Preach, Rachel: One Woman Congratulates Obama

The hateration continued at fever pitch after the Friday announcement that President Barack Obama had won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009. Rachel Maddow, last night, explained it all for us, especially those of us on the fence who think he hasn’t been in office long enough, or hasn’t done much yet. Don’t get me wrong. Obama has done more than Junior Bush or Darth Cheney ever did in nine months to try to fix, dismantle, and reassure Americans and the world.

But there have been moments that I have wondered. Especially after watching last night’s Bill Moyer’s Journal entry with Representative Marcy Kaptur of Ohio and MIT professor Simon Johnson. Kaptur refrained from criticizing Obama personally, but said that he was not surrounded or served by the best advice. Her concern was that nationally, Americans are being buffeted by winds that could have been tamed by Obama, and that the window, as Johnson said, has just about closed on Wall Street reform. It’s business as usual for them.

There is only hope or a promise of hope.

That’s why I automatically responded, but… yesterday when I heard that Obama had received this high honor. But I don’t believe, as Rinku Sen said almost universal derision (and worse) on Jack & Jill Politics, that Obama should have declined. I think her arguments were reasonable.

However, with all of the drumbeats to “surge” our forces in Afghanistan, with Bush era holdover General McChrystal going out of bounds publicly to force Obama’s hand on this issue, the Prize came at this moment as a very strong message for Obama that the world approves of him and of America’s choices. They approve of his efforts to bring the United States back as a world power that would rather work diplomatically with its neighbors and allies rather than make unilateral decisions that will affect and harm millions. And lastly, that the world is watching with keen interest that he, and our country, stays on a fairly peaceful trajectory.

While watching Obama’s response yesterday, I saw him pause for just a second while he said, “I am the commander in chief of a country that’s responsible for ending a war and working in another theater to confront a ruthless adversary that directly threatens the American people and our allies.” He’s still putting it together about Afghanistan. I know that that isn’t easy, but he’s got to do it right. This is a wake-up call for him as well not to change his luck. He would do best to heed it.

What gets me about haters like Beck and Limbaugh (and their legions of supporters) is, how can you not cheer for the United States when its president receives the highest peace award on the planet? How can these idiots cheer when Chicago, the president’s hometown, is removed from competition for the Olympics, when it could have given a lot of people jobs during this time of hardship? They even pray that there is another terrorist attack on our shores while Obama is president. Who would wish that ultimate horror on anybody? These guys are plainly obsessed, if not delusional. Because in the final analysis, this event certainly isn’t about Barack Hussein Obama at all.

It’s about us.

~ by blksista on October 10, 2009.