We are all chunky Reese Witherspoon now
Ross Douthat writes the definitive respectable conservative Obama Nobel piece:
But by accepting the prize, he’s made failure, if and when it comes, that much more embarrassing and difficult to bear. What’s more, he’s etched in stone the phrase with which critics will dismiss his presidency.
Slick Willie. Tricky Dick. Jimmy “Malaise” Carter. Dubya the Incompetent.
And now Barack Obama, Nobel laureate.
All right, I understand that every member of the wingerati has to take a shot at this topic. But why did he leave out Ford and Reagan? And “Dubya the incompetent”? Has anyone ever said that? Not much besides this column shows up in the google searches.
Update. Steve M from NoMoreMisterNiceGuy sums up:
Drama Queen Obama just made a statement saying that he doesn’t think he’s earned it yet? That’s like saying you think you haven’t earned a flaming turd on your doorstep! It’s a ridiculous award! They gave it to Al Gore and Jimmy Carter, fer crissake! If it actually meant something, Ronald Reagan would have won it—eight years running!
Typical Obama—he gives the queen an iPod and now he has the bad taste and lack of manners to turn this into an international melodrama. Now the world will be focused on him next month when all these silly Scandinavians convene in Oslo and Diva Barack isn’t there!
It’s all about him—it’s always all about him.
Martin
Chunky Resse Witherspoon would make a good Ben N Jerry flavor.
But I like the new conservative value – don’t accept praise, because that’ll make failure hurt more.
ricky
Did you try inserting the word “fucking” before “incompetent?”
Martin
Oh, and fuck the Yankees, just because it hasn’t been said yet in this thread.
Sentient Puddle
I don’t know, if I’m trying to put down a presidency, “Barack Obama, Nobel laureate” doesn’t roll off the tongue as well as “Tricky Dick.”
Is Douthat even trying anymore?
soonergrunt
I don’t think that the President deserves the Nobel prize, but at the same time, watching the wingeratti loose their collective shit over it has been immensely entertaining.
There’s nothing like the taste of wingnut tears.
Martin
He seems the same as always to me.
General Winfield Stuck
Yes, but it seems insignificant what with all the innocent blood on his hands.
gbear
So does that mean that heaping scorn on the president will make his success all the more sweet?
I can kind of see who’s going to get the last laugh in that scenario. Butthurt Level 5 coming right up.
& yes, fuck the Yankees. also.
bago
Is there any context I’m missing here?
“But by accepting the prize, he’s made failure” just sounds retarded.
Obama, Nobel Laureate.
Stephen Hawking, Nobel Laureate.
Al Gore, Oscar-winning Nobel Laureate.
Nellcote
Talk about whiny 5 year olds loosing their shit, just wait ‘til he gives his acceptance speech!
http://nobelpeaceprize.org/en_....._ceremony/
Cat Lady
Obama’s presidency dismissed by non-contributing assholes like Douthat for winning a Nobel prize. Uh huh.
Wingnut tears and pretzel logic. Yummm….
JGabriel
@Sentient Puddle:
Sadly, yes. It must be terribly embarrassing for his mother.
.
JGabriel
DougJ:
Fuckwit is my choice, mostly because that word cracks me up. Clusterfuck is my other nickname for Bush, mostly for accuracy.
.
JGabriel
Nellcote:
Better yet, wait till he’s re-elected.
.
SiubhanDuinne
The NPP is “European humbug”?
Citizen_X
You think the wingnut/MSM reaction was fucked up for Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize? Just wait till he gets reelected in 2012. Then we’ll hear all about whatta looser he really is.
On edit: damn you JGabriel!
Wile E. Quixote
@bago
Actually Stephen Hawking is not a Nobel laureate.
Anne Laurie
@Sentient Puddle:
Trying? He’s fvcking aggravating!
Also, he hopes that ‘Dubya the Incompetent’, in all its mealy-mouthed inadequacy, can be promoted by milk-and-water Rethuglican-defenders like Douthat to top the Google hits for more descriptive monikers like Commander Codpiece, the C-Plus Augustus, Captain Clusterfvck, Darth Cheney’s Sockpuppet, or the Smirking Chimp. Good luck with that, Douchehat.
mandarama
Ugh…I usually love your post titles, but didya HAVE to remind us of the “chunky Reese Witherspoon” episode? I had purged that revolting trip down Douthat’s college memory lane from my mind, and now I feel ill.
va
Hm. 394k results for W. the War Criminal.
chris
Just want to point out that the article is called “Heckuva Job, Barack” (although it’s linked on the front page as “Nice Job, Barack”). Huh?
