the granting of the Prize to Barack Obama, a mere eight months into his presidency, when he hasn’t done anything yet, when he hasn’t even negotiated some bogus peace treaty that would provide ostensible justification for the awarding of the Prize, reveals a liberal culture that is beyond decadence, beyond embarrassment.

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Roland D. writes:

Even though he was an evil man, Arafat was at least a serious man; Obama’s just an empty suit who can read from a TelePrompTer. This is the first Nobel Peace prize awarded on the basis of affirmative action, there’s no other way to explain it: .

Edward G. writes:

Our fearless leader, Obama, is the surprise winner for 2009. More evidence of Lenin’s famous phrase, “a useful idiot.” His proposal at the U.N. to make the world nuclear bomb free and his efforts to make nice nice with Iran were the deciding factors. Is there any inconsistency in these two approaches by Barack or is a nuclear free world and an Iran nuclear bomb somehow consistent. What am I missing?

Van Wijk writes:

If I thought that the Peace Prize was actually worth something, I might have been able to summon some outrage. But it seems strangely fitting and perfect. A peace prize that has nothing to do with peace for a U.S. President who has nothing to do with America.

Tim W. writes:

I think he should have won the prize for physics, too. He gave a speech calling for nuclear disarmament, and nuclear weapons involve physics. The Porkulus-Stimulus bill should have earned him the economics prize, and his health care boondoggle clearly deserves the medicine prize. Perhaps racism on the part of the Nobel Committee limited him to one award. Oh well, maybe next year.

LA replies:

But really, is there any mere Nobel prize that could be adequate to the ineffable sublimity of the One? A new prize is needed, transcending all others. Or else a committee of all nations should meet and declare Obama to be the god-king of humanity.

Tim W. replies:

This award is so ludicrous that it should backfire.

LA replies:

I think so. I’m so glad for the expression “to jump the shark,” because what other expression in our language could adequately convey what the Nobel committee has done? An act so excessively silly that it turns an individual or an institution into a joke.

Hannon writes:

It should be noted that whatever were the motivations of the Committee in awarding this prize to Obama, the deadline for nomination was 1 Feb, 2009. So his magnanimously compelling contributions to world peace, whatever those were, had to have occurred before then.

LA replies:

If true, that would perfectly fit with Obama’s own view of himself, that the most important aspect of his presidency would be the fact that he was president. So, by his being sworn in as president (on January 20), he had already earned the Nobel Prize (by Februrary 1).

Ben W. writes:

LA said:

“But really, is there any mere Nobel prize that could be adequate to the ineffable sublimity of the One? A new prize is needed, transcending all others. Or else a committee of all nations should meet and declare Obama to be the god-king of humanity.”

Tread carefully there, someone may discover a 666 amongst his attributes… A “god-king of humanity” tends towards the consolidation of power in demonic ways. Who knows?

Howard Sutherland writes:

The West may not be dead yet. But Norway certainly is. The Nobel Prize committee, presumably consisting of brain-dead, self-loathing multiculturalist Norgie sheep, has awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to Barack Hussein Obama. What, exactly, has B. Hussein done to advance peace in our world in the less than nine months he has occupied the White House? Nothing substantial that I can see, and several foolish actions that might well push us in the other direction.

But B. Hussein has achieved something that surely sets the Nobel committee-persons’ legs all a-tingling, Chris Matthews-style. He has managed to con his way into being the first alien, non-white head of state of a white Western nation.

There is no other reason (not that it is a valid reason at all) for the award to go to B. Hussein, the Umma’s Man in America.

Or do the Nobelites imagine that under The One’s beneficent stewardship, we will all be advancing smartly toward a café-au-lait utopia? If so, they should examine his power-base: Chicago. Even the hacks of the Olympic committee couldn’t stomach that!

Actually, that last raises a conspiracy-theory thought: might it be that the Nobelites shifted their premier award to The One to cover for his failure in Copenhagen to bring home the Olympic bacon?

LA writes:

The thought came to me: wouldn’t Obama himself be a little nonplussed by receiving the award when he hasn’t actually done anything yet? Wouldn’t he feel that he ought to earn the award, or at least present the appearance of having earned it, rather than being given the award just for being himself? Wouldn’t the unearned nature of it lessen the value of the prize in his eyes and make him feel embarrassed?

But then came the next thought: Of course not. He believes in affirmative action, doesn’t he? He said when he was the president of the Harvard Law Review that he himself was a product of affirmative action and that this was good. He appointed to the Supreme Court a woman who constantly boasts of being a product of affirmative action and whose main object in public life is to increase the number of minorities in high level positions whether they’ve qualified for them or not. He believes that nonwhites, and particularly he himself, are deserving of all kinds of benefits simply by virtue of being nonwhite. So he should be completely comfortable with his receipt of the prize. It signals the global approval and institutionalization of affirmative action.

Ken Hechtman, VFR’s leftist Canadian reader, writes:

This is a hoax. It has to be.

This is being done by a gang of conservative internet pranksters testing liberal gullibility and hoping for a good laugh at our expense. I’m not buying it. Do you hear me out there? I’m not buying it! Getting the Nobel Committee to play along was a nice touch—I’ll admit that—but I’m still not buying it!

In Surprise, Nobel Peace Prize to Obama for Diplomacy

By WALTER GIBBS and SHERYL GAY STOLBERG

Published: October 9, 2009
OSLO—The Nobel Committee announced Friday that the annual peace prize was awarded to Barack Obama, just nine months into his presidency, “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.”

