Iran and the 2009 Nobel Peace laureate

I don't think it's that targeted, but it does give the European Left a pressure point. If they were yell about him not living up to his prize, he'd be personally bothered in a way that someone like Bush or Clinton wouldn't, so they can pretty much use it for just about any cause they care to advocate.

Surely the Nobel peace laureate wouldn't turn around and start a war with the Iranians, yes?

Only if he had no other choice. Sort of like Bush attacking Iraq and Afghanistan. He would have to be forced into. Forced.

More likely to give Obama some clout in his various initiatives to find peaceful solutions. And to give him some elbow room from the left.

Ok, we all know that the Nobel Peace Prize is almost a big a joke as the Nobel Prize for Literature so why did they dump it on poor Barry? I think it was a sort of Scandavian Consolation Prize for not giving the Olympics to Chicago.

But it could have been worse. They could have given it to Ahmendijhad.

Bah, if Iran needs to be bombed, the Israelis will do it.

Cecilia,

I have just as much problem with neocons as anyone, but look at how many counter-factuals are built into your case. What it boils down to is that the award was bestowed merely for having the right intentions instead of obtaining measurable results. What good will that do for the prize's committee if Iran does get a nuke, or commits some horrible massacre because Obama couldn't act quickly enough? Wouldn't it rather discredit the whole notion?

Vis-a-vis bombing, one thing that's certainly off the table as far as the administration is concerned is bombing Oslo...

"you mean, like a bizarre-but-true Onionesque tragicomedy in which a man who has been president for nine months is being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize?

Intellectually honest liberals can't help but be embarrassed and sort of appalled at this."

I think, based on when Nobel folks voted, they gave Obama the award after he was President for 9 days or something.

Be that as it may, why should anyone be embarrassed and appalled at anything? I find Obama getting the Nobel to be rather humorous and frankly don't understand any other reaction.

Mike

Brian-

If you are going to toss out phrases like *abandonment issues*, then you might want to learn something about that concept. Here's a good start:
http://blog.itsallaboutabandonment.com

FWIW and IMHO, Obama has realized the nature of his problems and ... matured. After all - maturity is reflected in behaviour, and I didn't notice a banner behind him today saying something like "World's Greatest Peacemaker" ... (or 'Mission Accomplished')

This was mostly their way of thoroughly repudiating Bush.

Steve

A reaction to the Nobel award from the State Department:

"Certainly from our standpoint, this gives us a sense of momentum -- when the United States has accolades tossed its way, rather than shoes."

It gets worse...

I just heard on the Bruce Williams talk show that the deadline for Noble Prize nominations is February 2. This means Obama was nominated for the prize after being in office for only a matter of days.

Since the award was decided February 9th it's pretty clear it was meant to say thank you Jesus that the American people decided not to inflict another Republican on the rest of the world for another eight years.

Seriously.

George W. Bush has been one of the most monumental disasters to strike this planet any time since the Korean War.

A trillion up in smoke literally in Iraq. Trillions more gone in a cloud of smoke following the rampage of Wall Street on everyone's economy, Denial of Global Warming, support for torture and abduction. Mainly the worst things a modern government could undertake coupled with the belief it was all being done in the name of the Almighty.

Clueless, fevernt coupled with incredible power over the lives of the entire planet. That's the United States under GWB. You bet they thanked God Obama ended the reign of the GOP before we were engaged in a third war with Iran.

Worth 100 Nobel prizes.

@Bottoms

It's hard to take your rhetoric seriously. You sound like you lost your way looking for DKos.

Yeah well winning all three houses of congress will do that I suppose.

Nothing like kicking bible-thumping self-righteous incompetent warmongering jerks out on their keisters big a substatial margin and then have the world say: "Way to go."

Next up health reform, Gitmo, and then an end to DADT.

When the second round of stimulus (though it won't be called that) starts to kick in right around this time next year we'll still lose seats in the election but not as many as your puffed up psychos Hannity and Limbaugh think.

If fact this award will cause the Beck and Teabagger crowd to lose it even more than they already have. There's no telling how ugly things will get but I am sure there will be a dozen Macca moments between now and 2010. The GOP will be rooting harder and louder for Obama to fail and it won't all be to adoring crowds.

Independents who have up to now just saying, wuh, will start saying WTF??? to a political party hoping for the domestic automakers to fail. When clowns like Sen. Vitter cheer at events like the Olympic loss people will pay attention. Besides wondering where he finds the time in between visits with prostitutes they'll wonder what means more to a Republican Obama's loss or America's gain.

Being mean spirited and paranoid just doesn't sell well to the 2% swing voter. But since that's what the GOP seems to do best these days they have big problems ahead.

The best news is Team Obama finally realized that teh crazy being pumped out by Republicans is neither accidental, nor can it be ignored. They know it's ime for the Peace President to start taking a rhetorical baseball bat to his Republican critics.

Judges from the rest of the world are holding up a 10.0 for that.

I don't think it's much of a conspiratorial stretch -- given that Obama must have known he'd been nominated for the prize back in February -- to think that his knowledge of the nomination and his potential to win the prize tainted his foreign policy decision-making over the past nine months.

Yes, there seems to be a taint to all of this.

The taint of the Nobel Prize.

RB, I love your rants, but ... all three houses of congress?

Thanks. All three branches of government.

If the economy swings back the other way in any significant manner we may just keep it that way in 2010.

I meant to add though that I do agree with your hopes of Vitter losing. The guy's a whoremonger and I believe his expected opponent is a Pro-Life Democrat.

Oh, never mind. When it goes their way, it's always "the American people" and how honorable the people of America are to people like dear Mr. Bottoms -- but if 2010 flips the GOP's way, it'll be the "American sheeple and their fascist masters" as his appellation.

We've just been through eight years of the worst leadership the country has ever had to suffer through. A presidency so poisonious to global relations that the world gives the incoming president a Nobel prize just for getting elected.

The Republican party is nothing more than a mean spirited, fiscally & managerially incompetent, short sighted group of bed wetting whiners resembling a cult more than a political movement.

You voted twice for an incompetent boob who nearly ran one war into utter failure to the tune of $1,000,000,000,000 tax payer dollars and the meter is still running. The second war, one of necessity and launched with near unanimous support has been going on longer than World War II and s such has nearly lost the support of the people despite the importance of the mission.

Forty million Americans are uninsured and those who are face loss of what little care they can get when they can get past the insurnace company's blatant moves to drop coverage at the slightest whim. Banks gouge them for enormous fees and tilt a system for debit cards to ensure maximum opportunities for additional fees.

Americans have been poised by their meat, lettuce, toys, and water as lax industry oversight has been loosened even further in blind adherence to an ideology of deregulation.

Agencies headed by moralistic ideologues spend millions going after television networks for displaying a breast while ignoring consolidation of industries left and right that drive up prices and reduce services with their main focus on such public necessities as identifying who is getting an abortion.

A new president sets about to change this insanity only to be met with a paranoid fantasy of death panels, internment camps, Gurkha assassins, and real crazies showing up to his speeches with pistols and rifles to the cheers of supposedly sane GOP politicians.

You had your chance to make "conservatism" work and nearly wrecked the country if not the world. The 49% of Americans are slaves to this cult of the GOP is not a surprise.

What will happen hopefully will be that the %2 swing voters will continue to see how stupid, vile and incompetent anyone one running under the GOP banner will be when given the power to govern.

The best thing that can happen in 2012 is that the GOP nominates the moose hunting airhead from Alaska with the Urkle-like exorcist from Louisiana for vice-president. When Obama wins again he may find himself getting 10 Nobel prizes from a world sick with relief.