Right Wing Continues to Fantasize About Obama

David Streeter — October 13, 2009 – 3:42 pm | Israel | Foreign Policy | GOP Hypocrisies | Obama | Stop the Smears Comments (0) Add a comment

The extreme right is at it again over President Barack Obama’s receipt of the Nobel Peace Prize. Over the weekend pundits took to the airwaves and the press mocking Obama’s award. Yet by far the most ridiculous analysis, in comparison to the rest of the right-wing drivel, is from former Israeli Ambassador Yoram Ettinger’s polemical article “The Obama Nobel Mystery.”

Ettinger’s flimsy argument screams of baseless paranoia and outright lies. This can only be designed to discredit Obama, his achievement, and play to the right wing fear that America is somehow losing its prestige.

First, Ettinger alleges that former President Jimmy Carter “is close to President Obama and considered a role-model for the new Nobel laureate.”

This could not be further from the truth. As Ira N. Forman, NJDC’s CEO, writes, “It does not take a PhD in American politics to know that Carter is not an advisor to Obama” and that Carter has not been affiliated with any presidential administration since his defeat in 1980.  On the contrary, many previous presidents regard him as a nuisance to their foreign policy agendas. 

(Also, because the right wing loves to hammer this myth home, Carter’s former advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski is not an advisor to Obama either. He is simply a relic of the Cold War making his rounds on the Washington cocktail party and punditry circuits.)

Second, Ettinger asserts that the Nobel Prize Committee had a hidden agenda for its award to Obama. Ettinger writes:

Awarding Obama the Nobel Peace Prize – in spite of the fact that the deadline for nominations was February 1, 10 days into Obama’s Administration – constitutes a transparent attempt by European politicians to bolster Obama’s determination in the global arena and improve his standing in the domestic arena. While Obama’s stock has risen internationally, it has deteriorated internally, in light of his lack of success in the areas of unemployment, taxes, budget deficit, health insurance reform, Afghanistan, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, Russia and al-Qaeda.

The Nobel Peace Prize Committee is trying to meddle with America’s “domestic agenda?” Really?

Ettinger also writes:

The Nobel Peace Prize Committee aimed to improve Obama’s image among Americans and leverage his presidency in order to Europeanize US policy, thus accomplishing the “wet dream” of US critics, rivals and enemies.

“Europeanize US policy?” How exactly does that work when Obama has a broad and clear electoral mandate to enact policies that will never resemble European policies, regardless of how progressive they are? Is this a reincarnation of the “Obama’s a socialist” canard, even though Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) put it to bed two weeks ago.

Third, is anyone else confused or disturbed by Ettinger’s use of the “wet dream” analogy? Surely he knows what it means and that it is not exactly the most appropriate diction for political discourse. Shouldn’t a former ambassador know this? It is hard to imagine that an ambassador would use such a sophomoric and immature analogy when conversing with a head of state or writing a strategy memo for his superiors. Why should a column in a major Israeli daily paper, Yediot Aronot, be any different? There could be kids reading it in addition to dignitaries.

But that’s exactly what the right wing is reduced to these days: promoting myths, Nazi comparisons, and absurdly inappropriate analogies. Exactly how does this elevate our political discourse?

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