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Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize.......
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JupiterSunsation
New member
Time Magazine wrote this piece on why this could hurt Obama:
By NANCY GIBBS Nancy Gibbs – 1 hr 17 mins ago
The last thing Barack Obama needed at this moment in his presidency and our politics is a prize for a promise.
Inspirational words have brought him a long way - including to the night in Grant Park less than a year ago when he asked that we "join in the work of remaking this nation the only way it's been done in America for two-hundred and twenty-one years - block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand." (See pictures of Obama in Grant Park.)
By now there are surely more callouses on his lips than his hands. He, like every new president, has reckoned with both the power and the danger of words, dangers that are especially great for one who wields them as skillfully as he. A promise beautifully made raises hopes especially high: we will revive the economy while we rein in our spending; we will make health care simpler, safer, cheaper, fairer. We will rid the earth of its most lethal weapons. We will turn green and clean. We will all just get along. (See pictures of eight months of Obama's diplomacy.)
So when reality bites, it chomps down hard. The Nobel committee cited "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples." His critics fault some of those efforts: those who favor a missile shield for Poland or a troop surge in Afghanistan or a harder line on Iran. But even his fans know that none of the dreams have yet come true, and a prize for even dreaming them can feed the illusion that they have. (See the Top 10 Obama Backlash Moments)
Maybe the prize will give him more power, new muscles to haul unruly nations in line. But peacemaking is more about ingenuity than inspiration, about reading other nations' selfish interests and cynically, strategically exploiting them for the common good. Will it help if fewer countries come to the table hating us? To a point. But it's a starting point, not an end in itself.
At this moment many Americans are longing for a president who is more bully, less pulpit. The president who leased his immense inaugural good will to the hungry appropriators writing the stimulus bill, who has not stopped negotiating health care reform except to say what is non-negotiable, whose solicitude for the wheelers and dealers who drove the financial system into a ditch leaves the rest of us wondering who has our back, has always shown great promise, said the right things, affirmed every time he opens his mouth that he understands the fears we face and the hopes we hold. But he presides over a capital whose day-to-day functioning has become part-travesty, part-tragedy, wasteful, blind, vain, petty, where even the best intentioned reformers measure their progress with teaspoons. There comes a time when a President needs to take a real risk - and putting his prestige on the line to win the Olympics for his home town does not remotely count.
Compare this to Greg Mortenson, nominated for the prize by some members of Congress, who the bookies gave 20-to-1 odds of winning. Son of a missionary, a former army Medic and mountaineer, he has made it his mission to build schools for girls in places where opium dealers and tribal warlords kill people for trying. His Central Asia Institute has built more than 130 schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan - a mission which has, along the way, inspired millions of people to view the protection and education of girls as a key to peace and prosperity and progress.(See an interactive guide to Obama's first 100 days.)
Sometimes the words come first. Sometimes, it's better to let actions speak for themselves.
By NANCY GIBBS Nancy Gibbs – 1 hr 17 mins ago
The last thing Barack Obama needed at this moment in his presidency and our politics is a prize for a promise.
Inspirational words have brought him a long way - including to the night in Grant Park less than a year ago when he asked that we "join in the work of remaking this nation the only way it's been done in America for two-hundred and twenty-one years - block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand." (See pictures of Obama in Grant Park.)
By now there are surely more callouses on his lips than his hands. He, like every new president, has reckoned with both the power and the danger of words, dangers that are especially great for one who wields them as skillfully as he. A promise beautifully made raises hopes especially high: we will revive the economy while we rein in our spending; we will make health care simpler, safer, cheaper, fairer. We will rid the earth of its most lethal weapons. We will turn green and clean. We will all just get along. (See pictures of eight months of Obama's diplomacy.)
So when reality bites, it chomps down hard. The Nobel committee cited "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples." His critics fault some of those efforts: those who favor a missile shield for Poland or a troop surge in Afghanistan or a harder line on Iran. But even his fans know that none of the dreams have yet come true, and a prize for even dreaming them can feed the illusion that they have. (See the Top 10 Obama Backlash Moments)
Maybe the prize will give him more power, new muscles to haul unruly nations in line. But peacemaking is more about ingenuity than inspiration, about reading other nations' selfish interests and cynically, strategically exploiting them for the common good. Will it help if fewer countries come to the table hating us? To a point. But it's a starting point, not an end in itself.
