“But I also know 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. And I know that throughout history, the Nobel Peace Prize has not just been used to honor specific achievement; it’s also been used as a means to give momentum to a set of causes. And that is why I will accept this award as a call to action — a call for all nations to confront the common challenges of the 21st century.”
This was the most important and shrewdest thing he said, because it is where he acknowledges an uncomfortable fact that everyone knows to be true. Of course the award can’t be in recognition of projects he has already achieved and completed, because there aren’t that many of them. In these third and fourth paragraphs, Obama acknowledges that point — but adds the news-analyst’s argument that often the Nobel committee awards these prizes as encouragements, signals, or what it hopes will be momentum-changers. If other people are going to say that, Obama does well to signal his understanding of the point himself. And from there he’s off to the rest of the (fairly brief) statement, enumerating the sorts of common challenges he has in mind.
And for being the not-Bush.
Ten sentences. Sixteen uses of I/me/my. Very characteristic, isn’t it?
No Sheeples Here looks forward to more awards:
William Jacobson, however, looks at how Farce Repeats Itself As History.
Over in Texas, GM Roper Wins the Peas Prize
On second thought, let’s hope Obama never really earns it, considering the others who have:
2005
MOHAMED ELBARADEI (joint winner). He’s done such a nice job with Iran.2004
WANGARI MAATHAI. The Kenyan ecologist peacefully teaches that the AIDS virus is a biological agent deliberately created by the Man.2002
JIMMY CARTER JR., former President of the United States of America. A true cosmopolitan, he has undermined the foreign policy of his own country and vouched for the bona fides of tyrants and murderers all over the world.2001
UNITED NATIONS, New York, NY, USA.KOFI ANNAN, United Nations Secretary General. Among other things, they have respectively served as the vehicle for, and presided over, one of the biggest scams in history.
1994
YASSER ARAFAT (joint winner), Chairman of the Executive Committee of the PLO, President of the Palestinian National Authority. He was a cold-blooded murderer both before and after receiving the award.1992
RIGOBERTA MENCHU TUM, Guatemala. She is the notorious Guatemalan faker and author, sort of, of I, Rigoberta Menchu.1988
THE UNITED NATIONS PEACE-KEEPING FORCES New York, NY, U.S.A. Notwithstanding rapes and sex abuse committed by the team in Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea and the Congo, still doing fine work all over the world.
Sister Toldjah has more on that.
Thank you for the link.
My pleasure, GM!
Fausta that video is great. I was just thinking yesterday how the left would try to give Obama some kind of Academy Award.
Maybe they could give it to him for his performance during his joint session speech.
This award sets a terrible precedent, as you’ve observed. But look at what the logical extension would lead us to with other awards: