The FT on the Nobel Peace Prize

Beautiful day here in North Jersey. The sun's out, and the Giants just routed the Raiders. Here's the Financial Times on Obama's Nobel Peace Prize, from yesterday, "Urgency of Now?". Excerpt:

The Norwegian Nobel committee has made odd decisions before. Awarding this year’s peace prize to Barack Obama, however, is not merely bizarre but bad: for Mr Obama, for the prize, and for the cause of peace itself.

[...]

This is the first time the prize is given for what remain, for now, mere aspirations.

[...]

Despite Mr Obama’s undeniable diplomatic ambitions for a more peaceful world, there has simply been no time for him either to realise or betray them. So – to borrow from his own rhetoric – why the fierce urgency of now?

The answer is a Nobel Committee trapped in an adolescent adulation of Mr Obama that, if once shared by many, most have put behind them. Its continuing desire to flatter a particular tendency in US politics – Al Gore and Jimmy Carter are recent laureates – risks painting it as an annex to the left wing of the US Democratic party. Hoping the prize will strengthen Mr Obama domestically is deeply misguided: it will embarrass his allies and egg on his detractors.

Elsewhere, it will come to be seen as awarded for wishful thinking, not hard work. Peace is not served by devaluing the moral force of the prize, whose greatest impact has always been the moral support it can give those who fight oppression with their lives – a von Ossietzky, a King or a Walesa – or leaders who make heavy concessions needed for peace. Mr Obama has done neither. It is, however, in his hands to rescue the prize from itself – by declining it in deference to those more worthy than he.

The Nobel Peace Prize and the Olympics

On his Atlantic blog, former Carter speechwriter James Fallows snarks,

Yes, that Olympic rejection really makes Obama look weak...

Talk about a contemptuous outside world.

Of course, the "outside world" didn't make the decisions in either case, but it's worth considering who did. The Olympic bid was awarded by a diverse group of 106 individuals hailing from many different countries. The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded by these five Norwegians.

In fairness to Fallows, he did write a more compelling post on the subject later, giving a former speech writer's analysis of the President's remarks this morning on hearing he had won the prize.

Congratulations to the Commander-in-Chief

Congratulations to the Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Armed Forces, currently engaged in the eighth year of a (recently escalated) war in Afghanistan, and the seventh year of a war in Iraq, along with a smattering of smaller engagements from the Horn of Africa to the Philippines, on winning the Nobel Peace Prize.

Apparently, the Norwegian committee that awarded the Nobel to President Obama also admired his commitment to dealing with "climate change". I like how the Norwegians are concerned about carbon emissions. Not concerned enough to stop pumping their North Sea oil though. Norway looks as out of place as Saudi Arabia on the climate change on the bandwagon

According to the Atlantic Wire, a number of prominent pundits across the political spectrum are recommending that the President turn down the prize.