The Dangerman
In 2012, after the Sarahcudda gets waxed (hmmm … nah, nevermind) in the General, I expect some serious long overdue self-examination from the Right (snicker … yeah, couldn’t do it with a straight face).
Wile E. Quixote
Is it just me or was there a time when you had to know your ass from a hole in the ground to be a columnist at the Times or the Post?
Bombs'R-Nuts
“Dubya the incompetent”? Has anyone ever said that?
Not many, Mostly we all just said Bush is “Too Stoopid to be Preznit.”
Ian
My favorite moniker was Shrub. I miss Molly Ivins
Comrade Luke
Of all the faux controversies, this is one I really just don’t get.
I mean, the guy was nominated by someone else, never pursued the award (if you can even do that), was as surprised as anyone when he won and admitted publicly that he didn’t think he deserved it, and somehow this is a problem?
How is this an issue AT ALL?
jl
I read the silly column. Another minute of my life wasted, but I bear sole responsibility. But, if anyone’s short of time, read Noonan’s, it is black comedy ROFL.
Uh, yeah, I would imagine that Obama turning down the award would do a lot to push his agenda. That would be the smart thing to do right now. No question about it.
If Obama does fail, the violence, money and lives lost, in addition to worry and stress among the voters, will just pale in comparison to the Nobel Peace Prize shame. Boy howdy it everyone will remember the prize thing, fersher.
I doubt that one of Douthat’s statements is true. I did not see an outpouring of Obama worship from the left since the award was announced. I saw a lot of sensible people sensibly trying to figure out the rationale behind the award, and what it meant, and how best to use it.
The big problem with Gross Doubt That’s column is that it is not as hilariously repellant, absurd and bitter as Noonan’s. So it will provide him with no reward either with the wingnuts or the rational.
Shorter me in previous comments: To the rest of the world, this reward may make sense if Obama’s policy turn around is achievement enough, which might be a sign of how much they did hate Cheney/Bush. If that is the case, it may enrage the wingnuts, even if it leaves the rest of us merely somewhat puzzled and slightly more hopeful.
The prize may seem to raise the stakes but it is largely symbolic. I think Woodrow Wilson’s Peace Prize was similarly partly aspirational, or maybe it was an attempt by the Nobel Peace Prize committee to put its finger on the scales as Wilson was fighting for the League of Nations with the isolationist GOP. Maybe Obama has a better chance at making progress in international relations than Wilson did, and that is what is driving them crazy. They are still stuck in the 1919 debates, except they are isolationists with a far larger and more powerful professional expeditionary military force, and long range weapons that can be used to kill and destroy
Obama has done better at foreign affairs than in other areas, but the chances of set backs are very high. Obama should take every advantage he can get and run with it, and he would be a fool not to. I predict that Obama will play this pitch perfect, this kind of thing is his strength. We have to get him up to speed in follow-through.
jl
@Comrade Luke: That is also true. But the wingnuts will say if he was still Asserting American Will, he could have stopped it, and would have. Or, we would extract some concession from Norway, or bomb them. They do produce oil, you know.
JasonF
I had no idea what the title of this post was referencing so I Googled it and now I’m going to have nightmares.
Mike D.
Ouch. Devastating.
jl
by the way, I am not Chunky Reese Witherspoon, and I do not have one either, whether Ice cream or the other variety. I feel left out and it is not fair. What gives? Where is my Chunky Reese Witherspoon, which sounds pretty good?
Calouste
Via TPM:
IOW, the American President should pursue an aggressive imperialistic policy, just like her father.
Oh, btw Liz, in 2008, the American people elected a President exactly because he promised to govern (Presidents govern, kings rule, Ms Cheney) in a way that made sense to the rest of the world.
There is a highly concentrated amount of neocon fail in those comments.
Brachiator
Oh yeah, that really sounds like failure.
Douthat’s dubious conclusion is one of the all-time dumbest things that I have ever read. And I’ve read a number of Jonah Goldberg columns.
Ross has jumped the shark on the right wing tactic of painting anything that Obama does as a failure no matter what. This goes beyond “Fuck America” to “The Nobels don’t mean squat if Obama or a Democrat wins it.”
The only problem is that Ross doesn’t keep this inside the American political arena, and so it more clearly looks like the hysterical foolishness that it is, because it appears to attempt to slime all the Nobels, which would presumably make the Physics and Chemistry winners also losers.
I don’t think so.
While being awarded the Nobel can be seen as a burden, Obama has the rest of his political career, not just the terms of his presidency, to do good work.
