The Nobel Hope Prize

A Nobel Peace Prize was not on the White House Christmas shopping list. 

The only way this would have been a bigger surprise is if the Norwegian committee had just announced it was awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to George W. Bush.

The irony, of course, is that as committee chairman Thorbjorn Jagland announced their decision to award US President Barack Obama the exalted prize, Bush was likely very much on their minds. Collective gasps of shock and awe heard in the room as Jagland spoke, and around much of the world, were quickly replaced by glib commentaries on Obama’s merits, chiefly that he was "not Bush".

"Normally the prize has been presented, even controversially, for accomplishment," noted the New York Times. "The Nobel committee’s embrace of Mr Obama was viewed as a rejection of the unpopular tenure, in Europe especially, of his predecessor, George W. Bush." But that presents another set of problems. "The image of Europe celebrating him as a global peacemaker recalled the period during the presidential race when Senator John McCain’s campaign portrayed Mr Obama as a vapid celebrity playing to huge European crowds, a line of attack that left the normally sure-footed Obama team flummoxed."

They have seldom been so, but they certainly appeared to be confounded again last week after the Oslo announcement stunned a team known for its total control. Obama isn’t given to handling surprises with the flashes of brilliance that are trademarks of his orchestrated events. He didn’t stride or saunter into the Rose Garden with usual aplomb when he acknowledged the award only hours after being awakened with news of it. "Let me be clear" he said, "I do not view it as a recognition of my own accomplishments, but rather as an affirmation of American leadership on behalf of aspirations held by people in all nations."

And that’s just what it was, a Nobel Peace Prize not for a body of work or lifelong achievements, but for aspirations. Not what he has done, but what his soaring rhetoric has convinced the world he can or may do. For once, Obama seemed to know he’s out of his league. "So while he accepted the award," noted the Times, "Mr. Obama also sought to minimise any impression that he was basking in the glory or forgetting that he was a long way from achieving the goals – ridding the world of nuclear weapons, stopping global warming, bringing peace to the Middle East, among others – that the judges seemed to expect of him."

Are they serious? Never mind detractors… even Obama’s supporters dropped their jaws over this one.

After the 2008 election, The Economist ran a cover showing an introspective president-elect Obama with the heading ‘Great Expectations’. After the Nobel announcement, the paper ran an online story ‘Even greater expectations’ with a doctored photo of Mt. Rushmore, of course newly carved with the smiling visage of the celebrated young president. As Juan Williams said of SNL, it’s only funny because it’s based on truth.

Presidential historians who admire Obama say this is premature. "Stephen Wayne, professor of American government at Georgetown University, praised Obama's ‘good instincts’ and strong belief in diplomacy, but said he failed to see accomplishments that merited the prize.

"It does seem to me, at this point, that's its premature," Wayne said. "When I first saw it, I thought it was a joke. Obama may have been the first to get it for his rhetoric and his orientation."

Especially since the nominees for the Peace Prize were submitted on February 1, 12 days after Obama took office. Wayne said he was "startled" to learn Obama had been nominated for the award less than two weeks into his presidency.

"What had he done by February? He had been the first African-American elected president and provided soaring rhetoric," Wayne said. "In one sense, Obama has always been more popular in Europe than in the United States."

And that’s the rub for a lot of critics, and cause for discomfort within the administration. Even the Times acknowledged that "much of the praise came from Europe, giving ammunition to conservatives who say Mr. Obama cares too much about opinion there." Granted, there are benefits to this stature and goodwill abroad, wrote the Times. However, "Democrats moved quickly to portray the Nobel as an honour to the United States after years of being an object of some scorn."

Obama’s overture to the Arab world is one of the efforts for which he was awarded, though his renowned speech in Cairo in June came four months after his nomination to the Nobel committee for such effort. Even still, it was not an end-all performance. "Ahmed Youssef, a Hamas spokesman, congratulated Mr Obama but said the prize was based only on good intentions," the Times reported. "Muhammad al-Sharif, a politically independent Gazan, was incredulous. ‘Has Israel stopped building the settlements?’ he asked. ‘Has Obama achieved a Palestinian state yet?’"

