Martin Gelin om amerikansk politik och kultur

Martin Gelin

Martin Gelin

Samlade amerikanska reaktioner:

Andrew Sullivan:

”If any person has done more to advance some measure of calm, reason and peace in this troubled word lately, it’s president Obama. I think the Cairo speech and the Wright speech alone merited this both bridging ancient rifts even while they remain, of course, deep and intractable. He has already done more to heal the open wound between the West and Islam than anyone else on the planet.

I’d just add one caveat: the American people who elected him deserve part of the credit too.”

Joe Klein:

”I’m as relieved as anybody that the Bushian gunslingers have been given the gate and, as regular readers know, I’m a big fan of patient, rigorous diplomacy–and there’s a certain lovely irony to any prize that brings the Taliban and the neoconservative Commentary crowd together in high dudgeon–but let’s face it: this prize is premature to the point of ridiculousness. It continues a pattern that holds some peril for Obama: he is celebrated for who he is not, and for who he might potentially be, rather than for what he has actually done.”

Walter Russell Mead:

”It is true that President Obama has received the prize more for his words (which are many) than for his deeds (which, so far, are still few). But that only underlines the degree to which the words of an American president have the power to shape events–especially compared to the competition.”

Matt Yglesias

”Well, here’s hoping Obama snags himself a second Peace Prize after he delivers on an Israeli-Arab peace deal, and international climate agreement, and a path to normalization of relations with Cuba.”

Glenn Greenwald:

”Obama has changed the tone America uses to speak to the world generally and the Muslim world specifically. His speech in Cairo, his first-week interview on al-Arabiya, and the extraordinarily conciliatory holiday video he sent to Iran are all substantial illustrations of that. His willingness to sit down and negotiate with Iran — rather than threaten and berate them — has already produced tangible results. He has at least preliminarily broken from Bush’s full-scale subservience to Israel and has applied steadfast pressure on the Israelis to cease settlement activities, even though it’s subjected him to the sorts of domestic political risks and vicious smears that have made prior Presidents afraid to do so. His decision to use his first full day in office to issue Executive Orders to close Guantanamo, ostensibly ban torture, and bar CIA black sites was an important symbol offered to the world (even though it’s been followed by actions that make those commitments little more than empty symbols). He refused to reflexively support the right-wing, civil-liberty-crushing coup leaders in Honduras merely because they were ”pro-American” and ”anti-Chavez,” thus siding with the vast bulk of Latin America’s governments — a move George Bush, or John McCain, never would have made. And as a result of all of that, the U.S. — in a worldwide survey released just this week — rose from seventh to first on the list of ”most admired countries.”

All that said, these changes are completely preliminary, which is to be expected given that he’s only been in office nine months.”

Matt Welch, Reason:

”It shows how people–almost touchingly–remain suckers for likeable politicians who replace guys they hated, investing in them a kind of faith mere mortals usually don’t merit.”

George Packer:

”President Obama should thank the Nobel committee and ask them to hold on to the Peace Prize for a couple more years…This seems like a prize for Europeans, not Americans, and I worry that at home it will damage him politically by reinforcing the notion that he is-and will be-a world icon rather than a successful President. I don’t mind him being the former, but I most want him to be the latter.”

John McCain:

”I think all of us were surprised at the decision. But I think Americans are always pleased when their president is recognized by something on this order.”

Megan McArdle

”I guess I must hate America, but I actually think it’s kind of ludicrous that anyone is even trying to argue that Barack Obama truly deserves this Nobel Peace Prize. Could he have deserved it, after he’d had more than nine months in office? Easily. But he hasn’t had time to, y’know, accomplish anything. Unless they’re giving out the Prize these days for stimulus bills and banking sector interventions.”

National Review

”1994: Yasser Arafat”

Jason Zengerle, The New Republic

”If Obama’s Nobel peace prize does nothing else, it at least has briefly united Michael Steele and the Taliban.”

David Frum:

”From the age of 20, Barack Obama has collected acclaim, awards and prizes not for his accomplishments (which have always been rather scanty), but for his potential.”

Chris Bowers, OpenLeft

”Shorter Nobel Committee: we really hated unilateral Republican foreign policy. In fact, we hated it so much, we are going to give President Obama the award pretty much for just not being a Republican. Just having the United States talk to other countries is good enough for us.”

Larry Sabato:

”For President Obama, the enhanced prestige is an intangible element that can help him on the international stage. It may also make some difference in his quest for health care reform. This is because the success of a health care bill now depends almost entirely on Democratic votes in Congress, and Democrats will be the ones most impressed by the award. What a difference a week makes, huh? The Nobel Peace Prize certainly wipes out the embarrassment of Obama’s Olympics disaster.”

FireDogLake:

”I want to emphasize the degree to which this is the not-Bush prize. Gore invoked his de-selection in 2000 in his own Nobel acceptance speech in 2007. Observers sure read Krugman’s Nobel prize in economics as a rebuke of Bush. But more importantly, remember that Mohammed el-Baradei–who tried to prevent war in Iraq, and who has been central to preventing war against Iran–won in 2005. Baradei’s win, even more than the other two, was a critique of Bush’s (and Cheney’s) aggression and violence.”

Spencer Ackerman:

”Progressives have a unique responsibility to hold Obama to his own stated vision, and the vision that the Nobel committee honored today. But there is a difference between an incomplete agenda and a counterproductive one. And in truth, the agenda is never complete. The work goes on. But we are on a path. Fired up, ready to go.”

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