On the other hand, Douthat will soon be forgotten.
Ash
Wait, I don’t even understand if this is supposed to be some sort of diss? is it just because it’s 1:20 in the fucking morning that I don’t understand? THIS MAKES NO SENSE. NONE OF IT MAKES SENSE, SWEET JESUS.
Deschanel
“Dubya the viciously, willfully stupid warmonger and rotten bastard who enabled the fish-gutting of the formerly great American middle class” would’ve been my moniker, if I weren’t a liar like Douchehat.
Also, Jimmy Carter never said the word “malaise”. It was attributed to him by the shitty right-leaning press of his day, who were dying to get Reagan elected. And look where that’s gotten us!
Brachiator
@Calouste:
Sweet boneless Jebus.
So, according to La Cheney, our national interest means world dominance?
Wow. And to state this bit of wingnut anxiety so baldly.
It’s certainly highly concentrated something. So it’s not enough for the US to be the lone superpower; we must also be the most dominant force in the world.
I’m just waiting to see Sarah Palin sign off on this one.
Comrade Kevin
If Douche-at knows a Chunky Reese Witherspoon, he can send her over to my place.
Brain Hertz
You know, I’m sort of struggling with the verb voice in that clause.
If I understand correctly, Ross Douchehat is saying that it was a mistake for the President to decide to have the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to himself. Is that it?
Oh, wait, “by accepting” the prize. I see. What he’s saying is that his reporting would have been, like, all totally different and stuff if the President had decided to refuse to accept the Nobel Peace Prize.
[bangs head on desk]
Why does anybody listen to these assholes any more?
JK
@Calouste: @Brachiator:
Liz Cheney is drunk with delusions of grandeur. Can’t wait to see what political office she decides to run for.
FlipYrWhig
Yeah, “Barack Obama, Nobel laureate” is quite a zinging putdown. It’s sorta like “Jonathan Lethem, MacArthur genius-grant recipient.” Utterly humiliating.
freelancer (itouch)
Is it just me or does anyone else want to convince their gfs to mail their placebo pills from their bc presript to mr. douthat?
Calouste
@Brachiator:
It’s full fontal imperialism.
Actually, Cheney makes a very good case why Obama deserves the Nobel Peace Prize. He turned the one remaining super power away from pursuing dominance, dominance which the US considering the state of its economy could only have achieved by military means and not by economical ones.
There was a comment here the other day in reference to Obama getting the prize for not being Bush that Mandela got the prize for not being Botha. Which was not true, Mandela got the prize for being Mandela. It was de Klerk who got the prize for not being Botha.
simonee
@JK:
Liz Cheney vs. Sarahgeddon! Hopefully she’s just that deluded.
Bijan Parsia
Aside from the bizarreness of thinking that calling a Nobel Laureate er…a Nobel Laureate (there are, I suppose, circumstances where this would be insulting, but a necessary condition, I would think, is not being a Nobel Laureate), its interesting to note that all of the put-down presidents have done pretty well for themselves. Who calls Bill Clinton “Slick Willie” these days and who cares that they do? Jimmy Carter is routinely referred to as our greatest ex-President and history seems to be ever more kinder about his tenure. Nixon, rather shockingly, did a pretty good job at rehabilitation during his lifetime (become, e.g., a trusted mentory type to Slick Willie).
I think Bush Jr. will fare only worse as time goes on. But that’s because unlike all the rest, he really has nothing going for him. Nixon, criminal slimepig that he was, was, in fact, pretty damn smart and, oh, y’know, had some CV fillers like China and detente (and some decent domestic stuff alongside the break-ins).
Something would have to go very bizarre for Obama to crash and burn to Bush Jr.’s degree. I guess if you delude yourself into thinking that he is the empty suit Bush Jr. was in fact (while deluding yourself that Bush Jr. was somehow in principle credible), then this will seem plausible.
Yutsano
@Bijan Parsia: Besides which (and yes I’m that petty because I’m going to mention it no matter what y’all think) how many ex-Presidents have been asked to cook with Paula Deen? Answer: ONE. Granted, he’s a Georgia native, but still, that was one of the most charming episodes I think she’s ever done.
Plus when is she gonna go cook for the Obamas? She was invited during the campaign to go.
Brachiator
@Calouste:
Indeed! Very well put.
Joseph Nobles
Strangely enough, when 9/11 truthers discuss what they call the “official story,” they tend to dismiss it as the “incompetence” theory. I wonder if Douhat secretly pretends to be a 9/11 truther on left-leaning websites?
