You know President Obama's winning the Nobel prize is a lose-lose situation when such a liberal rag as Newsweek is wrankled by it.The Nobel committee has handed out some puzzling peace prizes over the years—Henry Kissinger and Yasir Arafat come to mind—but even given a few scratches and dings, the Nobel retained its luster as the most prestigious award of any kind in the world. Long after the "red carpet" pretty much destroyed the idea of prizes in general, the Nobel Peace Prize was still seen as rare and precious. By cloaking its deliberations and through brilliant PR, the committee gave the prize a supranatural aura, as if the name of the winner were spit out of the mouth of an ancient volcano.
That's all over now. The Nobel Peace Prize is finished. It's just another "prize," like a Teen Choice Award for old people. No matter what you think of Obama, the man has done nothing, at all, to deserve it. He may deserve it someday, but the Nobel prize isn't supposed to be a bet on the hope of the possibility of greatness at some point in the future. And it can no longer be taken seriously. From now on, no matter who wins, no matter how deserving, people will say, "Yeah, but they also gave it to Obama." The 1.4 million bucks is still nice, though.
