A Little Dijon
The peace prize for Obama is not causing celebration in the United States because it is, at best, a backhanded compliment. It is the European Socialist community saying to Americans, "After eight years of Bush, you finally got one right."
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace prize 1984 says,- "what wonderful recognition of someone who has already made such an impact on our planet."The President accepted the award with trepidation, and rightly so, for it shines a bright light on his Achilles heal - the question of whether or not he is rooting for the home team. Consider what Josef Joffe, editor of the German paper Die Zeit, writes in today's New York Times:
The prize was surely more anti-Bush than pro-Obama. Or if you want to add another dialectical twist: It was a prize by which the good folks of Europe, as represented by Norway, rewarded themselves for having transcended Mr. Bush’s Yahoo America — this retrograde warrior culture, this arrogant colossus trampling around the world in a self-granted mission to remake it in America’s image.Most Americans don't want the most powerful nation in the history of the world to bow to European expectations. Liberals, however, are uncomfortable with American power - both militarily and economically. They long for the day when we will be integrated with the rest of the world rather than leading it. That is why they view Obama as their man.
Mr. Obama, by contrast, is vaguely “un-American”: soft of language, soft of power, an American social democrat out to make his country more “European” — always ready to reach out to those who do not reach out to the West, nor wish it well. This is how the Europeans, once a race of conquerors and colonizers, like to see themselves: peaceable, cooperative, high-minded — that is, in a more advanced stage of development than Bushist America.Obama supporters in the U.S. are aligned with Europe. They want us to be a wine and cheese nation, not the land of burgers and fries.
World leaders sent congratulatory notes, including one from French President Nicolas Sarkozy that read: "Finally, it sets the seal on America's return to the heart of all the world's peoples."The strong evidence that Obama's heart is not in the heartland was made available to voters before the Hope & Change election of last December. Reverend Wright was a powerful message that voters ignored. Bill Ayers, the Obama partner who once fought a war against America, is another. Obama's redistributive philosophy, his belief that the constitution fails because it only provides negative rights, his close partnership with ACORN, all offered vivid signals that the president is more Holland than Hoosier.
"Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future," the Nobel Committee said.But the media swoon over Obama provided a tidal wave of energy, determined to sweep Obama, and his liberal worldview, into office. There was little that rational argument could do to convince a Bush-fatigued nation to fight back against the European takeover, and even John McCain, who had the most to gain, feared an honest attack knowing he would be repelled by the shield of race. Back to Mr. Joffe in today's Times.
The awarding of the prize to Mr. Obama, however, honors a stance — the politics of goodness enveloped in uplifting oratory. It is the moral equivalent of “fly now, pay later” and a posthumous kick for George W. Bush and his coterie. Mr. Obama is now fighting two wars, which is not exactly a show of peaceability.Europe's hope for America is a weaker America, and that is the Hope & Change that Nobel is encouraging.
What is the Norwegian Nobel Committee going to do if Iraq works out after all as a semi-democratic anchor of the Arab world living in peace with its neighbors? That would be quite a contribution to peace. Will the Nobel committee award the prize to Mr. Bush ex post facto? The Nobel Norwegians are not known for such a fine sense of irony.For now, however, they've miscalculated, as this is still a McDonald's Nation. Highlighting the fact that the president takes his burger with arugula and Dijon doesn't help his stealth Eurofication of America.
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