I woke up this morning to the news that President Obama has just received the Nobel Peace Prize. As if we needed more proof that the Peace Prize awards process has been completely politicized after Al Gore's movie won him the award, ostensibly beating out a lady who risked her life to rescue Jewish children from the Nazis during WWII.
What is typically required to win such a prestigious award? Nelson Mandella spent years in prison for fighting the injustice of Apartheid in South Africa; Desmond Tutu risked his freedom for the same cause. Begin and Sadat ended a long period of hostility between their nations, Israel and Egypt; ultimately, Sadat paid with his life for this accomplishment. Jimmy Carter, terrible president though he was, at least brought Begin and Sadat to the table, and he has also been busy building Habitat homes and has a diplomatic track record since leaving the presidency. Mother Teresa embodied Christ's "no greater love..." in giving her life to the service of people living in gut-wrenching poverty in India. MLK led the movement for equal rights for Blacks in 1960s America, and did it through peaceful means. George Marshall devised the "Marshall Plan" which set the gold standard for how America treats its vanquished enemies. Woodrow Wilson founded the League of Nations, the predecessor of the modern UN (which was a good idea at the time).
So this year's winner is.... President Barack Obama, "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples". What "efforts"? I'm not saying he may not have some laudable accomplishments 4 or 8 years from now, who knows? But he doesn't have any such accomplishments yet; he's only been in office for 9 months, and, quite frankly, aside from doubling the deficit, he hasn't done a whole lot in that time! Add to this the fact that nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize were due only a couple of weeks after President Obama's inauguration, and the "short list" of potential winners is prepared over the following two months. In essence, Mr. Obama was nominated and made the short list before his feet were even wet!
Obviously, I'm not placing blame on the president for this, since I can't imagine how he could have had any role in his winning this prize, and I certainly would not expect him to graciously decline the award; hey, if they're handing out free Nobels (which is basically what this amounts to), I might be in line myself -- after all, there is a $1.4 million prize that goes along with the award! But, as I often have been over the past year or so, I am again puzzled over the almost messianic following that Mr. Obama enjoys among American and European liberals. That aside, however, I find it saddening to see an award that once carried such prestige being rendered utterly meaningless.
