EDITORIAL: Nobel Peace Prize for Obama is more for fantasy, not reality.

President Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize last week for more fantasy than reality. The Nobel committee lauded his “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples” in awarding him the prestigious honor and $1.4 million prize but pointed to few actual accomplishments.

Obama’s nine-month presidency has been defined by hope. The Nobel Prize celebrates his intentions and the beginnings of new relationships around the globe. Now it’s time for Obama to deliver on promises here and abroad.

Domestically, the president has tried to revitalize the economy with a massive stimulus and bailout packages. Hopefully, it will create jobs, restore confidence in lending institutions and save the auto industry. He has proposed overhauling health care with more government interference, but finding a compromise on legislation will require a Nobel laureate to navigate the polluted waters of dissent.
Internationally, Obama has committed to fighting global warming and to closing Guantánamo Bay in Cuba, a human-rights eyesore. He has tried to stabilize Afghanistan, to keep war from breaking out in Pakistan, to bring peace to the Middle East and to prevent Iran and North Korea from developing nuclear weapons. All of it has been done after promising in the 2008 campaign to bring troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan as soon as possible.

The notion Obama has changed us is true in one sense. The nation’s first African-American president has ushered in an era of big government in the United States unprecedented since the presidencies of Lyndon Johnson and Franklin Roosevelt.

Obama has attempted to bring collaboration and diplomacy back to the bargaining table. He has given the impression he wants to listen to the Islamic point of view.

Despite all of Obama’s initiatives, speeches and intentions, the Peace Prize smacks more of adulation for the president than his deeds. The world has fallen in love with Obama after eight years of George W. Bush, a president who would rather fight than compromise and announced “you’re either with us or against us.”

Obama accepted the award “as a call to action.” But he admitted: “I do not feel I deserve to be in the company of so many of the transformative leaders who’ve been honored by this prize.”

Now Obama has to deal with the political fallout. U.S. Rep. Gresham Barrett, R-S.C., a gubernatorial candidate, was one of hundreds to lambaste the president.

“Congratulations to President Obama on his prize,” Barrett said in a statement. “I’m not sure what the international community loved best; his waffling on Afghanistan, pulling defense missiles out of Eastern Europe, turning his back on freedom fighters in Honduras, coddling Castro, siding with Palestinians against Israel, or almost getting tough on Iran.

“The world may love it, but following in the footsteps of Jimmy Carter is not where America needs to go. Hopefully, this surprise award will give the President cause to reevaluate his current course.”

The Nobel Prize should fuel Obama’s efforts if he needs a second wind after nine months of non-stop proposals and rhetoric.

One Democratic strategist, Joe Trippi, said if the job market remained sour, the Nobel medallion would be featured prominently in GOP attack ads in 2010 with such lines as: “He got a Nobel Prize. What did you get? A pink slip.”

Obama was elected because voters thought he offered the best hope of restoring a sputtering economy and a divisive foreign policy.

Despite the political shockwaves, the Nobel Prize is special honor for Obama and for America.

The surreal moment reveals a desperate yearning for leadership. At this moment, only Obama can deliver it.

— Unsigned editorials represent the views of this newspaper. Editorial Board members are Mark Laskowski (regional publisher), James Bennett (regional editor), Sam Bundy (sports editor), Kimberly Ginfrida (news editor), David Johnson (regional circulation director), Charles Tomlinson (Lake City News & Post editor) and Jackie Torok (metro editor).