Posted by
Always To The Right on Friday, October 09, 2009 12:11:08 PM
Many of us assumed that the mainstream media outlets would cheer Barack Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize award today, but as Byron York notices, they seem as stunned as everyone else — and also as skeptical. For instance, the Washington Post reminds readers that two other sitting American Presidents have won the Nobel, but only in their second terms, and only after they’d, er, actually achieved something
. . . a number of people are making reference to Jimmy Carter’s award in
2002 for nothing more than speaking out against the policies of George
Bush. However, Carter had a legitimate shot at it in 1978 for his work
on brokering a peace agreement between Israel and Egypt only a few
years after their last war — and didn’t get a share in the Nobel
awarded to Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat for those efforts. Has Obama
done anything remotely significant in foreign affairs, let alone as
significant as that agreement, which still continues today?
The New York Times should also be cheering, but instead it also questions the thought process of Nobel voters
What diplomatic efforts “so far”? He gave a speech in
Cairo and … and … and … gave a few in Europe, too. That was the point
of those questions from reporters; Obama has done little so far. He
has mostly followed the Bush policies in two wars that the Nobel
committee appeared to detest over the last few years, as Allahpundit
pointed out in his post
this morning. Obama did make a big show of appeasing Iran during its
election crisis. Perhaps they should change the award’s name to the Neville rather than the Nobel.
Finally, Matt Lauer apparently hit the nail on the head with his assessment, according to TMV’s Joe Windish
LAUER: There are no major foreign policy achievements to date … In some ways he wins this for not being George W. Bush.
GREGORY: That’s an inescapable conclusion.
That’s actually the only reason. He won for getting
elected. It’s no more significant than that, and even the normally
fawning American media know better.
Update: Peter Beinart
says this only reinforces the conservative argument that Obamamania is
all about style over substance, calling the award a “farce”