October 9, 2009: Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize, the World Scoffs
The UK Times (via DrudgeReport) on President Obama's Nobel Peace Prize:
Gasps echoed through the Nobel Hall in Oslo yesterday as Barack Obama was unveiled as the winner of the 2009 Peace Prize, sparking a global outpouring of incredulity and praise in unequal measure.The metamorphosis is complete. Barack Hussein Obama (Mmm... mmm... mmm!) is now an international punchline. Here's how the Aura-in-Chief came undone in one week:
International reaction ranged from delight to disbelief. The former winners Kofi Annan and Desmond Tutu voiced praise, the latter lauding the Nobel Committee’s “surprising but imaginative choice”.
But Lech Walesa, the dissident turned Polish President, who won the Peace Prize in 1983, spoke for many, declaring: “So soon? Too early. He has no contribution so far.”
Mr Obama’s domestic critics leapt on the award as evidence of foreigners fawning over an untested “celebrity” leader. Rush Limbaugh, the US right-wing commentator, said: “This fully exposes the illusion that is Barack Obama."
- It began with his mind boggling failure to bring the Olympics to Chicago.
- It continued with a relatively tame, yet completely surprising SNL skit that lampooned President Obama for his inability to make good on his campaign promises.
- He won the Nobel Peace Prize.
The fact that Obama has accomplished relatively little cannot be ignored anymore. What he HAS accomplished - a potpurri of failures and gaffes - will now be recognized by more people. It is now socially acceptable to objectively judge the Obama administration on its track record. And it ain't pretty...
Let's start on the right wing with Mark Steyn:
The most popular headline at the Real Clear Politics Web site the other day
was: "Is Obama Becoming A Joke?" With brilliant comedic timing, the very next
morning the Norwegians gave him the Nobel Peace Prize. Up next: His stunning
victory in this year's Miss World contest. Dec. 12, Johannesburg. You read it
here first.Fortunately, the Nobel Committee understands that President Obama's
accomplishments are no laughing matter. So they gave him the Peace Prize for
"his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation
between peoples." I assumed this was a reference to his rip-roaring success in
winning the Olympic Games for Rio, but as it turns out the deadline for Nobel
nominations was way back on Feb. 1.Obama took office on Jan. 20. Gosh, it's so long ago now. What "extraordinary
efforts to strengthen international diplomacy" did he make in those first 12
days? Bowing to the Saudi king? Giving the British prime minister the Walmart
discount box of "Twenty Classic Movies You've Seen A Thousand Times"? "Er,
Barack, I've already seen these." "That's OK. They won't work in your DVD player
anyway."
And it gets better. Business Insider had this to say:
We were wondering what it would take to make the American mockery machinery turn on Barack Obama. And now we know: a random awarding of the Nobel Peace
Prize.Do you think Obama thought it was a practical joke when he got the
call this morning?
WireFresh.com has a graphical representation of the reaction of Twitter users to Obama's latest "accomplishment":