Eh, tinfoil hat off.
JGabriel
Liz Cheney:
I think they’d just like an America that doesn’t ignore the damn safety word.
.
WereBear
@Bijan Parsia: And there’s your wingnut attitude in a nutshell.
That is exactly how they think. How they must think, or face an uncomfortable truth, yet again.
They are going nuts because it is a slap in the face, an undeniable world repudiation.
Maybe our President got the prize just for being there, but that’s quite an accomplishment, isn’t it? Then, once there, he’s not sitting back. He is slowly turning the ship of state completely around.
Because, you have to remember, we are the most dangerous country on earth and for eight years we were ruled by madmen.
If there was a Nobel Prize for “Greatest Sense of Relief,” it would be this one.
Uloborus
Yeah, put me down in the ‘Obama deserved the prize’ category. I’m sure he was initially nominated for not being Bush. When the world’s remaining super-power seems to be sliding towards dictatorship and empire, lies to the international community to start random wars, repudiates the Geneva Convention…. Well, you get the idea, right? Not only did they loathe Bush, they were terrified of where this was going. We hated Bush, so we don’t see this as an accomplishment, but in their eyes Obama turned the US away from being a world-wide nightmare. That it’s too late to fix Iraq and probably Afghanistan is immaterial. We ain’t invadin’ Iran.
Since then, he’s treated the middle east and Islam in particular with cultural respect, quietly ended North Korea’s latest temper tantrum, signed a nuclear deal I didn’t even know about because the US media doesn’t seem to care about anything but wingnut whining, and brought Iran gently to the bargaining table on their nuclear enrichment.
He has, from the European perspective, reversed a very large portion of the damage Bush did to the world, particularly the US’s place in it, in a few months. That should at least make him a legitimate contender. And so, from an international perspective, he’s never going to ‘fail’ and not have deserved this in the first place. He ain’t going to become Cheney. Douthat’s opinion is not a flyspeck on their world map. Probably neither is the American liberal community’s, frankly.
demkat620
@Wile E. Quixote: Yeah, there was. Which was why alot of us here thought Daniel Larison would have been a great choice.
But those days are over.
drillfork
Atrios (damn him) actually posted a snippet from Douhat’s “chunky Reese Witherspoon” essay. Honestly, it sounds like he might be suppressing a desire to switch teams. Cringe-inducing a read as it was, at least I know what that means now.
http://www.eschatonblog.com/20.....uthat.html
Should probably go in the Lexicon, if it isn’t already (and assuming the Lexicon is functioning).
OT, the insurance industry is starting to turn on healthcare reform. I guess they’re mad that whatever fan dance Obama did for them wasn’t as impressive as the immediate sell-out that PHarma got.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200.....l_insurers
Obama truly sucks…
Dave_Violence
Not too often, it’s way too nice compared to what was usually said (W = Hitler, idiot monkey, asshole mofo, etc.). I am hoping that the tone of your comment is not to imply that W wasn’t criticized quite harshly, every day, in the open – because he was. Barry O is getting much better treatment, but keep in mind, as long as you pay attention to “them” “they” will not be ignored.
kommrade reproductive vigor
Shorter Douchehat: This uppity President will confirm my fellow wankers opinion of his uppityness if he accepts the Nobel Peace Prize.
His chronology of presidents is befucked, also. In addition, Bush is Chimpy McFlightsuit and I must deduct 50 fReichtard points for failing to refer to Carter as HISTORY’S GREATEST MONSTER in bright red flashing script.
Because his critics had nothing to say before this.
SGEW
Has everyone forgotten “Miserable Failure” already?
El Cid
“critics” = “me, Ross Douthat, and people will remember my phrases, damnit!”
JK
Fuck Ross Douthat and Fuck the NY Yankees
JD Rhoades
Man, that’s some sour grapes, right there.
Uloborus
@El Cid:
That… is absolutely, totally, completely it. God, is that it. You’ve summed up half of conservative commentary right there. The self-absorbtion is STAGGERING.
The Grand Panjandrum
Josh Marshall had it right:
All the Yankee hate is as refreshing as an autumn’s morning air. My victorious Yankees are still playing on TV and the Red Sox are at home watching.
Can the Yankees survive the shame of another World Series championship?
calipygian
The dumber the commentary gets about Obama’s Nobel Prize, the better the choice of Obama for the Nobel Prize gets.
Morbo
I thought critics were planning to just use his name. When you have Barack Hussein Obama, conservative critics don’t really need any extra words for their constituents to know what they’re talking about.
