The Nobel committee tossed off a shocker today, giving President Barack Obama the Peace Prize after less than a year in office.<\/p>\n
The reason? Mr. Obama’s “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.\u201d<\/p>\n
The real reason? He’s not George W. Bush.<\/p>\n
It may be that during his tenure in the Oval Office, the President will earn a Nobel Peace Prize, but he certainly hasn’t yet.<\/p>\n
His one accomplishment so far has been putting a friendlier face on American foreign policy, and bolstering the public image of the U.S. abroad.<\/p>\n
That’s not insignificant. Europeans loathed W. And by not being W., O. has gained a lot of good will.<\/p>\n
But the Obama Effect hasn’t yet produced a single significant diplomatic or human rights victory.<\/p>\n
Perhaps Mr. Obama’s most significant action has been a concession: namely, the decision to scrap a land-based missile shield in eastern Europe.<\/p>\n
That project was deeply unpopular in Western Europe and Russia and mothballing it may have contributed to this decision.<\/p>\n