Patterico's Pontifications

10/10/2009

L.A. Times’s Tim Rutten: Yeah, Obama Deserves the Nobel Peace Prize

Filed under: Dog Trainer,General,Obama — Patterico @ 6:32 pm



Tim Rutten at times manages to take the most extraordinarily dunderheaded positions. Today is no exception, as he defies his own editorial board and the entire rightwing and leftwing blogosphere to argue that, yeah, Obama really does deserve the Nobel Peace Prize. One of Rutten’s central points is the seriousness of the politicians who bestowed the award:

Within hours of Friday’s announcement that President Obama had won the Nobel Peace Prize, commentators and politicians all over the map were denouncing the award as “absurd.”

At first blush, that seems the only reasonable response, because the president has yet to bring peace anywhere, and given the Nobel committee’s deadlines, his nomination for the prize must have occurred within 11 days of his inauguration. On the other hand, under the terms of Alfred Nobel’s will, the peace prize is awarded by five lawmakers selected from the Norwegian Storting, or parliament. The committee’s current president is Norway’s former prime minister, Thorbjorn Jagland, now president of the Storting.

In other words, the prize was conferred by experienced politicians who seem to know exactly what they were doing.

Enjoy this picture of experienced politician Thorbjørn Jagland:

Jagland og Svabø
Above: according to Tim Rutten, experienced politician Thorbjørn Jagland knows exactly what he’s doing.

He’s the guy on the left.

P.S. I say Rutten wrote the piece — but, given the non-ironic use of phrases like “hope and change” and “post-racial society,” are we sure it wasn’t ghostwritten by David Axelrod?

Obama remains a powerful voice of hope and change for many Europeans, not only because of his eloquence and his reassertion of America’s role as a leader of international diplomacy, but also because he physically embodies change as progress. In this country, most people have taken their cue from a president determined to govern as chief executive of a post-racial society.

Yeah, we’re real post-racial. Evidence, you say? Let’s start with the open wounds of the Henry Louis Gates incident, into which Obama himself poured a heaping cup of acid, by taking Gates’s side before the evidence was in. From there, let’s move on to the peanut farmer’s comment that “an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man.” Are you feeling the post-racial glow?

53 Responses to “L.A. Times’s Tim Rutten: Yeah, Obama Deserves the Nobel Peace Prize”

  1. Well, at least she’s wearing gloves. That reduces the chance at getting H1N1. And he isn’t touching her skin. That also reduces the chance at getting H1N1. So, they are being safe.

    John Hitchcock (3fd153)

  2. Without the very same kind of oil our much-celebrated little president man won’t let us drill here, Norway would be nothing but a shivering yet condescending dirty socialist cesspool of reindeer crap.

    With fjords. Fjords are wicked cool.

    happyfeet (6b707a)

  3. So they pulled his name out of the Storting Hat?

    fat tony (ea50c4)

  4. Tim Rutten is, objectively, a mental midget.

    JD (071163)

  5. Would you quit picking on Rutten?
    It’s an epic mis-match!

    AD - RtR/OS! (877de6)

  6. What they never say is that a “Conservative” in a big-government state is just someone who argues the dole should be run efficiently. But these “conservatives” never, ever question the dole itself.

    In short, they what the Right looks like after the Left has won.

    And that’s exactly what Obama has planned for us. Once limited government is a lost cause, all we will be able to talk about is how efficiently to run the omnipotent state.

    Kevin Murphy (3c3db0)

  7. Post-racial? Ask Ken Gladney.

    Patricia (c95a48)

  8. For real when you ask me what one thing do you want to see before you die I tell you fjords.

    happyfeet (6b707a)

  9. Since everything is a teaching moment now:

    Let’s say my name is Thorbjørn Jagland. Does that mean I get to grab a woman’s chest while voting for the most wonderful peacey guy in the world?

    If so, my name is indeed Thorbjørn Jagland.

    Except, I don’t want to go around grabbing the breasts of women I don’t or do know, with one exception. Also, I don’t want to be voting for peacey guys. Because I have to do the laundry and — you know — work for a living.

    Nonetheless, I wish my name were Thorbjørn Jagland. My own name is kind of boring.

    Ag80 (d1363b)

  10. Well first of all, old Thorbjorn or whatever his name is, seems to have a firm grasp of the situation–in the picture at least.

    He’s also the former head of government of a piss ant little country with a population of less than 4.5 million–or something less than half the population of Los Angeles County. Absent oil from its offshore fields, Norway would be reduced to selling neck scarves made out of reindeer fur and salted herring to make its way in the world.

    Something well less than half the county of Los Angeles ever believed that Rutten could find his backside with both hands. Maybe old Thorbjorn could help him.

