Pundits and politicians are furiously debating the merits of President Barack Obama’s having being named the fourth U.S. president to receive a Nobel Peace Prize. Supporters agree with the Stockholm committee’s assertions that he has actually tamped down tensions across the globe through his “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples,” through his commitment to nuclear arms reduction, through his exceptional oratory—his “race” speech in Philadelphia; his Inaugural Address (“we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist”), his “outreach” speech in Cairo. Detractors (and even White House aides) are, in the words of ABC News, utterly nonplussed. Fellow Nobel laureate Lech Walesa, the former Solidarity leader, who became the president of Poland, might have said it best, when told of Obama’s milestone: “Who? What? So fast?... There hasn't been any contribution to peace yet. He's proposing things,...
- 10/9/2009
- Vanity Fair
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