Peggy Noonan unloads on the fools in Oslo:
This is an award for not being George W. Bush. This is an award for not making the world nervous. This is an award for sharing the basic political sentiments and assumptions of the members of the committee. It is for what Barack Obama may do, not what he has done. He hasn’t done anything.
In one mindless stroke, the committee has rendered the Nobel Peace Prize a laughingstock, perhaps for as long as a generation. And that is an act of true destruction, because it was actually good that the world had a prestigious award for peacemaking.
The members of the committee have also put the young American president in a terrible place. They make it look like all the talk of “The One,” the heartthrob of the European elite, the darling of the international left, is true. They make him look prefabricated and inauthentic, an empty structure held up by essentially silly people. Which puts him at a disadvantage in his own country, because Americans don’t really like it when flaky European politicians tell them how they ought to see him or the world.
And you have to wonder how the truly self-sacrificing professionals who are attempting to create a sound American policy on Afghanistan are going to experience this. Hmm, can a president who just won the left’s great peace prize decide to increase American troop strength and presence in a foreign war? What impact will this have on larger geopolitical considerations?
Assuming the White House did nothing to encourage or lobby for the award, it is not Barack Obama’s fault that he has been embarrassed by this honor. And it may possibly hold for him an unanticipated benefit. It may give him pause: Look what idiots my biggest international supporters are. I may have to rethink a few things.
Since giving back or declining the prize is an unthinkable impractical option, Noonan also thinks that Obama should use this opportunity wisely:
The president will deliver a big speech in Oslo Dec. 10: white tie and tails, a formal, bound statement. The world, as they say, will be watching. He should deflect the limelight. (Can he?) He should make his subject bigger than himself. (Is there a subject bigger than himself?) He has been accused of traveling through the world on an extended apology tour. That isn’t fair, but the tag is there. How about an unapologetic address, a speech, with the world’s elites leaning forward and listening, about the meaning of America? A speech that shows a grounded and sophisticated love for his country and its great traditions and history. Not a nationalistic speech, not a prideful one, but a loving one.
For instance: The Peace Prize judges won’t see it this way, but America has gone to Europe twice in the past century to fight for peace. This is an old concept, and has to do with killing killers so they can’t kill anymore. It cost America a lot to do this, and we kept no territory, as they say, beyond the graves where our soldiers lie. America then taxed itself and gave its wealth not only to its allies but to its former adversaries, to help them rebuild. We didn’t actually have to do this. We did it to make the world better. We did it to foster peace. (They should give us a prize.)
(…)
Mr. Obama should get the spotlight off himself and put it on the great thing that yielded him up and made him possible. America is misunderstood these days, and he could perform a public service by helping people understand it better.
It would be a nice gesture, and the humble one from a man receiving an award he clearly doesn’t deserve.
This seems like so many crocodile tears. This seems like One More Reason to smear this President who has not yet been in office a year. There seems no reason for it other than exceedingly sour grapes. None. Any crumb of benefit for the country cannot exist if it came through Obama.
In case it wasn’t obvious — two wars, economic crises on the fronts of unfixed banks, unfixed health care, and not enough jobs — the inherited nightmare sucks a lot of oxygen out of the room.
It’s an honest-to-god shame that conservatives waste the remaining air on such ugly criticisms, and not just on this subject, but EVERY subject. You brook no debate, just smears.
Was the award too soon? A matter of honest debate (I do not think so, watching his campaign closely; he beat them all with the strength of grass-roots argument based on a destination of peace; he dethroned Bubbuh!). But to blame it on Obama for the express purpose of perpetuating the irrational conservative sadistic ritual of Clubbing of the President wastes valuable time, and makes conservatives look exceedingly petty.
It would help immensely if conservatives sounded more productive, more pro-active, and positive in what conservative solutions are, and not turn pissy when conservatives do not get their way; this is the price of admission of Service in the Minority.
Conservative criticisms of Obama now fill whole libraries with useless tirades and baseless rants; they all now sound like Wolf.
Enough.
Assuming the White House did nothing to encourage or lobby for the award, it is not Barack Obama’s fault that he has been embarrassed by this honor.
Peggy Noonan embarasses herself yet again and, unlike Barack Obama, it is entirely her own fault. Wouldn’t a simple congratulations, and nothing more, be enough from these constantly negative conservatives, whether they believe Obama deserved the award or not? Are these people really so utterly lacking in class and grace as this?
I agree with the commenter above. Conservatives come off as angry, petty losers.
More from Noonan:
Nelson Mandela was unjustly imprisoned for 27 years, and he came out without bitterness. There’s a hero for you.
What she forgot to mention was the administration she worked for opposed Nelson Mandela because they thought he was a communist and opposed imposing sanctions on the apartheid government that imprisnoned him.
What a phony.
Yes, a lot of conservatives do come off as petty.
However, this time they’re right. This award was not deserved, and did make a mockery of itself.