At this moment many Americans are longing for a president who is more bully, less pulpit. The president who leased his immense inaugural good will to the hungry appropriators writing the stimulus bill, who has not stopped negotiating health care reform except to say what is non-negotiable, whose solicitude for the wheelers and dealers who drove the financial system into a ditch leaves the rest of us wondering who has our back, has always shown great promise, said the right things, affirmed every time he opens his mouth that he understands the fears we face and the hopes we hold. But he presides over a capital whose day-to-day functioning has become part-travesty, part-tragedy, wasteful, blind, vain, petty, where even the best intentioned reformers measure their progress with teaspoons. There comes a time when a President needs to take a real risk - and putting his prestige on the line to win the Olympics for his home town does not remotely count.
Compare this to Greg Mortenson, nominated for the prize by some members of Congress, who the bookies gave 20-to-1 odds of winning. Son of a missionary, a former army Medic and mountaineer, he has made it his mission to build schools for girls in places where opium dealers and tribal warlords kill people for trying. His Central Asia Institute has built more than 130 schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan - a mission which has, along the way, inspired millions of people to view the protection and education of girls as a key to peace and prosperity and progress.(See an interactive guide to Obama's first 100 days.)
Sometimes the words come first. Sometimes, it's better to let actions speak for themselves.
PatriYacht
Charter Member
There's a lot of good commentary over at www.nationalreview.com like this quote from one of their editors, " It is a dangerous thing for a president to become a joke, and between his Olympic Committee trip and this peculiar honor, he’s getting there fast, and in a way that could do him real harm."
fund razor
Founding Member
Oh lookie... I guess MSNBC also understood my point on the irony, Jay. They did a story about it.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/33243495#33243495
Tommy Gun
Charter Member
Pretty much sums it up...what a joke to award this to Obama.
BBB725
Benefactor
But he has accomplished so much, I just can't think of anything right now:biggrinjester:
JupiterSunsation
New member
That was the clincher for me......this guy has been the new mother Teresa for years, opening 130 schools and Mr Wonderful got it after 11 days on the job.
jayboat
Banned
Perhaps for this year it should really be named the 2009 "Given All the Daunting and Frightening Problems the World Faces We Are Just Beside Ourselves With Relief That George W. Bush Is Gone and You Idiot Americans Elected a Reasonable, Intelligent, and Pragmatic Guy Rather Than Another Arrogant, Clueless Disaster-Mongering Jerkwad As Your President" award.
sy goldberg
Sponsor / Charter Member
stecz prize
He won the NOBALL PRIZE today !:26::26:
He won the NOBALL PRIZE today !:26::26:
fund razor
Founding Member
Perhaps for this year it should really be named the 2009 "Given All the Daunting and Frightening Problems the World Faces We Are Just Beside Ourselves With Relief That George W. Bush Is Gone and You Idiot Americans Elected a Reasonable, Intelligent, and Pragmatic Guy Rather Than Another Arrogant, Clueless Disaster-Mongering Jerkwad As Your President" award.
I appreciate how you put your name-calling skills to work in such a way as to not need to cut and paste the thoughts of another person in order to communicate. Well played. It enabled you to make a post all on your own.
Congrats! Not just on the affirmative action award of your Messiah... but on your own ability to construct a post of more than 10 words without resorting to Andrew Sullivan to speak for you. Unprecedented.
It's a great day. :USA:
Take that Fiero on a victory lap down to the carry out and get some Busch. Wait... that's too close to Bush for you. Get some Milwaukee's Best. That's pretty close to Chicago.
jayboat
Banned
I guess it's so difficult for you and all of wingnuttia to grasp this that all you can do is make juvenile attacks about my posts. I'm really enjoying watching your heads explode- this is better than riding on other peoples' boats.
At least the Taliban agrees with you, so you got that going for ya. Enjoy!
