I had a dream last night that President Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize.
Actually no, I got a text message early this morning about it, and I couldn’t believe it.
I thought, “Now? This year? No way.”
As I started to read the reaction online, that is what I got, from conservatives. I even curtailed my son’s “Handy Manny” watching so we could see the reaction on FOX News and CNN.
And it was not that all astounding. Those who like Obama said “Congratulations,” and those who didn’t said “Congratulations, but it’s because you have a ‘Chia Pet’ named after you.”
Even Obama himself was humbled. According to The Associated Press, the President said he wasn’t sure he has done enough to deserve the award, but would accept it as a “call to action.”
The tea party network, or conservative talk radio as others call it, asked what Obama had done and said he doesn’t deserve the prize.
“The real question Americans are asking is, ‘What has President Obama actually accomplished?’ It is unfortunate that the president’s star power has outshined tireless advocates who have made real achievements working towards peace and human rights,” Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele told the AP.
Steele shared a stage with Sarah Palin in Evansville earlier this year. Enough said.
Of course, the Democrat National Committee likened Steele’s comments to those the Taliban said earlier, but that’s not what my opinion is about.
The Nobel Committee sent a message to the rest of the world Friday and that message was: “Obama may not have done much, but he has done more than his predecessor ever thought of doing for world peace.”
The award, and the statement made with it, should be a barometer of not how much the world likes Obama, but how much the world hated the policies of George W. Bush toward them.
For conservatives, this should be a wake up call. Those squiggly lines and different colors on a map are countries, and we have to work with them.
For Obama, this prize sets the bar really high and maybe almost too high. Does the prize give him credibility or an unrealistic expectation? What if he brings unremarkable results?
I personally would have like to have seen Obama not win the prize this year. Let’s see if the Muslim world, Israel, the Chinese and others Bush honked off work with us again.
But, if he can bring the “teabaggers” and “socialists” together on health care, that’s worth the Peace Prize.
n Nate Smith will not be in Washington this weekend but will be at the Fall Festival in Evansville to work with his old fraternity buddies in a stromboli booth. E-mail him at nsmith@washtimesherald.com
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