    But hope and change spring eternal in some ill informed corners of the world, and Thorbjorn thinks he can influence Obama’s course with a measly $1.4 million bribe.

    Mike Myers (710e8b)

  11. Mike M.:

    I believe your post makes it obvious. Thorbjørn Jagland should be the next Nobel Peace Prize winner.

    Because, you know, he voted for Obama.

    As did Tony Romo and Mickey Mouse.

    However, I do not believe Patterico deserves the award. I still have fire ants in my yard.

    Ag80 (d1363b)

  12. He’s the guy on the left.

    Actually, knowing the type of “lefty,” flaky politics and people that must dominate any committee that would do something as funky and laughable as (presumably unintentionally) making a mockery of the Nobel — or a case of life imitating art (and very bad art, at that) — and awarding a prize to a person as undeserving as President “Goddamn America,” when I first saw that photo I thought Jagland was a dude who liked going around in drag and makeup.

    Mark (411533)

  13. This story is like Blogging mana from heaven…

    EricPWJohnson (74db47)

  14. I don’t find this funny and I will be reporting these posts to the U.N. High Commission on Human Rights.

    Thorbjørn Jagland (d1363b)

  15. Obama remains a powerful voice of hope and change for many Europeans

    Can’t argue with that. Many Europeans are cradle to grave socialists who hope the US continues the Obama led change to socialistic ultra statism. They thought they were oh so close with Kerry, but this guy is the real deal.

    political agnostic (ebb9bd)

  16. If you run the Norweigan story through the translator, the girl Synnøve Svabø is being charged with a crime. Perhaps Jagland is merely frisking the miscreant for weapons.

    There might be a need to dust for prints also.

    papertiger (b28aae)

  17. Maybe Norway wants to implement Denmark’s speed control bikini bandits and he’s just screening applicants.

    Warning: Not safe for work and some homes.

    DRJ (7fbae6)

  18. Synnøve Svabø (born 25 November, 1968 in Sunnmøre, Norway) is a Norwegian talk show host best known for her boob stunt on then-current party leader of the Labour Party, Thorbjørn Jagland in 1998.

    [wiki entry for Synnøve Svabø]

    papertiger (b28aae)

  19. Monica Samille Lewinsky (born July 23, 1973) is an American woman best known for an oval office felatio stunt on then current party leader of the Democratic Party, William Jefferson Clinton, sometime between November 1995 and March 1997.
    [wiki for Monica Lewinsky]

    Sheesh who writes these things?

    papertiger (b28aae)

  20. Hey, what do you mean “stunt?”

    Ageist!

    Thorbjørn Jagland (d1363b)

  21. Dang, DRJ, you need a “not safe for the office” warning on that! Whoowee!!!eleventy!

    [Sorry, John. I’ll add a warning. — DRJ]

    John Hitchcock (3fd153)

  22. I, for one, completely respect our new speed control bikini bandit overlords.

    I lied.

    Thorbjørn Jagland (d1363b)

  23. Tim Rutten at times manages to take the most extraordinarily dunderheaded positions.

    The rest of the time, he sleeps.

    Jim Treacher (796deb)

  24. A mǿǿse ǿnce bit my sister…

    Houston Native (8b6c5a)

  25. Don’t let the wiki fool you. The old guy was definitely squeezing the Charmin.

    Synnøve Svabø (b28aae)

  26. DRJ that link was comedy gold. The chick was given the title “Head Bandit” and the cop spokesman was named Bent Koch…you can’t make this stuff up.
    BTW regarding the warning “not safe for work and some homes”, I have a home office so I am now not only unemployed, but also homeless.

    Gazzer (22ecdc)

  27. Hmmm…apparently he’s interested in more than one kind of “peace” prize

    Blaise (a00f53)

  28. God bless you DRJ.

    Apogee (e2dc9b)

  29. Um. Why are they called “bikini bandits”?

    They aren’t stealing anything.

    And they aren’t wearing their tops.

    Monokini Decelerators? No, that’s not right either…

    Eric Blair (8484db)

  30. I posted on it a while back: Danish Speed Bumps.

    DRJ (7fbae6)

  31. Well, if he deserves the award this year, Obama had better clear space for the next three awards.

    Because there is no way he can do less to earn the award than what he has done so far. He will still strive to give everyone their own pony over the rest of his administration because, gosh darn it, he really really wants the world to be just like that old Coke commercial. And for that he deserves our love.

    By the end of his term, the Nobel Committee is going to demand that Obama should always be accompanied by 20 vestal virgins spreading rose petals in front of him so that he doesn’t have to touch the ground.

    MU789 (3f9d29)

  32. With a head inflated with that much nothingness, how could you ever believe that his feet touch the ground?

    AD - RtR/OS! (6e8409)

  33. Joseph Goebbels would be proud. Just keep repeating the lie.

    Is this the LA Times or Das Reich?