DBrown
Obama earned the Nobel Peace Prize for a number of reasons – foremost: the nuclear arms reduction agreement with Russia (1/3 total warhead reduction on all platforms!), the rapprochement with Iran; the agreement to send over 75% of their enrich uranium out of the country to be processed (and hence accounted for and converted to peaceful uses which fully engages them and us) and the start of engagement in the Middle East. Finally, changing the course of American imperialism towards world engagement rather than war. The first achievement fully justified the prize but the last was very important to the world – avoiding a major war (Iran) is far, far better than ending a minor war (Afghanistan).
El Cid
@The Grand Panjandrum:
When ‘the world’ either seemed to or was simply suggested to be going along with or appreciating George W. Bush Jr. (including made-up examples or tiny sub-sets of non-representative leaders), then it was proof that the world finally abandoned its crazy anti-America ways and recognized we were right all along.
When ‘the world’ seems to in various ways support Barack Obama, this just means that ‘the world’ is still mainly full of anti-American effetes and Yurpeen fags and shit and Obama’s a cowardly surrender Munich-crat who likes to hear the damn weirdos in Berlin praise him, etc.
El Cid
O/T: Republicans discover the key to victory in 2010:
Scream “NANCY PELOSI” a lot and also ‘San Francisco’ and such. A surefire strategy.
This is a staggering innovation because never before has the GOP considered running local elections against Nancy Pelosi.
The difficult electoral situation the Republicans face in Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama, and South Carolina will now be much more in their favor with the Pelosi strategem.
Particularly when they should that picture of NANCY PELOSI ! wearing a scarf in SYRIA
Victory is ass-ured.
El Cid
should—> show
David
Is winning the Nobel Peace Prize Obama’s Chappaquiddick? It would be irresponsible of warmongers everywhere not to ask.
ricky
Obama the Nobel Laureate has now exceeeded by one month the record set by George the Incompetent for keeping us free of terrorist attack in his initial term. He broke the record on September 12 to celibrate the Glenn Beck rallies.
ricky
I missed it. Was Douthat’s reference to Witherspoon as “chunky” part of an expression of preference for Palin as “winky?”
Cheryl from Maryland
Have the Yankees realized that they should not hire pitchers who are at the end of their careers and focusing on bucks and the Hall of Fame? I think not. Go Angels.
ricky
@El Cid:
You are not off thread. The secret memo on Pelosi refers to her as chunky.
jenniebee
For everybody who thinks he doesn’t deserve the prize, please do remember that he’s already took one large, well-armed country that was “going rogue,” showing total disregard for international opinion, and behaving in a violent, unpredictable manner, and convinced it, just by talking directly to its people, to seek another path. And he did manage to do that three months before the nomination deadline.
This business of not being George Bush didn’t start on Jan 20, y’all. If it did, the wingnutterati wouldn’t be as profoundly insulted by the choice as they are now.
Ann B. Nonymous
Dear Ross Douthat,
It is possible to use the word “jackass” in the New York Times. I certainly use it when I read it.
Yours,
Chunky Ann B. Nonymous
jenniebee
he’s already taken
DAMN YOU SCOTT BEAUCHAMP MISSING EDIT FEATURE!
professor fate
The word that I think will be forever linked with W is “failure” as in “total failure” – or “complete fucking total failure”
He’s already on a lot of lists of “worst presidents” and who knows over time he may actually suceed as something, by being known as: “Worst. President. Ever.”
Ash Can
@Comrade Luke:
It’s not. All we’re seeing is the proverbial squid cloud of butthurt from the right. The Nobel Committee, however indirectly and classily, just kicked their asses to hell and back (again), and they’re all tearful and smarting over it. Poor things.
This is why I don’t read pundits. They have nothing to say. Absolutely nothing.
@JK:
Why should she bother? The networks are falling over themselves to interview her just because she’s Cheney’s daughter as it is. I’m sure she commands astronomical speaking fees, and there’s always books to be (ghost)written. She can be Sarah Palin without having to quit a real job first.
@Uloborus:
Bullseye. This is, in a nutshell, why he got the prize.
Bootlegger
@jl:
I agree with this, said it here the first day. It would have been some major Obama-fu if he had respectfully turned it down and made an impassioned speech about all the deserving people who they should have given it to. Even the wingnuteratti would have had a hard time spinning that on their magic outrage wheel, though their lord knows they would have tried.
But he didn’t. And it is fun watching wingnut heads explode, I loves me some malkinfraude. And it is a rather trivial matter given all that is currently going on in the world. And Douthat is still an Asshat.