LA writes:

In line with thoughts expressed here, the blogger at the blog Your Freedom and Ours writes:

This could be a consolation prize for not getting the Olympics for Chicago; it could be a reward for grovelling to every tyrant under the sun and surrendering to them on the subject of free speech; or it could be simply for being the first non-white President of the United States. Given that nominations allegedly closed 11 days after Obama’s inauguration, one cannot help feeling that the last of those is true.

Paul K. writes:

I think it was his July 30 “Beer Summit,” at which he resolved the historical conflict between well-to-do blacks and impertinent police officers, which first brought Obama to the attention of the Peace Prize committee. [LA replies: LOL. You’re right! That’s it! He has already achieved a great peace agreement during his presidency and thus deserves the Nobel Peace Prize. I had forgotten about that.] Then there was his firm, statesman-like resolve not to mention Iran’s Qom nuclear site at the UN, which would have marred his uplifting reverie of a nuclear-free world. That gave him the edge he needed to beat out … . hmm, was anyone else even in the running? My guess is that Obama had the prize sewn up by this time last year and committee members had to cross their legs and hop up and down until they had a chance to bestow it upon him.

You hit the nail on the head when you wrote “As the first black couple in the White House, the Obamas feel that an aura of sacredness, of transformative global significance, surrounds them… . The Obamas are like the Pharoah and Queen of ancient Egypt, divine vessels through whom the regenerative powers of the cosmos flow into human society.”

While the IOC was strangely immune to this aura, members of the Nobel Prize committee clearly feel that in celebrating the arrival of the messiah, they have guaranteed a place for themselves at the right hand of his throne.

Sol K. writes:

The committee is nothing if not consistent in its decision making processes.They have awarded the prize to such other “undeservings” as Albert (Al) Gore, Jr., Jimmy Carter, Kofi Annan, Anwar Sadat, and, worst of all, Yasser Arafat. Why would they suddenly feel a necessity to raise the bar?

Randy B. writes:

In a place completely devoid of light, or its ability to convey light, Obama seems to be able to shine brightly amongst the dimmest, without filament. What’s shocking to me is the slip and disarray as reflected in even the mainstream media with this announcement. Reporters from around the world reflect the reactions read herein: What, For What, Are you joking? I wonder if they will unearth Mr. Nobel to present the false prophet of the universe his humbling award?

Hat’s off in reverent recognition.

LA replies:

Are you saying reporters are expressing disbelief at the announcement? Can you give me examples?

Randy B. replies:

Examples:

CBS News correspondent Mark Phillips said one could almost hear the gasps when the committee made its announcement.

News’ Robert Berger reports many say President Obama has talked about peace, but on the ground, nothing has changed.

CBS News chief Washington correspondent Bob Schieffer said, “I don’t think anybody expected this. The Nobel Committee, I find interesting, said they awarded this for changing the tone of American politics. It’s almost as if they’re saying we’re giving you the Nobel Peace Prize for winning the election. President Bush was very unpopular in Europe and it is almost as if this is more of a comment on the previous administration than it is on the new one.”

CBS News senior White House correspondent Bill Plante said the news hit the White House like a thunderclap out of nowhere

NBC headline—Obama becomes third sitting U.S. president to win, but decision stuns observers because he took office less than two weeks before nomination deadline. [LA replies: That shoots down Paul K.’s theory that he won the Nobel for the Beer Summit.]

ABC—Who me? Obama winds Nobel Peace Prize, leaving even White House shock.

MSNBC—A video of the audience response:

Ben W. writes:

What people are missing in ridiculing the Nobel award, is the prophetic dimension. A god-king is pre-announced by prophets and angels. His role, purpose and destiny is foretold. The committee was acting in a prophetic mode.

Paul K. writes:

My current theory on the awarding of the Peace Prize to Obama is that it is the third, and presumably final, kick at the despised Bush presidency.

Awarding Jimmy Carter the prize in 2002, was, I suspect, at least partly a slap at the incumbent. Awarding the prize to Gore in 2007, presumably for his global warming campaign, seems less odd if you suspect that it was intended to reward Bush’s 2000 opponent and, in the eyes of the left, the actual winner of that campaign. Today, awarding the prize to Obama, who defeated Bush’s heir McCain, adds another exclamation point to the message.

Kathlene M. writes:

It appears that Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize for…..HOPE! See this from Wael Nawara at the Huffington Post:

Obama indeed may have won the Nobel Prize, not for the Peace he helped realize, but for the Hope he has managed to inspire. The Hope that our world can truly be a better place. And like everything else, Peace may start with one shred of hope. Hope for Peace.

Time.com has an article by Nancy Gibbs which is called: “Obama’s Nobel: The Last Thing He Needs” which starts out like this:

The last thing Barack Obama needed at this moment in his presidency and our politics is a prize for a promise.

I’m surprised that Obama-worshipping Time magazine would run an article that is skeptical of The One.

LA replies:

Of course Nancy Gibbs is correct. Obama’s main problem is his self-worship. This will only add to it.

A correspondent writes:

The committee has as much credibility as the U.N.

What a joke!

Carl Simpson writes:

I saw a wonderful quote in response to this utter farce earlier today:

“When small men cast long shadows, you know the sun is setting.” Lao Tzu

The Nobel Peace prize has been a joke for decades now. You have to give them credit, though. The body-snatchers who run the Nobel Prize have even managed to out-do themselves in sheer absurdity. All hail the Mau-Mau Messiah!

Donald W. writes:

It occurs to me that Barack Obama is more qualified for the Nobel Prize for Literature than the Nobel Prize for Peace.

LA replies:

That statement has so many levels of irony I don’t know how to unpack it!

Posted by Lawrence Auster at October 09, 2009 09:32 AM | Send