Various Responsible Media Centrists have already started bloviating about how Barack Obama should decline to accept the Nobel Peace Prize. Now, under normal circumstances, this idea could be dismissed as the usual round of said media centrists advancing an idea because it is contrarian and therefore Very Serious, and really, we all know that’s the reason they’re advancing it; not from any genuine thought or concern, but because it is ostensibly a little bit shocking to suggest (and because, let us be honest, there is a certain stripe of media outlet that rather enjoys portraying the President as being unfit to receive the honor).
However, here’s the thing: he should decline to accept it.
The reason is simple: he has already gained all the political advantage of winning the award. Were he to decline now, he would still possess whatever moral authority winning the Nobel Peace Prize conveys at this point; it is impossible for him to unmake the Nobel committee’s decision. They can’t take that away from him, even if he gives it away. But if he declines to accept it, he appears humble, which earns him even more credibility (and at this point, worldwide, he has a lot of it). He can make a speech about how he doesn’t deserve this award when Timmy Who Campaigns Against Landmines or Joan The AIDS Researcher actually deserves it more than him, and give Timmy or Joan or whoever a major spike in credibility for their cause.
The math is simple: he gets more juice out of refusing the award than he does by accepting it. And while it might be nice to have a Nobel on the mantle to show to the grandkids one day, realistically if he can get more diplomatic stroke through refusal, that’s the wisest course of action.
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He’s apparently already said he doesn’t know if he’s done enough to deserve it, so that’s a good start…
This did sort of come out of nowhere, and honestly, I don’t think he DOES deserve it. Not that he hasn’t done *anything*, of course (he’s worked on nuclear non-proliferation since becoming a senator) but I do think the prize ought to go to someone who’s been toiling away without a lot of credit or attention. Hopefully Obama will use this opportunity to highlight someone like that, and possibly donate the prize money to them.
Agree.
I don’t think so. I think turning it down would look arrogant rather than humble, and I think it would cost him a lot of points with the international community. He’d look snotty, presumptuous and ungrateful, and the right could get great capital out of that. Accepting the award gives him a launchpad for future initiatives – it reaffirms his mandate.
Allow me to write his declination speech:
“I would love to receive this award in 2017 (though, not posthumously), but it’s all too premature to receive it in 2009. The decision of the Nobel Committee fills me with a sense of hope that we can come together and make the world a better place, but accepting the award now would leave me with no greater honours to accept in the future. The best is yet to come, because we can all do better.”
Already accepted.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2009/10/09/reaction_obama_wins_nobel_peac.html?wprss=44
I just don’t see it being as bad as the media is trying to spin it as. MGK’s suggestion of declining the prize makes a lot of sense. However, if he decides to accept it, the Nobel Peace Prize functions as an impetus for him to successfully carry out his policies. It also gives him that much more political weight to throw around. No matter how this turns out, it’s a great honor and I can’t see how it hurts him in the long run.
Maybe he could put it on layaway.
CASCA
I can as well be hanged as tell the manner of it:
it was mere foolery; I did not mark it. I saw Mark
Antony offer him a crown;–yet ’twas not a crown
neither, ’twas one of these coronets;–and, as I told
you, he put it by once: but, for all that, to my
thinking, he would fain have had it. Then he
offered it to him again; then he put it by again:
but, to my thinking, he was very loath to lay his
fingers off it. And then he offered it the third
time; he put it the third time by: and still as he
refused it, the rabblement hooted and clapped their
chapped hands and threw up their sweaty night-caps
and uttered such a deal of stinking breath because
Caesar refused the crown that it had almost choked
Caesar; for he swounded and fell down at it: and
for mine own part, I durst not laugh, for fear of
opening my lips and receiving the bad air.
(Not the same thing, I know – but I love Shakespeare.)
Am I going crazy here? I thought people had to, y’know, actually do something to score a Nobel. Not just promise a lot of great things, but actually deliver them too.
“The reason is simple: he has already gained all the political advantage of winning the award. Were he to decline now, he would still possess whatever moral authority winning the Nobel Peace Prize conveys at this point; it is impossible for him to unmake the Nobel committee’s decision.”
I would argue that he won’t possess moral authority conveyed by the Peace Prize until the Peace Prize is in his hands. In America, we sell the sizzle, not the steak. And awards are always sizzle.
That’s not to say he couldn’t turn it down and still wind up with all the acclaim, he is a politician after all. But it wouldn’t be automatic, and at the very least he’d have to make it clear he isn’t making a “Fuck the Peace Prize” statement.
Or he could accept it FOR AMERICA.
Disagree.
Because A: this was, basically, the Nobel committee’s acceptance of America’s apology for Bush. This was our treat for doing the right thing for once.
and B: “which earns him even more credibility” with who? The people who hate him aren’t gonna like him no matter what he does, the FOX news headline was along the lines of “Obama wins award he doesn’t deserve!!” if he turns it down the headline is “Obama spits on orphans and Nobel prize and raped your gramma”
For years they said the Olympics were a stupid waste of time and energy and no one liked them and they were PC garbage and blah blah. The SECOND Obama fails to get the Olympics suddenly it’s a slap in the face Obama lost us this great honor to host these historic and important blah blah.
and C: turning down the award is the exact opposite of doing what they said won him the award in the first place.
A brilliant strategy would be to insist it be given to Dick Lugar instead. Wasn’t he the Republican Senator that Obama did the nuclear non-proliferation work with? 🙂
I hope Verndaddy like being right about things, cause he’s pretty much totally right about things.
In an ideal world, Obama would have accepted the award “On behalf of Kenyans everywhere.” There would be so many gape-mouthed, HEAD ASPLODE stares in the Capitol that the Democrats would be able to push through a public health care option unopposed.
Charlotte: He basically did accept it on behalf of America.
“Let me be clear: I do not view it as a recognition of my own accomplishments, but rather as an affirmation of American leadership on behalf of aspirations held by people in all nations.”
If he had declined the prize, he would also have had to decline the $1.4 million he’s announced he’ll be donating to charity. I’m in no way used to dealing with that many bucks, but I can easily see myself deciding to accept a prize I wasn’t sure I deserved so that I could use the prize money to advance a worthy cause or three.
I’m pretty sure if he declined it the GOP would be going “Oo oo oo, too good for the Nobel Peace Prize, isn’t he? We told you he was uppity!”
Damned if he does, damned if he doesn’t.
As someone who has pretty much dismissed Obama as an empty suit, I have to admit that, if he turned the prize down, I would have to grudgingly consider affording the man a little respect. Not much respect, since, as you’ve observed, turning it down would be quite politically advantageous, but some.
A quick view into the alternate universe where he did just that.
acabaca: the Nobel Committee has previously given the price pretty much as encouragement for future action, so, yeah, you’re going crazy.