So, opportunity missed. Move on to the next fauxrage.
Bootlegger
@JGabriel: Well-played pun!
georgia pig
In past few days, we’ve experienced George Fucking Will on climate change in the WaPo, “expert commentary” on Afghanistan policy from Cokie Fucking Roberts on NPR, and this closet-case fuckwit telling Obama to refuse the Nobel Peace Prize in the NYT. I give up.
Ash Can
And speaking of Nobel prizes, a little something to add to the RW butthurt—one of the two recipients of the Economics prize is a green economist (besides being the first woman to receive the prize).
(h/t GOS)
Keith G
@ricky: http://wonkette.com/407085/mis.....xy-stories
Good luck.
cmorenc
@soonergrunt
At first, I didn’t think Obama deserved it either – perhaps a promising candidate for one in the future, but way too thin and short a resume at this point.
But the more I think about it, the more putting a silver dagger in the heart of the ghoulish vampire Bush era seems like an immensely important accomplishment for world peace. In eight months, he’s come close to restoring much of the world’s respect that was utterly squandered in such spectacularly arrogant, stupid, toxic, and ugly ways by George Bush. (Except that he hasn’t come nearly so close to actually extricating us on Iraq, Guantanomo, and Afghanistan as we’d like). But I’ll cut him lots of slack even on those simply to not have a toxic toad-frog in the white house croaking cheerfully malevolent bullshit at the nation, pissing in everyone’s ponds except those of his fellow toadie swells.
Not being George Bush (or his would-be sympatico successor) and successfully getting elected as the first black president are HUGE accomplishments that shouldn’t be underrated. Maybe not quite good enough on an ordinary scale for the Nobel Peace Prize, but in these times perhaps good enough.
gogol's wife
I just want to thank you all for restoring my sanity this morning. I’ve been composing angry letters to the Times about their whole coverage of the Peace Prize (Republicans won’t like it! Jay Leno is making fun of him! He’s just like Nixon!???), but you’ve helped me realize there’s no use in that.
Rick Taylor
And wingnuts like Douthat would totally respect him for it! They wouldn’t attack him for incredible arrogance or for embarrassing the country before the world for refusing the prize, not at all. Any suggestion they would rip into him no matter what he did is completely cynical. Why they’d criticize any president for winning the nobel prize, or using a teleprompter, or not ordering a state to release a paper copy of their birth certificate. The criticisms of Obama have nothing to do with the fact that he’s a Democrat or that he’s black.
schrodinger's cat
About the chunky Reese Witherspoon business, how does Ross Douthat have the nerve to call anyone chunky
is beyond my understanding. I mean he has he looked at the mirror lately.
Rick Taylor
@cmorenc:
I think one of the things people are missing is the Nobel Prize is meant to encourage promising behavior as much as it is to reward it. It was given to Wilson for his work on the league of nations, even though it didn’t go anywhere, and to Kissinger of all people for making noises about making peace with Vietnam.
Janet Strange
@Brachiator:
This is not new. Remember that purple hearts don’t mean squat either – John Kerry got one.
Fulcanelli
@kommrade reproductive vigor: “Befucked”. I am so stealing that word.
@Uloborus:
Which is, of course, inversely proportional to the right wing’s level of self-awareness.
What is staggering is the level of hypocrisy demonstrated by the human sphincters on the right who after screaming themselves hoarse for years claiming the patriotic, high moral ground on literally everything they do and say, find it repellent that America would walk it’s talk by electing an intelligent black man (gasp!) who actively demonstrates at least some small semblance of supposedly American values on the world stage and and gets recognized for it in a big way.
catclub
1. Anyone who keeps John McWars McCain away from the
nuclear codes has earned two NPP’s.
2. Can Obama send George Bush to accept the prize and read an acceptance speech that Obama has written? One with multi-syllable words?
Hilarity ensues.
Egypt Steve
Bah. Obama did not win the Nobel Peace Prize for not being Bush. He won it for not being “Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb bomb Iran” John McCain. It is an objective fact that the election of Obama has forestalled the inconceivable horror that would have been visited upon the world by an addled McCain and his administration of Bush-alumni war criminals and Christian zealots. What more does it take to earn the Nobel Peace Prize than to prevent many hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths?
danimal
I want to shoot down this meme before it gets too out of hand. There were 42 preznits before W that share first place and own the record for avoiding terrorist attacks during their first term. There is only one preznit in last place, and that would be W. Obama simply stayed out of last place when he passed W on September 12th.
burnspbesq
@The Grand Panjandrum:
The Yankees are as likely to win the World Series this year as ol’ Ross is of sleeping with Reese Witherspoon.
harlana pepper
Someone please explain to me how our President winning the Nobel Peace Prize is a bad thing? They don’t want to accept that the rest of the world is just so damned happy Bush is gone and we have a diplomat at the helm, they’re want to give him a Nobel Peace Prize. It’s like a “Thank you, God!” from the rest of the world. What part of this explicit message do they not understand?
