Barack Obama arguably gave up his moral authority (ability to lead by example) the moment he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize with little more to recommend him than he had little to nothing in common with his immediate predecessor. So badly, one senses, did the Nobel committee want to stick a finger in the eye of the verbally and intellectually challenged promoter of ‘advanced interrogation techniques’ that they were unable to resist seizing upon what looked and sounded like the perfect ‘finger’ for the job – an urbane, erudite, articulate ‘community organizer’ from the Land of Lincoln.
Learning nothing, apparently, from the example of her urbane, erudite, articulate rival, Hillary Clinton gave up her own moral authority, arguably, the moment, chin slightly elevated, she referred to Donald Trump’s fervent supporters as ‘the deplorables.’
Shame on them both.
For me Senator Barack Obama ceded moral authority when he vowed to oppose legislation retroactively granting immunity to companies that illegally surveilled their own customers at the behest of NSA, but then went ahead and voted for it anyway. The Nobel Prize is basically a popularity contest, and the results of the Peace Prize are always political gestures, and affirmations of specific agendas. What else could they be? Barack Obama is at least as qualified as Bob Dylan, and more so than, say, Yassir Arafat or Henry Kissinger, for heaven’s sake.
Many of us, I think, are waiting for the arrival of the next MLK, or Robert Kennedy,but with an increasing sense we are simply waiting for Godot. But, as a famous American recently said, “We’ll see what happens.”
Interesting – I don’t think that has ever occurred to me, never having seen a leader with that degree of moral authority in the United States in my lifetime, that I can recall.
I would be very interested to hear you name some examples of truly great leaders in world history–men (or women) whose greatest sin was lesser than President Obama’s apparently unpardonable sin of accepting the Nobel Prize for Peace. We’ve heard a good deal in this space about leaders you don’t respect–how about some you do?
Humbug!
Awarding the Peace Prize to Barack Obama was a political act pure a simple, and everybody concerned knew it. They collectively went ahead with their agenda anyway. How powerful it would have been had Obama refused the award outright and suggested a few alternatives more deserving. Wow. I would have followed the man anywhere..Surely he knew his apology (couching words) would soon be forgotten and only the act of acceptance itself remembered. He’s a smart guy. Same with Hillary..She’s a smart woman. She had to know that only “deplorables,” naught else, would be remembered .Hillary, and that slightly elevated chin, gave us Trump. I’ll never forgive her.
What Barry said.
Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are portrayed in Halloween costumes in the above “Missed Opportunities” post. Revisionist history and propaganda has repackaged them, their words and their actions. Here’s some of the alternate facts we used to call the truth:
The newly-minted President Obama did not personally claim the Nobel Peace Prize; he accepted it with these words, “I do not view it as a recognition of my own accomplishments but rather an affirmation of American leadership on behalf of aspirations held by people in all nations … and that is why I will accept this award as a call to action – a call for all nations to confront the common challenges of the 21st century.” Obama also noted, wryly that he was receiving the prize as the Commander-in-Chief of the military of a nation in the midst of two wars.
For her part, candidate Hillary Clinton did not characterize all supporters of her opponent as “deplorables.” She noted, with sadness and dismay, that Trump’s supporters could be seen as two baskets — 1) a basket of disappointed and often desperate citizens who felt that the country had let them down, and 2) a basket of deplorables – a coalition of alt-Right, racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic people, who were welcomed by Trump and Bannon.
These remarks were made in a toxic environment that buried the original words and meanings and weaponized them against basically decent people.
Shame on us if we let the propaganda machine triumph over the truth. Happy Halloween.