Obama's Nobel Prize

Barack Obama is the third incumbent American president to win the Nobel Peace Prize. That is a noteworthy coup, but I have to admit I am baffled by it.

What is the reason for it? The Nobel Committee said he was being recognized "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples." The president, the committee said, "has created a new international climate."

Based on that, I can only conclude that it is in recognition of the anticipation of his administration's achievements rather than its actual accomplishments.

With the other two sitting presidents who won, the reasons for winning were more concrete. Theodore Roosevelt was recognized more than 100 years ago for his efforts to end the Russo–Japanese war. Ninety years ago, Woodrow Wilson was honored for co–founding the League of Nations and influencing the Treaty of Versailles.

Both Roosevelt and Wilson had been president for several years when they won the Nobel Peace Prize. They had established records in office. When they won, it wasn't a matter of encouraging the eventual fulfillment of the promise they possessed. It was in recognition of actual achievements.

Nine months into his presidency, Obama has few actual accomplishments. And it does seem odd that, only a week after he was rejected in his attempt to bring the 2016 Olympics to Chicago, he is named the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Odder still, this international achievement comes at a time when an article in the left–leaning British political magazine, the New Statesman, equated him to his predecessor and, on its cover, called him "Barack W. Bush."

And Michael Binyon writes, in The Times, that "the prize risks looking preposterous in its claims, patronising in its intentions and demeaning in its attempt to build up a man who has barely begun his period in office, let alone achieved any tangible outcome for peace."

To this point, there has hardly been a crescendo of approval of the Nobel Committee's decision from international observers.

Here in this country, I expect partisanship to rule the debate over Obama's Nobel Peace Prize. His supporters will boast about it. His foes will criticize it.

If only this much energy had been devoted to job creation ...