The Grand Panjandrum
@burnspbesq: The Yankees are still in the playoffs. Ross was never in the game.
Dan L
He definitely should turn the award down. There would certainly not be any stories about “Obama caves to pressure, admits lacks of accomplishments”. Besides, being in the good graces of the international community is hardly as important as being respected by the NYTimes editorial board.
Captain Goto
This.
Keith G
OK, by now I have read this notion hundreds of times and may I simply request that y’all just fucking stop it.
It’s not your award, It’s their award. They get to decide who deserves it. If they were interested in your criteria I am sure they would have called. Okay?
burnspbesq
@The Grand Panjandrum:
For another nine days.
jrosen
Nothing is more embarrassing than a joke that falls flat. After concern-trolling that accepting the prize makes BHO more vulnerable to ridicule (which would BTW probably be a break from being vilified as a Nazi) Ross the Righteous proceeds to attempt to ridicule him, by calling him (shudder!) a NOBLE LAUREATE. Rim-shot fallowed by an leaden silence.
Will somebody at the NYT editorial page please get the hook.
Captain Goto
God**** it, This.
Ash Can
@harlana pepper:
I think that, on a very visceral level, they do understand it. And this is why they’re so bent out of shape.
Mr Furious
@Bijan Parsia:
I thought he was History’s Greatest Monster?
Mr Furious
If the Yankees get by the Angels—no sure thing: the Angels are the Yankees worst nightmare, then I think the Phillies are more than capable of finishing the job.
Jamey
By Douchehat’s logic, this also will be shorthand for future-fail:
“Ross Douthat: New York Times Op-Ed Columnist.”
I mean, such a lofty mantel. How could he not fall short of its import?
The Grand Panjandrum
@burnspbesq: That WS championship will be more delicious when I can come here for the public rending of garments, wailing and gnashing teeth, and who knows what else!
Svensker
@schrodinger’s cat:
I like it cuz it makes me think of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. Which could explain why I’m getting a bit chunky meself…
Svensker
@harlana pepper:
They DO understand it. They just hate it.
Erik Vanderhoff
Just want to point out that the article is called “Heckuva Job, Barack”...
Didn’t the Right Wing go batshit for a period of time over not referring to President Bush as simply “Bush,” instead of “President Bush” or “Mr. Bush?”
Comrade Darkness
@soonergrunt: I have to agree that this seems hopefully pre-emptive but I expect he’ll deserve one at a later date. The awarding of it strikes me as a saddening gesture of a world terribly grateful that Bush II is gone. This is reminding me of the emails I got after election day from various friends/long-lost acquaintances around the global. They were pathetically grateful too.
The rest of the world cannot vote for the u.s. president, but hoo-boy does our choice impact them.
Comrade Darkness
Re, the update. Typical Obama—he gives the queen an iPod
GAH, what is this stupid meme. The queen already had a really old ipod, which she loved. WTF is wrong with giving her another? And 2, and more importantly, assert that Ronald “nuke the world, or coup d ‘état it” Reagan should have won it 8 years running?? But this guy turns around a give a shit whether the Queen likes her ipod?
Cognitive dissonance much?
aimai
Comerade Darkness,
SteveM is snarking. This is an imitation of a wingnut, not the real thing. Also, the blog’s name is “NoMoreMr.NiceBlog” not nice guy.
aimai
Dan L
@Comrade Darkness- Understand sarcasm much?
ricky
@Keith G:
Thanks. I’ll cherish the memory.
Chad N Freude
@danimal: I like this. GWB was the only president who during whose term there was a foreign terrorist attack on the United States.
ricky
@danimal:
“I want to shoot down this meme before it gets too out of hand. There were 42 preznits before W that share first place and own the record for avoiding terrorist attacks during their first term. There is only one preznit in last place, and that would be W. Obama simply stayed out of last place when he passed W on September 12th.”
Excuse me. I left out the modifier. “Free from Islamofacist terrorist attack.” There term islamofacist is a registered trademark of the twentyfirst century wingnutoshpere, and therefore cannot be applied to any President serving before the bridge Bill Clinton built was crossed. Satisfied?
If not, check out the tenure of W. H. Harrison.
