Published: October 13, 2009 09:06 pm      

GEORGE ROOT: Oh say, can you see?

President Obama has won the Nobel Peace Prize. I think this is a classic example of how the rest of the world will take their shots at the United States whenever given the chance. Obama is accepting the award in the hopes that people will see the positive value of change and help to bring peace to the world. Noble thought, but the intentions behind the award make the Nobel Academy look like a bunch of schoolchildren.

You would be hard-pressed to find a supporter of George W. Bush in the countries of the world outside the United States. His policies were unpopular, his boorish personality was repulsive (remember W sneaking up on the Chancellor of Germany and grabbing her by the shoulders like she was his high school best friend?) and his lack of communication skills was a punch line all over the world. As much I was not a supporter of W, I would cringe every time the international media would take a shot at him, because he was our president. It is similar to the relationship that the people of Brooklyn had with the Dodgers in the 1950s. They may be bums but they are our bums, and you have absolutely no right to refer to them as bums. He may have been an idiot but he was our idiot, and the rest of the world had no right to call him an idiot.

The thing that frustrated me is that neither W nor his handlers saw a need to repair any of his negative image perceptions. It would be kind of hard to tip-toe around starting a war that killed hundreds of thousands of civilians and military personnel, only to admit that starting the war may not have been the best idea. Somehow a simple “my bad” doesn’t cover that. But he could have carried himself with an air of dignity, he could have spoken to other world leaders as though they were world leaders and not drinking buddies and he could have referred to his staff by their position and name, as opposed to Brownie and Dick.

Man, do I miss the days of Bill Clinton. I had money in my pocket, everyone was proud to be an American and our president knew how to talk to the rest of the world. Bubba may have failed with his international policy, but when the man needed to look presidential, he certainly could. He knew how to laugh, when to laugh and how to get the rest of the world laughing with him.

So W wore on people, he made people angry and the rest of the world could not wait for W to be gone. The Nobel Peace prize is Barack Obama’s international award for getting elected. He inspires peace because he is not W and because Obama is an eloquent and intelligent speaker. Did he deserve the Nobel Peace Prize? No, and he almost came out and said that the day he found out he won it. There is no way that Obama feels he deserves the award, and there are very few of his supporters who think he deserves it, either.

Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize is a towering monument to how much the rest of the world hated George W. Bush. It is a testament to how low the United States can be allowed to sink when our president enacts extremely unpopular policies. The last U.S. president to win the Nobel Peace Prize was Jimmy Carter and he had spent decades establishing his claim to the prize. Bubba will be the next president to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Considering everything he has done since he has left office, it would be a travesty not to give him the award. George H.W. Bush deserves it, as well. So does Bill Gates. I’m not sure Al Gore deserved it, but with the way the Nobel Academy has been acting lately, it is not as much of a surprise anymore.

Look, I like our president. I like when our president succeeds. But it bothers me when the rest of the world takes a chance to slap a former president in the face for all eternity and for all the world to see. It does not take a genius to figure out why Obama is getting the Nobel Peace Prize. All due respect to Obama, W is the reason Obama is winning that award. And that is just wrong. Give Obama some time to earn it so that he can be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on his own merits. Obama is trying to repair the international image of the United States. Yes, that image was tarnished by W, and yes, that makes W an idiot. He may be an idiot but he is our idiot, and you have absolutely no right to refer to him as an idiot.

George Root is a Lockport resident. His column runs every Wednesday.