Word: leaders
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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This ill-concealed crusade is clearly damaging the prestige of the Nobel; the winners are supposed to be honored for their achievements, not for symbolizing the committee's grudges. And it probably won't do Obama any favors; he wants to be a leader, not a symbol, and honoring him for his rhetoric about a new American approach to diplomacy only reinforces the meme of his critics that he's merely a man of rhetoric. (See pictures of Barack Obama's nation of hope...
...Obama ran a good campaign, sure, but he resonated with Democrats and then with other Americans because he looked and sounded and acted like change. And while the Nobel crowd's fury over Bush may be over the top, it's a reminder that he was a uniquely unpopular leader who left the U.S. in a uniquely lousy situation. Obama was never more popular than he was when he was running against Bush. (See Bush's biggest economic mistakes...
Lepri, like most observers, thinks the move was entirely political. She calls it a show of support for a leader the committee and much of the world believes is taking the U.S. in the right direction - a new survey out earlier this week showed that the U.S. global image had soared in the past year - but who is meeting stiff resistance at home; indeed in his comment Jagland noted "we would hope this (award) will enhance what he is trying to do." Still, Jagland tested credulity of listeners when he stressed "we are not awarding the prize for what...
Another distinction: we may want our national leaders to be personally humble, just as we would like them to be kind and generous and to take out the cat litter each night. (Funnily enough, of the hundreds of politicians I've met over the years, humble is a description that comes to mind for very few. Now that I think about it: none.) But we do not really want them to be politically humble. Passivity and resignation in the face of challenge may, in some religious-belief systems, represent an admirable surrender to the will of the Almighty...
...ranking al-Qaeda leader issued a call to the Islamic world to battle a great nation of infidels. Through a video posted on the internet, Abu Yahya al-Libi condemned this superpower for perpetrating "injustice and oppression" against Muslims and "looting their wealth" - a script similar to others read out from secret hideouts over the course of post-9/11 American-led campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq. But the country in the crosshairs of al-Qaeda's latest diatribe was not the U.S. or any of its allies in the West. It was China...