He won the WHAT?!

9 October 2009

Despite my Obama fanboyism, I think giving him the Nobel Peace Prize is premature at best and silly at worst. All of his major foreign-policy goals—getting troops out of Iraq, negotiating an end to Iran’s nuclear program, even closing Guantánamo—are still works in progress, so this is more an award for good intentions than for actual accomplishments. True, some other laureates (Bishop Tutu, for example) got their awards before finishing their peacemaking jobs, but in those cases one could argue that the prestige of the prize gave them credibility and influence that they needed. If the president of the United States of America needs that kind of boost to accomplish his mission, then our country’s international standing is even worse than I had previously imagined. And yeah, he’s Not George W. Bush, but by that standard of good behavior, three-quarters of the planet must be eligible for the Nobel Peace Prize.

I would much rather have seen the prize go to the Israeli and Palestinian architects of the Geneva Accord, a project which deserves more attention.

• Later: Democrats grow spines, gonads, teeth
• Earlier: See it in the new feature film, “Twilight of the Goths”