Chad N Freude
@harlana pepper: Any tribute from the rest of the world that is not extracted by force, preferably deadly force, is an insult.
If you think Douthat is an anus, check out this piece by Peggy Noonan.
matoko_chan
I like the Torture President.
;)
I have just one thing to say.
Why so serious, wingnuts?
ricky
@Comrade Darkness:
To assert that Reagan should have won the Nobel instead of Obama is to assert that Reagan should have won an Oscar instead of Gore.
It only requires missing his administration and body of cinematic work.
Chad N Freude
@ricky: I have never understood how the Academy could have overlooked his brilliant performance in “Bedtime For Bonzo”, whose title alone prefigured the Bush years.
schrodinger's cat
Second Law of Wingular Dynamics
Wingularity tends to increase over time
Third Law of Wingular Dynamics
As we approach absolute wingularity, the sense wingnuts make approaches an absolute minimum.
I am still working on the zeroth and the first law.
Waynski
@Grand Panjandrum—I’m with you. Go Yanks! Fuck the Angels.
LD50
I assume that’s because he forgot about Ford and because Saint Reagan is sacred. May I offer ‘Reagan the Senile’?
Bootlegger
@Dan L: Well he can’t do it now, had to be immediate. And it would have been easy to spin as “others are more deserving” and not “we don’t deserve it”.
Sly
Oh, come on. You guys are being far too mean.
I, for one, enjoy learning all about undeserved recognition from Ross Douthat’s column in the New York Times. When it comes to hearing about how people shouldn’t be rewarded when they have an undistinguished career, that lacks anything in the form of noteworthiness or achievement, Ross Douthat’s weekly op-ed in the third most widely-circulated newspaper in the nation is where I look for guidance and surety.
Bootlegger
@Keith G: For the record, I don’t think “deserve” should have been part of the political calculation. I just think Asshat actually has a point that Obama’s political machine could have shut down the messianic conservative meme with one move. Instead they amplified it. Now, to torture the metaphor, they may blow the speakers and kill the meme themselves with their histrionics. But its a moot point now, the die is cast and they have to play it for what they can and hope the wingularity collapses on itself.
FLRealist
@Keith G:
Best thing I’ve read on the subject, bar none!
Dan L
@Bootlegger I don’t buy that at all. Turning it down would just mean the Wingnuts would attack him for being ungracious or for “admitting his lack of success,” with the added problem of pissing off the global community. The right and the villagers were going to be pissed off either way.
Wile E. Quixote
@drillfork
Ewwwwwww, what a disgusting little man Ross Douthat is. I have to say that I’m not sure the other team would want him. They’d probably say “Nope, he has to stay straight, we, are way, way, way, way the fuck over our quota of self-loathing, hate-filled, not-too-bright conservative closet cases.”
Shade Tail
@danimal (#91):
Are you including Bill Clinton on that list? Because terrorists bombed the World Trade Center in February of 1993.
Warren Terra
DougJ,
I’m glad you fixed the double-posting of SteveM’s response, but in fairness to SteveM I think you should make it more clar that SteveM is envisioning the inevitable Winger response if Obama had refused the prize – not, as it might otherwise appear from your quote, himself sincerely going Full Metal Winger about the part of Obama’s Friday statement in which he said he felt he had not yet earned the prize.
For example, you could include the following line from SteveM’s post:
(although if you do so I’d add the apparent missing word “imagine”)
Jules
All I have to see is the name Douthat which my brain reads as Douche-hat and I know that whatever is written will not be worth the 2 min out of my life that it will take me to read Ross’s latest spewings.
And look, I was right, not worth my time.
Keith G
@Wile E. Quixote: Amen.
Ruckus
@JGabriel:
Coming in late to the show today so haven’t read everything.
I actually combine the two:
Fuckwit is my choice, mostly because that word cracks me up. Clusterfuck is my other nickname for Bush, mostly for accuracy.
Dubya the Fuckwit Clusterfuck
or
Bush the Fuckwit Clusterfuck (works for two presidents! one more than the other but still….)
Bob In Pacifica
I don’t know if anyone said it already, but that flaming turd is worth $1.4 million and will get you a lot of free drinks in a lot of Bay Area bars.
bill
Jesus H. Christ, why hasn’t Anthony Lewis cock-punched this dweeb and then written about what a whiny-ass titty baby he is? Can we please just cut to the chase on this idiot?
Jennifer
So, unless I’m missing something, Obama is to the Nobel Peace Prize as Dubya was to the US Presidency. Fair enough.
And whatever.