from screwingupawetdream
It's not President Obama's fault that the Nobel Committee decided to give him the Peace Prize. But...
It's not President Obama's fault that the Nobel Committee decided to give him the Peace Prize. We're all hopeful that he'll earn that kind of consideration in the fullness of time, but it seems early. This kind of cultish adulation, especially from a foreign source, tends to play into conservative narratives about Obama being long on charisma and hype but short on substance. He'd have done himself a favor by graciously declining the award.
The Prez is in fact going to Norway to accept the prize. But -- perhaps in a misguided attempt to silence domestic critics who would characterize acceptance of the award as grandstanding -- he will be significantly snubbing his hosts by skipping most of the ceremonial events that are held to fete the prize-winner. The UK's Guardian reports that the Norwegians are "incensed." Declining lunch with Norway's King seems particularly bad form.
The President is getting bad advice here. What happened to the brilliant staff of advisers who helped him execute one of the deftest, shrewdest election campaigns in memory? This Peace Prize thing, occurring just days after Obama doubled-down on our hopelessly misguided Afghanistan adventure, will now make him look like a hypocritical war-monger, a grandstander, and an ungrateful cad, all at once. That is an ugly trifecta, my friends.
And of course this all begs the big question -- whither the all-important Norwegian-American vote in 2010?
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