This isn’t not about Obama.  This is exactly about Obama, and how he just won the Nobel Peace Prize, you know, the one that is all about PEACE… I think this idea is just too much for the citizens of the United States to grasp.  We don’t yet know what Obama’s decision on Afghanistan will be, and it is possible that he will begin to back off of that war.  Tragically, I believe that if he had not had some war to prove he was no namby pamby Swiftboater or something, he would not have been elected President of the United States of America.

I am dismayed at the level of cynicism in the U.S. now.  I, myself, am cynical about the ability of the citizens to understand that to decide that the government has gone beyond the level of a faultering democracy, that some secret whatever runs everything and resistance is futile, then their refusal to participate in a system that is messed up, but not as messed up as they think it is, might actually exacerbate the ability of those who are taking advantage of people’s refusal to participate.  If I am wrong, however, and Barack Obama is not exactly the kind of guy who can grasp the enormity of the tasks he has set himself to, then being involved in trying to do something constructive to support the guy wouldn’t matter, anyway.  I say, hedge my bets, and go with the option where if I am wrong, it doesn’t matter.

What is really frightening me is that Barack Obama really has been reaching out to everyone that he can, and that is why he won the prize, but no-one in the United States will seriously take him up on his offers.  The fact is that he has been reaching out, perhaps naively.  Remember how he was all about conversing and talking to his opponents?  But instead, we end up with Glenn Beck and people talking about spilling blood and hurling insults at each other in comments on web sites.  There is no denying that President Obama has more class than Bush did.  He deserves the award just for that.  But even if you distrust the guy, you have to listen to what he says and wait until he does things before you jump to conclusions or believe all the predictions of they angry white guys at Fox “news.”

Give me a break.  The Nobel Peace Prize Award is not going to hurt President Obama——all the jealous Right-Wing Conservatives will just have to get used to it.

LostHills, October 13 at 5:29 am #

Dionne is not a journalist, he’s an Obama campaigner.

************************************************

DUHHHHH!  H.L.Mencken once said he wasn’t a reporter, he was a critic.  That is what E.J. Dionne is.

re:By diman, October 13 at 3:07 pm:

Diman writes:

“It is the first time the Nobel prize committee has given a prize for
something that a man only plans to do and not for the actual deed.”

It’s even more tenuous than that. There was never any firm evidence that he
even planned to do something meriting a peace prize.

There never was anything more than a vague hope — now already quite
crushed by the things he has actually done and said.

Of course, if he tried to do what he really ought to do, Israel’s rabid attack
dogs would make sure he didn’t live long enough to accept his peace prize.

One can’t wonder that he hasn’t the courage. Who would?

Obama is a bought-and-paid-for tool of the vampiric Daddy Warbucks crowd who owns the U.S. government. The photo above of him putting on the Oval Office carpet with what looks like a shrunken and overweight Arnold Palmer and Robert Rubin in attendance tells you everything you need to know about Obama.  He will never do anything for ordinary people.  His Nobel Peace Prize is a loathsome joke.  They might as well have given it to Glenn Beck.

It is the first time the Nobel prize committee has given a prize for something that a man only plans to do and not for the actual deed. Just a random thought, isn’t it ironic that the prize for peace is given out by organization founded by war profiteer? Aren’t we versatile.

Obama will not begin to deserve any sort of “peace prize” until he makes a
definitive break from America’s fanatically, murderously pro-Israel foreign policy.

Lost Hills, you may be right about the PP being cover to continue the wars.

I’m hoping that it’s a shove and loud hint to end them.

JimBob, October 13 at 1:10 am #

Nice idea, but you don’t make peace with angry white men.  You ignore them.

I believe this a dangerous philosophy. While you may ignore the rants of “angry white men” many listen and, hearing no rebuttal, believe them.

Dionne is not a journalist, he’s an Obama campaigner. Their mantra is to paint everyone who disagrees with their leader as a right winger and a racist. That’s a childish attempt to deflect peoples’ attention from the facts. The majority of Americans want an end to the war, and Obama refuses to end it. Left wingers, right wingers and chicken wingers can see that he is defying the wishes of the voters. America wants an end to the war, and Obama is continuing it. Thye so called peace prize just gives him cover to keep killing people for the corporate interests, and maybe that’s the point of the award after all.

Considering the state of affairs on the planet, why in hell’s name is a peace prize
even being awarded to anybody anywhere?.  A lot of people try to
bring peace or rational qualities to the world or even in isolated places or
incidents but just what in hell has actually been peacefully accomplished?