There is ambivalence in the Middle East for this award. "The Arab world greeted President Obama's Nobel Peace Prize with praise for his efforts at reaching out to Muslims but also with frustration -- and sometimes sharp criticism -- that the President's eloquence and charisma have not forced dramatic change on the ground.

"Bloodshed continues in Iraq, Afghanistan drifts in violence and uncertainty, and talks to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have stalled…

"From the Arab perspective, Obama seems to have caved in to Israeli pressure rather than the reverse -- he couldn't even get Israel to agree to a temporary settlement freeze," said Paul Salem, head of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut. "That's the moment we're at right now. People feel let down."

As The Economist observed: "Carrying through on promises is proving far harder than making them."

Especially in the Middle East. "In Iraq, for instance, many expressed surprise that he had been rewarded before having realised any tangible accomplishments toward peace.

"I think the committee has gone mad," said Omar Mohammad, 43, a lawyer from the city of Fallujah. "We haven't seen anything from him yet. Words and promises only, no actions. His troops are still here, Guantanamo is not closed, and Israel is building new settlements."

They’re disappointed on the other side of the wall, too. "This is the first time the award is given for wishful thinking," said Danny Danon, a member of the Israeli parliament from the ruling Likud party.

Part of that wishful thinking, critics are warning, is in the Nobel committee conferring the European political seal of approval on a US leader who, though closer to Europe’s politics than any of his recent predecessors, remains a war president. And though he is trying to rush through stimulus and bailout plans, and health care reform without so much as time to post legislation online for citizens to know what Congress is voting on, President Obama has allowed painstaking time to pass on requests by his military leaders to act on their recommendations to strengthen troop levels in Afghanistan to fight the Taliban insurgency. As of this past weekend, media accounts estimate that it may take another three to four weeks for the president to make that decision.

In those weekend news shows, known for some of the more in-depth examinations of foreign and domestic policy on the networks and cable news, the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to President Barack Obama at this time was widely unappreciated. By analysts on both sides of the political divide.

"Conservative columnist George Will said the Nobel committee essentially awarded Obama for ‘values and attitudes shared by a majority of the world's population.’

"The Nobel Prize committee would with this decision have forfeited its reputation for seriousness if it had a reputation for seriousness," he said on ABC's ‘This Week.’

"Some Republicans, like Senator John McCain, were more reserved in their reaction, simply congratulating Obama for winning the high honour.

"I can't divine all their intentions -- but I think part of their decision-making was expectations, and I'm sure the President understands that he now has even more to live up to," McCain said on CNN's "State of the Union."

"But Bob Schieffer, host of CBS's ‘Face the Nation,’ said… that the committee may have done Obama a disservice.

"I would guess no one at the White House was praying for the president to win the Nobel just yet, not because they're selfless humble souls whose only goal is to help humanity but because they are very good professional politicians who would know better than most of us that an undeserved accolade has a high probability of backfire," he said. "I generally agree with the President's approach on foreign policy, but the Nobel Committee did him no favours by giving him the award before he had anything to show for his efforts... What the Nobel Committee has managed to change -- and I am sorry to say it -- is the way we look on the prize."

It has been awarded to Mikhail Gorbachev, Nelson Mandela, Dr. Martin Luther King, and Mother Teresa, among other luminaries and heroes who devoted their lives to the cause of human rights, sometimes suffering to advance the cause. Some say it’s getting more political.

The pundits over at TechCrunch just say this: "For the record, we still believe Twitter was the best choice for winning the Nobel Peace Prize this year."

Sheila Liaugminas is an Emmy Award winning journalist. She blogs at MercatorNet and Inforum Blog.

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