By Jennifer Loven, WASHINGTON
Now that he’s Nobel laureate Barack Obama, will he find smoother sailing for his plans to rid the world of nuclear weapons, to forge Mideast peace and stabilize Afghanistan, to halt climate change?
Not likely.
The Nobel committee members made no bones about it: Helping Obama achieve ambitious peacemaking goals was their goal in awarding the prize Friday to an as-yet mostly unaccomplished U.S. president.
But while the prestige could give Obama and his efforts a boost, nations steer their courses according to their own interests and little else. U.S. lawmakers, too, aren’t going to be influenced in politically difficult votes on climate change legislation or nuclear-reduction treaties by the Nobel Peace Prize, no matter who wins it.
That’s not to say it wasn’t an impressive achievement.
At just 48 years old and not even nine months in office, Obama became only the third sitting U.S. president to win the prize.
The widespread reaction, however, when the stunning news hit the nation was: For what?
Obama said so himself. “To be honest, I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many of the transformative figures who have been honored by this prize,” he said hours after being awakened — and surprised — by spokesman Robert Gibbs.
Comments from Nobel committee members revealed that they fully intended to encourage, not reward. Consider this: The nomination deadline was only 12 days after Obama first entered the Oval Office. It’s an enduring myth that the prize is only about accomplishment — it actually was created as much to supply momentum for peace as to celebrate it.
Indeed, with a leftist slant, the five-member committee was applauding Obama as much for what he’s not — his predecessor. Former President George W Bush was much reviled overseas for “cowboy diplomacy,” the Iraq war and his snubbing of European priorities such as global warming.
So some cheerleading probably can’t hurt, as Obama presses forward on efforts to repair America’s relations with Muslims, bring Israelis and Palestinians into fruitful negotiations and turn back climate change. The committee especially singled out Obama’s aims to create a nuclear weapons-free world and to set out a new, more cooperative diplomatic doctrine.