Now if someone were to come up with a viable and humane way to stop the
unfettered growth of humans and bring the population into sync with the ability
for the environment to support a CORRECT quota of people then some kind of
prize would sure be worth the effort to give but the nobel clowns just need to shelve the ‘peace’ prize, probably for a long time because, as Robert Zimmerman said: ‘there will never be peace’ and by o’s actions, Zimmerman is RIGHT!

Nice idea, but you don’t make peace with angry white men.  You ignore them.

tahitifp

I am aligned with your positions and am a very harsh critic of Obama sleazy antics since he took office.  You seriously need to reread my post and the post to which I responded.

Glider, are you suggesting that criticism of Obama makes one a nasty repug?  I know many dems who are unhappy with Obama.  Obamaniacs refer to such dems as being like Rush Limbaugh.  It’s that *you’re either for or against* mentality that damages and divides this country.

My gripes are Af-Pak, Bagram, FISA, no seat at the table for single payer, preventative detention, the bail-outs to the sell-outs…I could go on.

“even if neither Obama nor big government is the real culprit.”  Well, Obama is big government.  The White male has been kicked around for decades. Even TV commercials show White males as idiots.

Now, Obama comes along & becomes the continental divide of America.

There is a new, underground book just out that parallels modern day times to the American Revolution times. Divide the people & keep them unorganize (regardless of race). It’s about real people in a small, American town that stands up to federal tyranny & starts the 2nd American Revolution.  It’s great, cause those issues, back in colonial days, are present today (high taxes, govt. tyranny, etc.).  I bought it for a friend & recommend it to all.  Find out what’s next & what each of us need to do to prepare for dangerous days coming. Read it!!

Power to the People!!  http://www.booksbyoliver.

Chris Fretwell, October 12 at 5:17 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

Where does truthdig get these article writers. Ironically enough this writer doesn’t see the angst in his/her rehashing the race card.
********************************************

His name is E.J. Dionne, and and for E.J., TruthDig is a little podunk sideline that reprints his op-ed editorials—that appear regularly in his home newspaper: The Washington Post.  He also appears weekly on NPR’s All Things Considered with his friend and Conservative opponent, David Brooks, whose op-ed appears in The New York Times.  Both also appear frequently on news shows on national TV.

That is where Truthdig got THIS article writer.
In case you were wondering.

rfidler

How many of these “facts” and the context you put them in come from FOX “GOP-Central” News, Limbaugh, Beck, and Republican PAC hate literature?  I am no Obama fan for different reasons entirely and I am not afraid to criticize him on logical grounds as do many others here.  But your stupid little exercise is a game anyone can play with any president that has ever been. Facts and earnest analysis don’t matter to your type, only sowing hate to fill your own pathetic agenda matters.  So what is your point other than you would rather see McCain and Palin in the Whitehouse?

Hi WriterOnTheStorm,

I’m delighted to read that you have an interest in Hofstader. I’ve done much the same as you have, delving into his perceptive writings from the ‘60s and finding that he has some great insights.

To further your understanding of that era, let me suggest a book recently published on Ramparts Magazine.

Here’s an excerpt: http://www.coldtype.net/reader.html
[Select the Reader Extra option for the .pdf of the excerpt.]

And a recent NYT review: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/11/books/review/Shafer-t.html?_r=1&nl=books&emc=booksupdateema3

If George W. Bush had been the first President to need a teleprompter installed to be able to get through a press conference, would you have laughed and said this is more proof of how he inept he is on his own and is really controlled by smarter men behind the scenes?

If George W. Bush had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to take Laura Bush to a play in NYC, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had reduced your retirement plan’s holdings of GM stock by 90% and given the unions a majority stake in GM, would you have approved?

If George W.  Bush had made a joke at the expense of the Special Olympics, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had given Gordon Brown a set of inexpensive and incorrectly formatted DVDs, when Gordon Brown had given him a thoughtful and historically significant gift, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had given the Queen of England an iPod containing videos of his speeches, would you have thought this embarrassingly narcissistic and tacky?

If George W. Bush had bowed to the King of Saudi Arabia, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had visited Austria and made reference to the non-existent “Austrian language,” would you have brushed it off as a minor slip?

If George W. Bush had been so Spanish illiterate as to refer to “Cinco de Cuatro” in front of the Mexican ambassador when it   was the 5th of May(Cinco de Mayo), and continued to flub it when he   tried again, would you have winced in embarrassment?

