You know, it's kind of funny. It's been about a week since "the world rejected Obama" because they chose Rio de Janiero over Chicago to host the Olympics in 2016. And before the GOP could even complete their victory lap (I know - pathetic what passes for a GOP "victory" these days, huh?), the world community was shoving it right back in their face. Barack Obama is now a Nobel Peace Prize winner, and the GOP is livid. As they should be, by the way. Because the reason that Barack Obama won the Nobel Prize is that he defeated them.
Oh, and you too, Hillary Clinton, and all the "serious" Democrats. Ever since Richard Nixon, with an all too brief respite during the Carter years, American foreign policy has been bomb first, ask questions later. The GOP were the big swinging dicks on this effort, but the Democrats were all too happy to roll over for them. Even during the Clinton years; it's telling that the Clinton Administration's most successful foreign policy initiative was in helping to curb the violence in Northern Ireland. Why? Well, because we can't very well bomb Ireland, can we? We had to sit down and talk with those people, and through negotiations, we got something done.
For forty years, we bombed and bombed and bombed. And it was impossible to find anyone, on either side, willing to run a campaign based on "maybe we should talk to the people we disagree with, instead of just blowing them up." Barack Obama made that effort, and he was lambasted as being naive, dovish, pie-in-the-sky, unable to deal with the cruel realities of real life. And this was in the primaries!
The DC establishment - both sides - is going to bitch and moan about Barack Obama winning this prize, whether they understand why he won it or not. Because it is merely by the act of defeating the establishment, and by reversing their cruel and tragic policies, that Obama came to deserve the award.
And, by the way, that makes this award, OUR award. By our, I mean the internet roots - the thousands of progressives who got together, donated their time and energy and money to making it so a candidate who broke so completely from the culture that had dominated Capitol Hill and the White House for two generations could overcome the odds and reshape the world's most powerful country. So everyone here, take a bow. You bet your ass we deserve it.