Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize is coming back to the forefront of the media to haunt him again. It is definitely a tough situation for President Obama; I mean it is not like he expected to get the prize so soon in office. Now that he has sent a troop surge into Afghanistan the prize is starting to also look hypocritical in some people’s eyes. The whole Afghanistan issue had horrible timing. President Obama announces he’s sending 30,000 troops to Afghanistan, and then a few days later he leaves to pick up his Nobel Peace Prize.
Even people who still support President Obama claim that if “I was him I would be too embarrassed to accept it.” Mainly the Middle East is where President Obama’s approval rating are taking a severe hit. In the beginning of his presidency the Middle East countries hoped for a better relationship with the United States and feel that better relationship is not going to be achieved with this latest surge in troops.
Picking up his Nobel Peace Prize is definitely an ill-timed moment for President Obama. He is already been criticized so much for his decision about Afghanistan, and the lack of change here at home. He definitely did not need the whole Nobel Peace Prize issue to come to the surface again. I bet the President has kind of a love hate relationship with it. It is no doubt a huge honor to receive the prize, but at the same time even he knows he probably should not be the one to have received it. I wonder where he will keep it at the white house. I mean keeping it in an obvious place of honor only would serve to ignite more criticism, but I mean it’s not like it’s a something that you can just hide up in the attic.
I think the entire issue is actually quite ridiculous. I understand the Norwegians intentions, but I think the real issue at hand is deciding whether or not the Preident really deserves the Nobel Peace Prize. In one of my posts, I suggested that somebody nominated the President days after he was sworn into office. Votes for the prize are due by February 1st of each year, and he was sworn in on the 20th of January. This would suggest that somebody actually thought in the period of a week and a half, President Barak Obama deserved to win one of the most prestigious awards in the worl. I think this entire issue is ridiculous, but I think that the President should be embarrassed. You are right, there was nothing he could have done to stop his nomination. I just think you have it right with the issue of timing. I think it was terrbile timing on the Administration’s part to announce there would be a surge of soldiers being sent to Afghanistan.
I think that these are two things that we have paired together that are not necessarily directly related. Yes President Obama received the Nobel Peace prize for his policies and views in international relations, but I do not think that the council responsible for nominating him for the prize thought he would be an anti-war president. I think that is has been blown out of proportion by the media, but on the other hand it has been having a negative effect on his popularity ratings. I think the way he goes about the war in Afghanistan will truly determine if he is Prize worthy