October 15, 2009

Nobel Peace Prize a "Political Liability" for President Obama?


"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."
President Barack Obama on receiving the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009

David Axelrod's statement, " I'd like to believe that winning the Nobel Peace Prize is not a political liability" made me stop and wonder on a possibility.... Would conferring a recognition of that proportion impact/burden an individual like Obama such that he could make choices which he would not have otherwise made? Will the lure of being remembered in posterity make Obama more global and less national? Will the thought of sharing space in history books in years to come with the likes of Dr. Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa, and Nelson Mandela, affect Obama's decision making today, especially on global issues such as immigration, nuclear proliferation, climate change, human rights, and poverty?

The Nobel committee that selected President Obama, based the selection on, "Obama's vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons". A preemptive strategy, perhaps, to ensure global peace by presenting a unique opportunity to the leader of the most powerful nation in the world to become revered in the annuls of history. Will this bait of recognition work its charm? Will Obama's decisions henceforth have a distinct global f(l)avor? Will he now scrutinize his agendas under a global/philanthropic lens? Will he consciously or unconsciously try to justify the honor conferred on him, and will the world be the better for it? Will the USA end up becoming the collateral damage in all this?

I am optimistic about my President; yet, these questions linger...

12 comments:

sr said...

I don't think it will hurt Obama's domestic agenda and it will only make his global agenda even harder to stand against. Overall, I think the naysayers are just jealous that their favorite presidents didn't receive a Nobel. Of course, that is not to say that I think the Nobel committee was smart in its early award (his nomination would have gone in just a few weeks after he came into office!); it makes the next three (seven) years really hard. Think about it, how do you follow up on a Nobel Peace Prize?

Smorg said...

It's a prudent question to ask. :o) Though I doubt that it'll really change the way Obama would do thing since he wasn't courting for that prize to begin with. The dude has been pretty impressive in his ability to make his own decision, I think.

Good post as always!

Id it is said...

SR,
True..a Nobel Peace Prize is hard to beat, even live upto I guess; that's what I meant by a premptive strategy on the part of the selection committee...now Obama has an agenda drawn up for him...

You haven't posted in a while...

Id it is said...

Smorg,
Appears you are an Obama fan just as I am... so let's be positive and see what he does.

On a different note, why am I not able to access your blog?

Smorg said...

Hiya,
I don't think I'm a fan of Obama just yet, actually, though I think he has done quite well so far considering the mess he inherited (and he has only been at the helm since this past January). :o)

Oy, don't know why you're having trouble accessing my blog, bro. Were you going for SmorgZone? If you saw another blog on my list, though (like Smauging Smorg), I'm afraid I erased them a week or so ago. Couldn't keep up with too many blogs since I'm also writing for a few other sites... so I figured I'd slim down to keeping only one blog. :o)

Hope the weekend is going well!

Georg said...

Bonjour Id,

Being a kind of idealist, I don't like the idea to give a price to someone for his good intentions. Being old-fashioned as well, I can't help thinking any price should come after an accomplishment.

Barack Obama is certainly a big chance for his country on a great variety of subjects. But he will certainly accomplish nothing as to atom bombs. Humanity has to live with this, for better or worse. In the 12th century the Pope banished the crossbow, after WW1 poisonous gas was banished and in both cases it was reused.

Georg

A.H. said...

I think you are right to have some hesitancy about this. It seemed and still seems premature...to me. It is an aawrd for rhetoric, nothing tangible, and that unsettles me, as a principle.

EXSENO said...

I voted for President Obama, but I think that someone jumped the gun a little when it comes to honoring him with the Nobel Peace Prize. Or did I miss something here.
Of course I think he probably would have gotten it somewhere down the line anyway. And that would be great.

cubano said...

So he gets a Nobel for things that he has yet to accomplish !?

Dr. Deb said...

There is great potential here. I am a huge Obama fan and hope he can demonstrate this!

bereweber said...

yeah, i am an Obama fan too, not even sure if it's 'cause of who he is, or the hope that he represents for this & other countries, so hopefully he will live up all these expectations... I do think the prize was a little early, but then again, when you think globally of some of the issues he attacked right when he came to power, like the closing of Guantanamo Bay, then it seems that all it's in its right place

I feel somehow, the prize for Obama was also for the American people for having overcome racism and have elected a minority president, maybe the Nobel committed wanted to make sure this was recognized before Obama has a chance to 'spill the beans', i am crossing all my fingers so can take us out victorious of this mess we humans are in for...

D said...

Obama has a lot of issues at hands, i don't think he'll commit a political suicide by not first dealing with issue back home. Also, to register in the books of history, he'll have to complete two terms...