Obama's Nobel Peace Prize

It was stunning that a day after Salon.com lead with a headline asking 'Has Obama Become a Joke?' the Nobel Prize Committee decided to answer with their response 'he is and we are' and awarded him probably one of the least deserved awards in the history of awards next to maybe Crash winning Best Picture back in 05'. While there have been less deserving recipients in the past, Arafat and Kissinger arguably were warmonger's rather than peacemakers when they received their respective prizes, and Al Gore won it basically for making a movie, this award was still at the very best premature and at the very worst crass and opportunistic. When asked why he was not going to run for office Martin Sheen, star of the West Wing answered "I merely play a politician on tv. You are mistaking celebrity for credibility". It is clear with its recent recipients that the Nobel Committee is making similar choices. While some could make the argument that in pursuing a more multilateral foreign policy, trying to wind down two wars, trying to stop the torture and abuses of those in US custody, working towards a Mideast peace settlement, stopping proliferation, and at least acknowledging global warming that President Obama is on the right path. Yet this argument is voided when we realize Obama won way back in February before he even had a chance to start even these basic initiatives. Basically the Nobel committee is admitting they are awarding this on the basis of hope and a hunch rather than substantial achievement.

To his credit the President seemed flustered and mortified that he won, though obviously not enough to humbly refuse the prize and its considerably cash to a more deserving nominee (Morgan Tsvangirai of Zimbabwe and Moussavi of Iran come to mind for actually risking their lives to fight for peace and justice against tyrannical regimes). Yet one also suspects he knew this reward would create more political problems without any tangible political benefits. For a guy whom everyone expects to fix the economy, end two wars, fix healthcare, all while still balancing the budget and stopping climate change, this prize is just another burden forced onto his back. One suspects the President yelling to Michelle in a rare moment of privacy 'god damn now I gotta create world peace too this job is starting to get on my fucking nerves'.

The worst part about this though is that now the President is stymied from conducting a foreign policy based in part around the ideals of realism. Obama has always had this tension between the idealistic hawkish liberals in his circle, from Samantha Power to Susan Rice to Hillary Clinton who all think American power can be applied to stop humanitarian crises and to ensure that the values of freedom and human rights are obeyed (or else!), and this sense some of us had that yes the realists are finally back in charge. Obama's inaction on Afghanistan reflects this tension with his realists like Joe Biden and General Jones arguing that we need to declare victory and cut our losses and the idealist wing which still feels that America can reverse two millenia of Afghan culture by liberating the country from extreme Islam and patriarchy. The Nobel prize will now literally and figuratively weigh above Obama as he makes these decisions possibly affecting his ability to think realistically about US policy when he has all these ideals invested in his success. It is hard to be the Machiavellian statesmen frankly a President ought to be when considering questions of war and peace when the world is declaring you the second coming and investing you with superhero like abilities to solve problems with simple willpower. The Nobel Committee might have thought they were investing in the future by granting Obama this prize, but instead they have not only placed him on a pedestal they have also shot him in the foot. And there is nothing peaceful about that.