Our president, Saint Barack Hussein Obama, has joined such important historical leaders as Yasser Arafat (a terrorist) and former president Jimmy Carter (a failed president in every way) as a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. Not only that, but he did it in record time. The nominations for the Nobel Prize were due by February 1, 2009. Therefore, Obama was nominated for the award 12 days after taking office. I will repeat that: 12 days after taking office.
What did he accomplish in those twelve miraculous days? FoxNews.com provided this handy itinerary of Obama's first two weeks in office. I reproduce it here for your convenience:
January 20: Sworn in as president. Went to a parade. Partied.
January 21: Asked bureaucrats to re-write guidelines for information requests. Held an “open house” party at the White House.
January 22: Signed Executive Orders: Executive Branch workers to take ethics pledge; re-affirmed Army Field Manual techniques for interrogations; expressed desire to close Guantanamo Bay
January 23: Ordered the release of federal funding to pay for abortions in foreign countries. Lunch with Joe Biden; met with Tim Geithner.
January 24: Budget meeting with economic team.
January 25: Skipped church.
January 26: Gave speech about jobs and energy. Met with Hillary Clinton. Attended Geithner's swearing in ceremony.
January 27: Met with Republicans. Spoke at a clock tower in Ohio.
January 28: Economic meetings in the morning, met with Defense secretary in the afternoon.
January 29: Signed Ledbetter Bill overturning Supreme Court decision on lawsuits over wages. Party in the State Room. Met with Biden.
January 30: Met economic advisers. Gave speech on Middle Class Working Families Task Force. Met with senior enlisted military officials.
January 31: Took the day off.
February 1: Threw a Super Bowl party.
Ah yes. Now I can see. Now I understand why Obama deserved to be lauded for his efforts at securing peace in our time after a mere 12 days in the White House.
Now, according to the very important Norwegians who dispense this honor, Obama represents a new hope for our future. He has tried to reduce nuclear arms, ease tensions with the Middle East, clean up the environment and change the American unilateral ways. But what has he actually done? What concrete accomplishments do we have? We are still in Iraq and Afghanistan. No significant carbon emissions reduction legislation has been passed. The actual number of nuclear weapons has not gone down. Can we say "premature?" Former Polish president Lech Walesa and 1983 Peace Prize winner can. In fact, Walesa's reaction was "So soon? Too early. He has no contribution so far...This is probably an encouragement for him to act. Let's see if he perseveres." So once again, Obama is being praised for what he "represents" and what he is expected to accomplish. Forget the fact that he has not actually done much of anything.
The official list of other nominees will not be released for another 50 years, but we do know that there were a total of 205 nominees. Perhaps these were also all people with potential, or did they actually do something? We will only know when the list is released. I think that I will write a book. I promise that it will be amazing. Perhaps they should go ahead and give me the Nobel Prize for Literature now. It will be a great book, I promise.
It seems clear, most of all, that Obama won for who he is not. This was a repudiation of the Bush administration more than anything else.
I think the reaction from several of my students today when we discussed this in class says it all: "But he hasn't done anything!"
4 comments:
Awesome. I would give you a prize for a book you are about to right. It probably won't have the prestige of the Nobel Prize though
The award is certainly premature. Frankly, I doubt Obama is very happy about it, either. It was obvious that it took him by surprise.
Of course, I also get a little annoyed by a lot of the negative comments on this topic. It's easy to make jokes about this. Obviously, he wasn't nominated for his first 12 days in office. He was nominated for the promise he represented to so many people in the US and around the world for a more peaceful world. This was based on the election campaign and victory, not on his days in office. And I think he was voted in for the work he has started related to the reduction of nuclear arms.
It's way too early and, if anything, I think it makes Obama's job a little harder. Hopefully, he'll be able to earn the honor over the next few years.
I seriously doubt he will be able to earn the honor bestowed on him, for I believe he will change the USA as we know it today. God bless us and especially our grandchildren, the unborn are deeply in debt and it will get worse.
Do you really believe we need to reduce carbon emissions? It has been so cold in the last three years that we should be talking about increasing carbon emissions!North Carolina had to save Sea Turtles from its coast because it was so cold last month. I was thinking about hiring someone to drive my SUV around 24/7 to help warm things up.
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