First as tragedy, then as farce

The Nobel Peace Prize has long been a rogues gallery of international-level confidence men. It was a tragedy when they gave it to Arafat. It was a joke when Carter and Gore won. President Obama, 9 months into his presidency, with precisely no accomplishments except tripling the deficit to no effect? It leads one to pity the poor, pathetic Norwegians who can't seem to help being conned.

Comments

[Ed Flinn]

I understand that Mr. Obama became President only 12 days before the Nobel nomination deadline. Those poor, pathetic Norwegians went looking to be conned.

[Kenneth Pike]

I blogged about it too. And referring to a conversation we had a while back--I stand corrected. d^_^b

I have to wonder if President Obama feels just a teensy bit embarrassed by this. Imagine the good he might have done if he'd rejected the prize and asked the committee to take a good long look at itself and how ridiculous it has become. He'd probably rather win a Grammy.

In his own words, "I do not view it as a recognition of my own accomplishments." Thing is, neither does anyone else, including the committee, which first made noise about nukes and Iran, but appears to have settled on the idea that he "brought hope" simply by being elected. And yet the Nobel will refers to "the person who shall have done the most or the best work..." That seems to imply accomplishments as a prerequisite. Guess not!

What a farce.