Executive Speechwriting: Corporate, Weddings, Retirement

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Nobel Prize, Anyone? Barack Obama Accepts Prize Before Job is Done

Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. When his people submitted his name to The Committee, they never expected he would win. They just wanted him to look like a peaceful politician. They wanted to market him as the antiBush. Winning presents a problem. Very rarely does the winner stand with so much conviction as to reject the award, and Obama took the prize humbly.

He knows he has not earned anything yet. We are still at war in the Middle East, fully intending to send more troops. He is no pacifist, much to the chagrin of many of his followers. Rather, he sees what Bush saw: a messy problem requiring a messy solution. Unlike Bush, Obama is working hard to present timelines for pullout, and the proof there will happen or not. Hopefully, our troops will be pulled from harm's way soon. Hopefully the job will be done. If not, Obama, in accepting the Nobel Prize today, will have an awkward situation. No doubt careful responses to the war-peace paradox, especially as he gives his speech which will be published across the internet (OK, except for China, North Korea and Iran, three countries dreadfully afraid of free speech.)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8406023.stm