At least the Taliban agrees with you, so you got that going for ya. Enjoy!
JupiterSunsation
New member
Jay you have the best pictures on here and OSO
Your president, well that is another story......:ack2:
I liked Bill Clinton so it isn't a party line thing
B.O. inherited a pile of sh!t so I give him credit for steering the titanic but he is being praised as the 2nd coming of Christ without any miracles......
The guy is driving the gravy train through America powered by OUR MONEY giving away every band-aid he can without any permanent results. The guy is a very charasmatic speaker that gets people excited but "those people" are waiting for free houses, new jobs and free Escalades full of fuel. The madness has to stop..... The taliban is laughing that everyone believes B.O. is fixing everything as they are re-grouping!
fund razor
Founding Member
Juvenile attacks about your posts? Juvenile attacks ARE your posts.
I am not even wingnuttia... I just love having a different point of view than the liberal socialist lemmings that go for things like talking a lot about hoping for change. The Nobel Prize is nothing more than a big public relations crowbar. They are hoping for change by applying the crowbar proactively to a man who hasn't done jack chit besides chat.... and hasn't changed a dam thing. The Nobel prize is a joke. Yassar Arafat???
The amazing thing is that you actually lump people together as if they all fit the molds that are described for you in the work of others.
I would think that you would learn more about capitalists riding on their boats.
fund razor
Founding Member
Nobody has ever said more about hoping for change without changing a dam thing Jay.
Well... nobody has ever stuck his presidential nose so far into a local police issue that he needed to have beer summits either.
The truth is that the Nobel committee made a politcal move, proactively granting an affirmative action award to a guy who talks a great game, but ends up doing the same.
Why??? because running this country takes a great deal more than lip service. And standing up to the world takes more than speeches of appeasement.
I see that you are quoting again.... you must have blown your entire wad on that one post.
Well... nobody has ever stuck his presidential nose so far into a local police issue that he needed to have beer summits either.
The truth is that the Nobel committee made a politcal move, proactively granting an affirmative action award to a guy who talks a great game, but ends up doing the same.
Why??? because running this country takes a great deal more than lip service. And standing up to the world takes more than speeches of appeasement.
I see that you are quoting again.... you must have blown your entire wad on that one post.
fund razor
Founding Member
Cut and paste time.
Here is a reknown US News and World Report guy. He says it so much better than Jay or I ever could:
Robert Schlesinger: Obama's Nobel Peace Prize: Why Put the Call Before the Action?
Obama's Nobel Peace Prize: Why Put the Call Before the Action?
By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Three things struck me about the reactions to President Obama's surprise Nobel Prize victory.
First, the take-away line from Obama's speech--that he views the prize as a "call to action"--sums up the problem most everyone sees with the award. As I tweeted, shouldn't the Nobel Prize come as a result of action rather than as a call to it? Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan and supporter of the president, but it just seems like the Nobel committee put the call before the action here.
And that's a fairly common, fairly bipartisan reaction.
As USA Today reports, there was a great deal of surprise at the announcement. Speaking personally I can say that even my staunch Obama supporter friends on Facebook thought it was a bit, umm, odd. One friend wrote that while "I adore Obama and think he can do no wrong," she was a bit taken aback. "Call me old-fashioned, but I think that award needs to be reserved for the Gandhi-types." The committee, she thought, got a bit political.
And she's probably right. As best as I can tell, this award was as much about Obama's not being George W. Bush as about his commitment to peace (perhaps not unrelated things). There's plenty of room here for penetrating analysis and commentary about what this says about ... the Nobel committee, the world's view of the United States, and so forth. It's fertile ground for commentary.
But then you get the partisan commentariat, which seems congenitally incapable of reasoned analysis. The official GOP reaction to Obama's Nobel win? That it's "unfortunate." It reminds me of the old LBJ line about the press: He remarked that if he went down to the Potomac and walked on water the headlines the next day would read: "President Can't Swim." Sure the GOP's job is to oppose, but you can do so with class and/or grace. (The Democrats' official response was, if anything, as remarkable, comparing the GOP with the Taliban and Hamas.)