    HeavenSent (01a566)

  34. […] POLITICIANS who know exactly what they’re doing! Looks like typical politician-behavior to me . . . […]

    Instapundit » Blog Archive » SERIOUS POLITICIANS who know exactly what they’re doing! Looks like typical politician-behavior to … (fe8e62)

  35. AD:

    What about when he walks on water? Do his feet get wet then?

    MU789 (3f9d29)

  36. Absolutely not…it’s the “ground effect”!

    AD - RtR/OS! (6e8409)

  37. Not to insult the many fine people of Czechoslovakia who perished during the “Prague Spring”,
    but our LiC’s persona is perfectly captured in the title of a movie made about that troubled time:
    The Incredible Lightness of Being!

    AD - RtR/OS! (6e8409)

  38. Is this the LA Times or Das Reich?

    Pravda Classic.

    Brother Bradley J. Fikes, C.O.R. (0ea407)

  39. So, Thorbjorn Jagland’s “intellectual authority”, if you will, appears to derive from the fact that he managed to get himself elected to lead a country. Can I assume that Tim Rutten would likewise defer to GWB choice, if it were his to make?

    Not My Problem (fab1f4)

  40. The Incredible Lightness of Being was a tortured watch. I was exhausted and depressed after I watched it many moons ago.

    John Hitchcock (3fd153)

  41. Can I assume that Tim Rutten would likewise defer to GWB choice, if it were his to make?

    That’s Different™!

    Brother Bradley J. Fikes, C.O.R. (0ea407)

  42. I actually quite liked that pic – a mostly untold story that had many echoes that were quite relevant at the time.

    Dmac (5ddc52)

  43. Here’s a bit of Democratic-friendly rewriting of events from the Sacramento Bee, which must be competing to be the LA Times of NorCal.

    The SacBee reported that when the Governator visited a Democratic event to reach across party lines, Assemblyman Tom Ammiano shouted “You lie!” a la Joe Wilson.

    What Ammiano actually said was “Get the f*** over it!”

    Other Dems shouted such pleasantries as “Kiss my ass” and “Kiss my f****** ass.”

    This is from McClatchy Watch, which I highly recommend.

    Brother Bradley J. Fikes, C.O.R. (0ea407)

  44. Wow! Obama’s undeserved Nobel has jolted Peggy Noonan back into sensibility.

    It is absurd and it is embarrassing. It would even be infuriating if it were not such a declaration of emptiness.

    The Norwegian Nobel Committee has embarrassed itself and cheapened a great award that had real meaning.

    Via KLoThe Corner.

    Brother Bradley J. Fikes, C.O.R. (0ea407)

  45. John Hitchcock:

    Likewise. And I hail from a commie paradise in Eastern Europe where being was light only for collabo and fellow traveler elites. The movie was based on Milan Kundera’s cult book that swept US campuses in the late eighties. I couldn’t believe it.
    Kundera is a way over-rated auteur living in France and who, just incidentally, signed the petition for Polanski’s release.

    Pansy (2e5916)

  46. Stupid rightwing mouthbreather, in this context “serious” means “wants to raise your taxes and grow government.”

    evil-mongerer (6fbc48)

  47. Well that goes without say, evil, similar background just a little north of the equator.
    ‘articulate (if not necessarily clean cut attorney activist, alternate comes with green khakies and red ‘Wile E Coyote’ cult of personality, long never ending speeches, check, check

    bishop (996c34)

  48. “… are we sure it wasn’t ghostwritten by David Axelrod?”

    A better question would be are we sure it wasn’t ghostwritten by Bill Ayers?

    someguy (79ea5f)

  49. Patrick,
    I’m going to call King Banaian (of SCSU Scholars) and se if he’ll nominate you . KB has a very wry sense of humor , but he’s a dept chair and may not want to take the whinging that could follow.
    By the way, is Joe Biden still up for the prize in medicine /

    corwin (324d47)

  50. # 43 dmac:

    This was not Czech film making. It was pure Hollywood plus French script (one Jean-Claude Carriere).
    Czechs were superb film makers under the commies. Possibly the best, together with the Poles.
    If you want untold but relevant stories of that same space and time, check out Milos Forman’s Loves of a Blonde from before he came to Hollywood:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loves_of_a_Blonde

    Also check out the absolute master, Jiri Menzel, then Vera Chtylova, Otakar Vavra, Karel Kachyna, and so many others, who all told those “untold” stories that never made it to you. They all are mostly unknown, un-awarded geniuses–with the exception of Forman. But they are available on DVD.

    Pansy (5e70a6)

  51. Chavez says Obama did “nothing” to deserve Nobel

    Damn, the DNC was right about that “terrorist” thing

    Neo (7830e6)


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