Obama Strikes Again – Nobel Peace Prize

THERE ARE STRANGE THINGS DONE IN THE MIDNIGHT SUN, words are from American Robert W. Service's poem, The Cremation of Sam McGee. To paraphrase part of the rest of his poem, ...the queerest of these they ever did see was when President Barack Obama was selected to win the Nobel peace prize.

NORTHERN LIGHTS HAVE SEEN QUEER SIGHTS, so just maybe the Norsemen on the Arctic Circle, whose Nobel prize choices are sometimes quirky, are affected by the Aurora Borealis... I spent a month in the neighborhood, in Finnish Lapland, during early summer once upon a time in my life, and came away with the understanding of why the Finns are solitary drinkers. Maybe it was their diet of reindeer hamburgers; or, possibly they were bleached by too many saunas or... detached by listening to the beautiful music of Sibelius; that, may have made the population seem different.

My dismissal of the Nobel Peace Prize as just another self-serving tutti frutti promotional gimmick came in 1973 when Hopeless Henry Kissinger received one half of the award with the other half going to Lee Duc Tho, the North Vietnamese peace negotiator involved in ending the Vietnam War.

The Vietnamese refused his award because he claimed the US reneged on the deal by refusing to pay reparations to Vietnam once Kissinger had agreed to them. Hopeless Henry eagerly took his share of the prize money despite this embarrassing situation. Uncertain what Hopeless Henry did with the prize money, but let us hope he later invested it with his kinsman, the super-swindler Bernie Madoff

So in my book Obama's selection is much ado about nothing. You can spin the selection any way you wish, but it will not persuade or influence Obama to abandon US national interest for a bauble called the Nobel Peace Prize. Obama quickly announced that he would he would donate the one million four prize money to charity. Could you imagine Democrat-Independent-Republican-Independent Senator Joe Lieberman doing that?

Behaving again as jackasses, the Republican Right, except for Bomb Bomb McCain, flew into a rage over the Obama selection for the Nobel. Their leader, over medicated Limbaugh, said he agreed with the Taliban’s and Iran's criticism of Obama as a recipient of the award. Apart from branding the right wing anti-American, this madness should scare the hell out of the Iranians and Taliban to be in the same boat with a prominent American lunatic. If you are trying to find any brains or sanity in the right wing with mouthpieces such as crybaby Beck, ditzy Palin, Joe-Joe the Plumber or the flock of honking geese at FOX news, good luck.

The religious Right, smitten with its quest for salvation, is always self-destructively searching in the wrong places.

There are plenty of policy vulnerabilities to which Obama is subject and should be attacked by his opposition. Tea-bagging with scurrilous signage and gun totting, death panels pulling the plug on grandma, birthers, and anti Americanism whether linked to the olympic selection or the President's award as a Nobel winner are pitiful. These are not the Republican route to power. In the end it will make the Left vicious in its counter attack. The opening shot was just fired by Democratic Congressmen Alan Grayson.

Grayson's Health Care Smack-down went along these lines: "The Republican health care plan: don’t get sick. If you do get sick, America, the Republican health care plan is this: Die quickly!" When an apology was demanded by outraged Republicans, Grayson called them knuckle-dragging neanderthals. Demands for apology stopped, but Grayson's attacks continue; and, they are fueled by large campaign contributions. Expect more vitriolic declamations from the Left – the Republicans foolishly have buried comity in congress.

Congratulations President Obama on the honor and the prize. At this stage, frankly, I am uncertain of the impact. The fact that it drives Bill Clinton crazy with envy is one certainty that underscores the wisdom of the choice. Colonel Robert E Bartos USA ret.