But of course extreme reactions--even when virtually everyone else is coming together in befuddled bemusement--are what get attention. But they also illustrate how detached the knee-jerk partisans are from the reality in which most of us live. It's Partisan Libs--first write the press release, fill in the blanks later.
Here is a reknown US News and World Report guy. He says it so much better than Jay or I ever could:
Robert Schlesinger: Obama's Nobel Peace Prize: Why Put the Call Before the Action?
Obama's Nobel Peace Prize: Why Put the Call Before the Action?
By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Three things struck me about the reactions to President Obama's surprise Nobel Prize victory.
First, the take-away line from Obama's speech--that he views the prize as a "call to action"--sums up the problem most everyone sees with the award. As I tweeted, shouldn't the Nobel Prize come as a result of action rather than as a call to it? Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan and supporter of the president, but it just seems like the Nobel committee put the call before the action here.
And that's a fairly common, fairly bipartisan reaction.
As USA Today reports, there was a great deal of surprise at the announcement. Speaking personally I can say that even my staunch Obama supporter friends on Facebook thought it was a bit, umm, odd. One friend wrote that while "I adore Obama and think he can do no wrong," she was a bit taken aback. "Call me old-fashioned, but I think that award needs to be reserved for the Gandhi-types." The committee, she thought, got a bit political.
And she's probably right. As best as I can tell, this award was as much about Obama's not being George W. Bush as about his commitment to peace (perhaps not unrelated things). There's plenty of room here for penetrating analysis and commentary about what this says about ... the Nobel committee, the world's view of the United States, and so forth. It's fertile ground for commentary.
But then you get the partisan commentariat, which seems congenitally incapable of reasoned analysis. The official GOP reaction to Obama's Nobel win? That it's "unfortunate." It reminds me of the old LBJ line about the press: He remarked that if he went down to the Potomac and walked on water the headlines the next day would read: "President Can't Swim." Sure the GOP's job is to oppose, but you can do so with class and/or grace. (The Democrats' official response was, if anything, as remarkable, comparing the GOP with the Taliban and Hamas.)
But of course extreme reactions--even when virtually everyone else is coming together in befuddled bemusement--are what get attention. But they also illustrate how detached the knee-jerk partisans are from the reality in which most of us live. It's Partisan Libs--first write the press release, fill in the blanks later.
fund razor
Founding Member
Even he knows that he doesn't deserve it and hasn't earned it. That it represents the hope that he will do something, with the hype as down-payment. It was an "affirmation on behalf of aspirations." Tee hee. :
WASHINGTON, Oct 9 (KUNA): Nobel Peace Prize US presidents and why did Obama win the Nobel Peace Prize. U.S. President Barack Obama voiced here Friday his surprise for being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, saying "I am both surprised and deeply humbled." In remarks he gave at the White House on this occasion, Obama stressed that he does not view the award as a "recognition" of his own accomplishment but "rather as an affirmation of American leadership on behalf of aspirations held by people in all nations."
He said that he does not feel that he deserves this, saying "To be honest, I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many of the transformative figures who've been honored by this prize. Who've inspired me and inspired the entire world through their courageous pursuit of peace." He added that this prize "reflects the kind of world that those men and women and all Americans want to build, a world that gives life to the promise of our founding documents.
:WASHINGTON, Oct 9 (KUNA): Nobel Peace Prize US presidents and why did Obama win the Nobel Peace Prize. U.S. President Barack Obama voiced here Friday his surprise for being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, saying "I am both surprised and deeply humbled." In remarks he gave at the White House on this occasion, Obama stressed that he does not view the award as a "recognition" of his own accomplishment but "rather as an affirmation of American leadership on behalf of aspirations held by people in all nations."
He said that he does not feel that he deserves this, saying "To be honest, I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many of the transformative figures who've been honored by this prize. Who've inspired me and inspired the entire world through their courageous pursuit of peace." He added that this prize "reflects the kind of world that those men and women and all Americans want to build, a world that gives life to the promise of our founding documents.
fund razor
Founding Member
OMG.... you have to try this.... cutting and pasting is fast and easy as heck and you can be watching a movie on the side.
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