Obama and the Nobel Peace Prize

Barack Obama has now joined the celebrated gang of usual suspects, former President Carter and former Vice-President Gore, with the award today of the Nobel Peace Prize. I suspect he was as stunned as I, and millions of others were upon the news release.

It immediately opened a Pandora's Box of praise, recriminations and even disgust. My personal reaction questioned what he had done to earn such a noble prize? Apparently millions of others are also puzzled by this weird award and the timing of it. The cart-before-the-horse scenario.

I actually feel a bit sorry for President Obama, as he neither sought it nor accomplished anything substantial that would seemingly merit the award. This is an unwanted firestorm that should otherwise be a great honor if he was deserving of it.

The global talking heads have heaped praise upon him for "restoring America's role as a world leader", and "correcting the path that the previous Administration had taken". As I see it, it's a not so subtle expression of the continued hatred of George W. Bush. So, during the eight years that Bush was president, we lost that title? What "correction" did Obama make?

The European countries were particularly outraged when we liberated the Iraqi people from a brutal dictator, as they were in bed with Saddam Hussein during the scandalous food-for-oil program and weapons sales to Iraq. Remember that one? The infant formula for starving Iraqi babies was contaminated as was much of the rest of the food. Jacques "Iraq" Chirac funneled off millions of dollars into a Swiss bank account for his weapons deals and was the center of a French investigation that went nowhere. Germany also had billions of dollars of weapons trades with Iraq.

No wonder the Europeans were so pissed off. Not that we can ever please them, though. That is, until Obama arrived on the scene and went on his American Apology tour, begging forgiveness for every "transgression" the United States ever committed, PRIOR to his Administration. The Blame Bush syndrome just won't die. Obama has achieved celebrity status due to that, his relative youthful age, looks, and well, because he's Black. Correction: he's also 50% White, a racial heritage he seems to have locked away and the media rarely brings up.

The committee praised the "change in the international climate" that the President had brought, along with his cherished goal of ridding the world of nuclear weapons.

"Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future," it added.

On CNN AM, John Roberts asked a key question: when were the nominations submitted? The talking head, who I can't recall, replied that the deadline for submission was only twelve days into Mr. Obama's presidency in January. This important aspect of the whole Nobel fiasco has been severely under-reported by the Liberal Media who have had a love-fest over our Celebrity-in-Chief. No surprise there. But it certainly exposes the ideological agenda by the committee.

According to an Associated Press release today, GOP Rep. Gresham Barrett, who is running for governor of South Carolina, mocked Obama's prize. "I'm not sure what the international community loved best; his waffling on Afghanistan, pulling defense missiles out of Eastern Europe, turning his back on freedom fighters in Honduras, coddling Castro, siding with Palestinians against Israel, or almost getting tough on Iran," Barrett said.

My sentiments exactly. It becomes all too clear that this totally unexpected award by the Nobel Peace Prize Committee is entirely politically-based. They saw a U.S. President with all the makings of a Socialist and it was love at first sight, albeit in only twelve days in office. Couple that with the pathological hatred of Bush, and it was a perfect storm of lunacy.