I WAS OUT ALL DAY...:

Nobel Reaction: The Turn-it-Down Trend (Susan Davis, 10/09/09, WSJ)

“Turn it down! Politely decline. Say he’s honored but he hasn’t had the time yet to accomplish what he wants to accomplish,” writes Mickey Kaus, a liberal-ish blogger for Slate. “And the downside is … what? That the Nobel Committee feels dissed?” [...]

Others note that the award at least has the potential to create an unnecessary p.r. headache for the president. “With less than a year in office, and relatively few accomplishments to speak of (yet) this prize may prove to be pretty awkward for the president, as he’s constantly had to fight the image of all-hype-little-substance,” writes Joe Weisenthal for The Business Insider.

...was there any period of time today when this news was greeted with other than derision?

Oops, sorry, I see he's been offered truly devastating support: Gore 'Thrilled' By Obama's Nobel (Allan Dodds Frank, 10/09/09, Daily Beast)

MORE:
-Obama Undeserving of Nobel Peace Prize (Matthew Rothschild, October 9, 2009, The Progressive)
The Aspirational Nobel (Richard Kim on 10/09/2009, The Nation)

I woke up, read the New York Times website and thought I had come to the Onion instead. I hit refresh. Still there: "Obama Wins Nobel for Diplomacy." Maybe this is one of my weird work-related dreams, I thought. Maybe I am still drunk from last night's party. Better close my eyes and wake up again in the real world. Five minutes later...and still no dice.

-He won, but for what? (JENNIFER LOVEN, 10/09/09, AP)

The prize seems to be more for Obama's promise than for his performance. Work on the president's ambitious agenda, both at home and abroad, is barely underway, much less finished. He has no standout moment of victory that would seem to warrant a verdict as sweeping as that issued by the Nobel committee.

And what about peace? Obama is running two wars in the Muslim world — in Iraq and Afghanistan — and can't get a climate change bill through his own Congress.

His scorecard for the year is largely an "incomplete," if he's being graded.

-Obama's Nobel Farce (Peter Beinart, 10/09/09, Daily Beast)

George W. Bush launched a “preemptive” war. Now the Nobel Committee is trying for “preemptive” peace. I had always thought the way these things worked was that you helped bring peace or democracy to some corner of the globe first, and then you won the Nobel Prize. But this year, the Nobel Committee has turned that logic around: It clearly likes what Obama is trying to do: on nuclear disarmament, climate change and Middle East peace—and so, in a “preemptive” strike, it’s giving him the award now, in hopes that doing so will boost his chances of success later. It’s an interesting idea. Perhaps next they’ll start giving Oscars not to the people who have made the best movies of last year, but to the people who have the best chance of making the best movies next year. After all, once you’ve already made the movie, you no longer need the encouragement.

-Obama's Nobel Prize Is More of a Burden than an Honor (Claus Christian Malzahn, 10/09/09, Der Spiegel)

The Nobel Peace Prize has come too early for Barack Obama. The US president cannot point to any real diplomatic successes to date and there are few prospects of any to come.

World leaders hail Obama's Nobel Prize (Sydney Morning Herald, October 9, 2009)

The 1983 Laureate, Poland's Lech Walesa, was more blunt.

"Who, Obama? So fast? Too fast - he hasn't had the time to do anything yet," Walesa told reporters in Warsaw.

Posted by Orrin Judd at October 9, 2009 3:47 PM