Wow, lot of different takes on this subject here early this morning. I think I might actually have a somewhat unique take. First let me say I think he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace cause of the promise of what he has to offer more than any direct things he has done in just a few short months in office.
Some here say the award was given too early. Others that he deserved it. Others that he should not accept it. Well at some level I kind of both agree and disagree with all those positions at the same time. I will explain below the fold.
But first just something to set the stage to understand my mindset. For many years I played a sport at a near international level. Growing up nothing would have been a higher honor then to be standing on a podium, Olympic gold metal around my neck, with our National Anthem playing.
Well until I became an adult. Can anything be "cooler" then standing on a stage in Oslo and being awarded The Nobel Price for Peace? I mean really, what would be more amazing. You did more to promote peace then anybody else in the entire world that year.
Now with that in mind here is what I think about all of this.
First I don't care the pounding Obama is going to get from the Republicans. If they didn't pound him over this they would have just found something else. Is it maybe going to hurt the sprint run for health care reform, maybe. Who knows.
But they'll overact as they did with the lost bid for the Olympics. They are getting to the point that I'd like Gibbs in a press conference to say something like:
The right so dislikes anything Obama does, that if in his free time he found a cure for cancer they'd still find something to bitch about. Like why didn't it find the cure last month, he never should have gone on vacation with his family?
Some folks I respect here think he totally deserves the award. Well I am not so sure about that. I am hard pressed to think of anything specific he has done to spread peace, other then just the night and day difference between himself and Bush and the promise of hope (and that isn't a small thing I will admit). Is that enough to win the award nine months into his first term? Hard to say, since I can't see the applications of the other finalists.
Still others I respect are saying he doesn't deserve it. Again I don't know enough about the other people in the running. I mean this is all we get from the AP story:
Until seconds before the award, speculation had focused on a wide variety of candidates besides Obama: Zimbabwe's Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, a Colombian senator, a Chinese dissident and an Afghan woman's rights activist, among others. The Nobel committee received a record 205 nominations for this year's prize, though it was not immediately apparent who nominated Obama.
So not a lot of details to work from here.
And finally others say he shouldn't accept the Award. This is where I strongly disagree. The Nobel Prize for Peace brings with it a large sum of money, which of course Obama will give away to a charity, but IMHO it helps to often focus a global spot light on a cause that needs attention.
If there is nothing else Obama can do better than anybody else, it is give a speech. He should go to Oslo and accept the Award, saying he doesn't deserve it cause there is much work that needs to be done. He will fulfill the promises he has made to the world community. This is just the start! And the Award just motivates him to even work harder toward peace.
In his speech only talk about the the "Colombian senator, a Chinese dissident and an Afghan woman's rights activist" that AP can't even put a name to.
Shine the global spotlight on their cause. Use the chance to say that even though we are the world's only super power we need to be more engaged globally. That almost no American citizen (as has been showed here -- myself included) can almost name anybody but Obama that was worthy of this Award this year, even though many exist. We're going to work on this by calling attention to freedom fighters and peace advocates throughout the world.
Fly back home and get back to work.