If George W.  Bush had mis-spelled the word “advice” would you have hammered
him for it for years like Dan Quayle and potatoe as proof of what a dunce he is?

If George W.  Bush had burned 9,000 gallons of jet fuel to go plant a single tree on Earth Day, would you have concluded he is a hypocrite?

If George W.  Bush’s administration had okayed Air Force One flying low over millions of people followed by a jet fighter in downtown Manhattan causing widespread panic, would you have wondered whether they actually get what happened on 9-11?

If George W.  Bush had failed to send relief aid to flood victims throughout the Midwest with more people killed or made homeless than in New Orleans , would you want it made into a major ongoing political issue with claims of racism and incompetence?

If George W. Bush had created the position of 32 Czars who report directly to him, bypassing the House and Senate on much of what is happening in America, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had ordered the firing of the CEO of a major corporation, even though he had no constitutional authority to do so, would you have approved?

If George W Bush had proposed to double the national debt, which had taken more than two centuries to accumulate, in one year, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had then proposed to double the debt again within 10 years, would you have approved?

So, tell me again, what is it about Obama that makes him so brilliant and impressive?

Chris Fretwell, October 12 at 5:17 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

Where does truthdig get these article writers. Ironically enough this writer doesn’t see the angst in his/her rehashing the race card. In-other-words fanning the flames doesn’t help.

I see discussions of racism and unfairness a bit differently than do you apparently. I think it most necessary in fact, to make public every such instance. It is far too easy for folks to think there is no longer a problem, and there certainly is one still.

If racism towards blacks were to ever be in danger of becoming extinc you can bet your ass there will be some blacks ‘fanning the flames’ for the RACE CARD is one heck of TRUMP CARD (SCAPE GOAT).

This is a very poor piece of logic you display. How many, do you think, benefit from being members of a minority that has been, and continues to be, persecuted and treated differently? Do you accuse those who work for equality as actually working to benefit their own interests and not those of the minority they claim to represent? Have you any proof?

Further, if one believes that there are such self serving folks who use the cause of equality as a stepping stone to wealth and power so what? Does the greed and selfishness of a very few make the cause any less just?

Let Obama a populist be. Sock it to the banks, fire Summers/Geithner, have a FDR-scale jobs program. “Screw the banks, empower Main street” is his new slogan.

what a dream!

I spent 2 minutes with this article, but 45 minutes on Hofstadter’s wiki page and
various hyperlinks.

The anti-intellectualism from the right versus the condescension from the left—
now that’s a fascinating and relevant subject.

The opposition to and derision of Mr. O’s peace prize is attributed exclusively to the Right as yet another propaganda ploy: to continue blocking and obscuring the real Left and putting the conservative end of the Democratic Party and its conservative leaders in its place.  What you’re seeing here is just the party line for the moment.

Although I question why he won, I congratulate Obama for his award and hope he can use it for some good.  Seeing all the apoplexy on the right makes his nomination worth the price of entry.

However, on the more important point of white man’s anxiety, I can only say that Obama is not the cause.  The anxiety we see in the white middle-class is only the latest in a long string of abuses that have already destroyed the working class in this country and is now starting to consume the middle class.  As long as the abuse was limited to those living at or near the poverty level, no one paid any attention.  They were just the dregs of society and not worth bothering about.  But now the globalization of our world and greed among the elites is destroying the middle class and that gets more attention by the press and others.  So now we have angry white men vocalizing their demise.  What our leaders and elites need to worry about is the middle class stabilizes society and keeps the country functioning.  Without a stable and happy middle class, this country is headed for a very steep cliff.  And, unfortunately, our leaders and elites are too busy gorging themselves to recognize this threat.  They will ignore the obvious until it blows up in their faces.  Such is the nature of revolution.

You know, it’s their choice.  It belongs to the Norwegians to decide who to give their award to.  If they choose to give it to Obama “to honor Obama’s peaceable intentions,” more power to them. 

As an American, I will not second guess their intent as it is their right alone to award the honor.  I’ll just be happy and proud that my president was their choice. I’m glad the international community loves our president, and hope that in his actions the view the world holds of us will improve. 

I appreciate that he’s ‘apologized’ for America.  After the last 8 years where we broke international law with torturing others, where we belittled the UN and other nations as irrelevent…. we needed to apologize and set a new tone.  And he’s done it beautifully.

There is no doubt that much of the criticisms of Barack Obama stems from the right wingers who seek to regain power. But there is a legitimate question as to how deserving of this honor is our President.

Not every protest has an ulterior motive.