Daniel B. Kline: Obama prize not earned or deserved

Published 11:08 am Friday, October 23, 2009

KlinestarPresident Barack Obama deserves a Nobel Peace Prize only slightly more than my 5-year-old son deserves the Best Screenplay Oscar.

Neither has done anything particular to win those respective awards, but both theoretically have the potential to earn them at some future point.

Essentially, the Nobel committee gave Obama the prize because he seems like a nice fellow and he’s not President George W. Bush.

Our current president’s big contribution to world peace appears to be that he picks up the phone when other countries call and he does not actively taunt our enemies.

Admittedly, that is an improvement over Bush, but not being a jingoistic jerk with an “invade first, ask questions later” policy hardly deserves a Nobel Peace Prize.

This would be like giving Miley Cyrus a lifetime achievement Grammy because she’s better than the Jonas Brothers or awarding the World Series trophy to the Brewers for beating the Pirates in a regular season game.

Awards – even pompous and preposterous ones like Nobel Prizes – get handed out for what you actually do, not what you might do.

We give unearned awards to make people feel better at Little League banquets and Cub Scout dinners, not on the world stage.

A president should not be rewarded for his potential, he instead should be judged by his actions and it remains too soon to tell about Obama.

Though there have been some embarrassing Nobel Peace Prize winners in the past (Yasser Arafat come to mind), the awarding of this one seems, at best, premature.

Obama currently presides over two wars he has done little to end, along with rising tensions with Iran.

Our president seems like a fellow who wants peace, whereas Bush seemed to seek out wars, but liking hockey does not make me a Stanley Cup champion.

Obama, of course, did nothing to seek out this award and one would have to imagine that he is a little bit embarassed by it.

Declining a Nobel Prize because you have not yet earned it would probably create an international incident and, hopefully, the president will use this as motivation to live up to the honor he has already received.

It is somewhat encouraging that the world seems to want Obama to succeed in creating a kinder and gentler America.

After years of everyone either hating us or being really scared of us, it’s nice to see the possibility of at least some other countries partnering with us through affection and not because of our brute strength.

Barack Obama has the potential to be a coalition builder and a peacemaker.

He can change the history of our nation and mankind. He just hasn’t quite done so yet.
Perhaps we should save the awards cermeony until after the actual victories and congratulate the man on furthering the cause of world peace when he has actually done that.

Daniel B. Kline’s work appears in more than 100 papers weekly.
When he is not writing Kline, serves as general manager of Time Machine Hobby, New England’s largest hobby and toy store, www.timemachine hobby.com.
He can be reached at dan@no tastep.com or you can see his archive at DBKline.com or befriend him at facebook.com/ dankline.