Style vs. substance

When I first was told the news that President Obama had won the Nobel Peace Prize, I thought it was a joke. Perhaps they meant the Nobel Speech Prize, or maybe the Nobel Prize for Literature, because, after all, he has written a couple of books.

Jokes aside, according to every news report I read, Nobel nominations took place nine months ago, which means Mr. Obama was in office a matter of days when nominated.

In awarding the prize, the Nobel Committee said, "Barack Obama has, as president, created a new climate in international politics. Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play."

Given that "new climate," the United States is still getting the cold shoulder in Afghanistan from our allies, and we have yet to convince the Russian's that selling missiles to Iran is not a good thing, but why spoil such a feel-good story?

The Nobel Committee also cited the president's efforts to halt the proliferation of nuclear weapons. Mr. Obama has tried to persuade Iran and North Korea to end their nuclear ambitions, but then again, so did George W. Bush. Both presidents failed to stop progress and, if anything, both countries have since stepped up their pursuits of nuclear weapons since Mr. Obama became president.

Given the ambiguous history of the Nobel Peace prize, at some point during his presidency, Obama was bound to win it. Apparently, details like foreign-policy accomplishments don't matter. Such is an abiding case of style over substance, and political correctness run amok, but on an international level.

The Norwegian socialists who comprise the Nobel Committee would like nothing better than to see our country devolve into another secular Gehenna like the European Union.

"Such an effort" said the Staten Island Advance, "seems as if they are trying to train the U.S., Pavlov-style, in some sort of international behavior-modification effort. The last thing they would ever reward is an unapologetic American nationalist like our former president, George W. Bush."

You don't have to be a Fox News junkie to construe that the president was handed the award essentially because he's the anti-Bush. In fact, the Nobel Committee has a habit of giving the prize to Democratic Party favorites regardless of their accomplishments, real or imagined.

They include 2007 winner Al Gore and his hypothesis of anthroprogenic (man-made) global warming, before it began to melt among numerous scientists who have proven at least nine fallacies in Gore's film. Jimmy Carter was given the prize in 2002 for negotiating a nuclear non-proliferation agreement with North Korea that was violated almost immediately.

Alfred Nobel, who the prizes are named after, tried to buy the respect of the intelligentsia of the time after developing what they criticized as something "bad" in dynamite and gelignite. Ironically, the Nobel Committee bestowed the Peace Prize in 1994 to that infamous architect of the suicide bomber, Yasser Arafat.

Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II helped bring down the Iron Curtin without a shot, but who gets the Nobel Peace Prize? Mikhail Gorbachev. Apparently, sharing such honors wasn't vogue in 1990. George H.W. Bush liberated Kuwait, George W. Bush liberated 43 million Iraqis from the tyranny of Saddam and Barack Obama was in office for 11 days, was not only nominated for the prize, but won.

The Nobel Peace Prize has become the Oscar for leftist politicians. Kind of makes you wonder if the Nobel committee is a subsidiary of the Democratic Party? I can only imagine how the spirits of the once mighty Norse Vikings feel about those girly men in Oslo today.

The money that comes with the prize is nothing for a rock star to write home about at $1.4 million, and Mr. Obama has gone on record saying he'll donate the money to charity. Looks like ACORN or perhaps NARAL is in for a nice $1.4 million dollar windfall, perhaps?

If the president was truly a statesman, he would humbly decline. Besides, the Nobels are awarded annually. Now, do you think Gen. Stanley McChrystal, in Afghanistan, is going to get the 40,000 troops he requested back in August? It was then Senator Obama who, when accepting the Democratic Nomination in Denver, pledged to "finish the fight against the Taliban in Afghanistan."

Perhaps Obama will win the NL Cy Young award in baseball, too. After all, didn't he throw out the first pitch of the Washington Nationals home opener back in April?

(Maresca, a local freelance writer, composes "Talking Points" for each Sunday edition.)