And all of that is heartwarming and relevant and does nothing to explain why Ghandi went to his grave w/o a Nobel Peace Prize, but Obama gets one before being in office for one full year. Congrats to him, but I find it crazy to honor someone w/a Nobel Peace Prize for stuff you HOPE they will do.
I agree. I think it was ridiculous that he won the award. I want desperately to like Obama like I did when I was a sucker for all his rhetoric, but the facts of his administration so far speak louder. The conservatives may be using this as another excuse to criticize Obama, which is stupid since Obama himself had nothing to do with the award, but it doesn't make the fact that he doesn't deserve it any less true. In my view, the Nobel Prize has become little more than some sort of popularity contest. The commission is just trying to participate in all the hooplah surounding Obama. It's absurd.
Be that as it may, the idea that he should decline the honor is BEYOND insulting. They pulled that crap when they said he should bow down to Hillary and be her vice-president.
Now see, I disagree with you here. While it is not for conservatives to say that he should decline the award, I would greatly respect Obama if he did reject it. It would be an unprecedented gesture of humility. It would show that Obama himself doesn't buy into all the hero worship and is more about doing his job.
Of course, if he did so, conservatives would probably spin it and say that it was another sign of his "elitism" to reject one of the world's most prestigious awards. He wouldn't win, either way.
But, it's not his job to win points with conservatives. He needs to be appealing to his base - those of us who put him office, and so far he's done nothing but cater to the middle. Which amounts to nothing.
As for Maddow saying that we should be proud, why? What exactly is there to be proud of in Obama's receipt of an award he doesn't deserve? It is so characteristically superficial of Americans to be proud in the surface when there's no substance. It's what the world expects of us. We could've been proud of his rejection of the award, which would've been so UNcharacteristic of America that maybe we could've earned some of the world's RESPECT, rather than shallow celebrity-style admiration.
