Friday, October 9, 2009

And the Nobel Goes To...

So: Barack Obama gets the Nobel Peace Prize, 9 months into office, having been nominated 12 days after being inaugurated.

And he's getting slaughtered for it. Everyone, including himself, seems to agree that he doesn't deserve this thing. The Republicans are using this as a catapult to hurl accusations of European elitism, and failing to help the domestic economy, and of possibly going soft on Afghanistan, and of being Kenyan, and a Communist, etc.
So, does he deserve it? The Peace Prize is generally given to activists for their outstanding work toward achieving a a more peaceful world, and 225 of those people were also nominated for the award. But the prize is also given to those who have the potential to achieve a more peaceful world. Not many people have gotten the award on the latter point, mostly, I'm supposing, because brou-hahas like this can be expected to erupt when they do.

Maybe Barack Obama doesn't deserve it now. Maybe he'll deserve it two or three years down the line. Hopefully he will.

1 comment:

Anna Cooper said...

Great work, as always. I was a bit sad to hear that Obama won the Nobel, not because I thought he was undeserving (I think it's premature, but so does he), but because I knew it would be one more thing on the pile stacked against him by conservatives at a time when the country should be coming together rather than ripping one another apart over topics that matter. I can only hope it will, as Obama put it, act as "a call to action" for everyone, not just the President.

P.S. You're quickly becoming my 2nd favorite caricaturist. I say 2nd favorite because Gerald Scarfe is always going to dominate my #1 spot. I'm sure you understand.