Former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Jack Danforth tells NRO that President Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize is “completely ridiculous.”
“What has he done?” asks Danforth, a former Republican U.S. senator from Missouri. “In eight months, if anything, what he has done is make himself popular with Europe, at least according to the polls. It’s a joke.”
“He’s announced the closing of Guantanamo Bay,” says Danforth. “He’s announced that he’s getting rid of enhanced interrogation. He’s announced he’s getting out of Iraq. He’s clearly revisiting his prior commitment to Afghanistan. And, on various occasions, he’s gone around the world apologizing for the United States. That’s what the Europeans like to hear.”
“This is totally laughable,” says Danforth. Citing the Nobel committee’s high praise, Danforth says he worries about President Obama’s hubris. “My concern is that the president actually believes these things about himself,” he says. “This is part of the apotheosis of Barack Obama. The president is already pretty taken with himself. Now, he gets the Nobel Peace Prize. It’s just further encouragement.”
What should the president say when he goes to Oslo? “He sure doesn’t need my advice,” says Danforth. “He’s the orator of all orators. I’m sure it will be fabulous oratory, and yet another example of telling Europe what it wants to hear.”