I have been considering this for a few days now and I believe that the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Obama is in a sense more revealing than it is disturbing.

The obvious revelation, that the award has nothing to do with actual *peace* is not what I mean.  That was made long ago when it was awarded to Yassir Arafat and Le Duc Tho, and many others over its history.  So the fact that Obama has not contributed an iota to actual peace is not the point.

It is not that the award is often given for political grandstanding, as the award to the IAEA, the UN Peacpekeepers, the UN itself or even Al Gore and the lying IPCC shows.  Of course it is. o

It was not even that Obama is such a cult of personality figure that eiven his lack of accomplishment is not enough to knock him off that pedestal.nt

The real revelation to me is what this shows about liberalism and one of the several philosophies at its core:  Intentions are more important than actions and should likewise be rewarded more than accomplishments.

I am serious, because more and more that is what I see surfacing in these debates.

Obama has not done anything, but he wants to!   And like other meaningless awards, if we give him this, we can help him.  That was the message from the Nobel Committee.  Its like your grandmother after you struck out in the 9th inning and lost the game:

Grandma loves you sweetie and she knows you really tried.  Have a big cookie for trying so hard…and next time you will do better.

Think about it, it is wholly consistent with the ideology that Obama has preached and is striving for:  Hope and Change and yes we can.

Let’s break it down.  Hope is about Cherishing a desire with anticipation, it is about a dream.  Not about an actual reality.  It is about the reality we want.

Don’t get me wrong, I am all for encouraging hope and dreams.  If we did not have goals and aspirations, we would be dead emotionally as far as I am concerned.  And those goals should be what we drive toward, the targets of our energy and our effort. 

But shouldn’t a reward like the Peace Prize be for those who have actually worked to realize something?  Or at the very least those who have worked tireless to achieve it even when they have not succeeded?  In this case, he has not even done that.  Given that the nomination was made when he had been in office 11 days, he had not even had a chance to plan a strategy let alone do anything.  The award should be for effort, not intention.

Some of this shows the disconnect between liberals and conservatives.

Liberals want to reward dreams.  Conservatives tend to reward the achievement and realization of the dreams.  Liberals laud intentions.  Conservatives remember which road is paved by them.

A friend I respect a lot had this to say:

And this morning, I woke up to the surprising news that President Obama had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize…more as a testament to the hope for peace that he represents than for any peace he’s actually brokered or otherwise accomplished. I had mixed feelings about – and still do – but I found it compelling that a worldwide prize would be given to recognize the embodiment of hope for something widely sought. This, to me, is a validation that the belief in an achievement is in itself a potent and, I’d argue, even a necessary precursor to the achievement itself. After all, if you fail to ask for something you want, the answer’s already “no,” and if you don’t try to achieve something, then you’ve already failed.

I respectfully disagree.  What this has done is made Hope the goal, and awarded it the prize, and has completely ignored effort, perseverance and actual accomplishment.

We have taken a highly sought after prize and reduced to a consolation prize for best idea, while those who actually have skin in the game get left at the door.

Yes, hope is a necessary component of realizing a dream or a goal, but when the hope is rewarded and not the goal, we reduce ourselves to dreamers and not doers.

Here are the people Obama’s hopeychange award denied the acclaim they deserve:

• Chinese Human Rights Activist Hu Jia – imprisoned for campaigning for human rights in the PRC
• Wei Jingsheng, who spent 17 years in Chinese prisons for urging reforms of China’s communist system.
• Greg Mortenson, founder of the Central Asia Institute has built nearly 80 schools, especially for girls, in remote areas of northern Pakistan and Afghanistan over the past 15 years
• Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad, a philosophy professor in Jordan who risks his life by advocating interfaith dialogue between Jews and Muslims
• Afghan human rights activist Sima Samar. She currently leads the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission and serves as the U.N. special envoy to Darfur

Instead they gave it to Obama, based on his accomplishments of 12 days in office.  Yes, he had to struggle to hang pictures and make sure his chair was the right height.

Had Obama any honor and integrity, he would have declined it.  Hell, Le Duc Tho did.

Imagine, having less integrity than that…What a wondrous role model.

For months people have encouraged me to give Obama a chance, to let him succeed or fail on his merits not on partisan spin.  And the whole time I have watched his follwers shield him with race baiting, blame shifting and any other excuse they can.

And now this.  Explain to me again why owe him a chance?  Like he owes those people their recognition.

From this point on, I owe him nothing until he earns it.

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