![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rfmcdonaldLike most of the rest of the planet, I'm stunned that President Obama won this year's Nobel Peace Prize. I mean, he's a nice guy and everything, but has he doesn't seem to have done anything. He hasn't brokered peace in the Middle East; he hasn't stabilized Afghanistan; he hasn't institutionalized the G-20 as an effective proto-world government. He's just, well, Obama.
This sort of thing hasn't been rare. Remember back in 2007 when Al Gore won that year's Nobel Peace Prize? Yes, his work on popularizing the various problems facing the environment was good and important, but did it really merit an award?
To most of the world these prizes were deserved. What do Obama and Gore have in common? They're not George W. Bush. The Democratic presidential candidate defeated by Bush back in 2000 and the Democratic presidential candidate who defeated Bush's successor last year have of late been much more popular than Bush, and what better way to reward them for not being Bush and opposing so strongly his agenda than to give them international honours and $US 1.4 million?
The effect on domestic US politics won't be good, of course, but I don't think that the rest of the world cares. We're just so relieved.
This sort of thing hasn't been rare. Remember back in 2007 when Al Gore won that year's Nobel Peace Prize? Yes, his work on popularizing the various problems facing the environment was good and important, but did it really merit an award?
To most of the world these prizes were deserved. What do Obama and Gore have in common? They're not George W. Bush. The Democratic presidential candidate defeated by Bush back in 2000 and the Democratic presidential candidate who defeated Bush's successor last year have of late been much more popular than Bush, and what better way to reward them for not being Bush and opposing so strongly his agenda than to give them international honours and $US 1.4 million?
The effect on domestic US politics won't be good, of course, but I don't think that the rest of the world cares. We're just so relieved.
