Quick thoughts on the Nobel Prize

I didn't hear or read a lot of news yesterday, the day Barack Obama was given the Nobel Peace Prize, but you didn't have to hear or read a lot to figure out that a lot of people generally disposed to like BHO were a bit mystified or surprised, and a lot of people who dislike BHO were very angry and thought it wasn't just a surprise, but completely undeserved.

I'm not going to argue that it was obvious BHO should get the Nobel Prize.  I was surprised, and frankly, I was not sure that it was time yet.  But I do have a thought on the right wing reaction.

As far as I can tell, the prize was given in large part for the transformation BHO has wrought on world opinion of the USA.  We are relatively blind to that here, but the survey statistics are pretty dramatic.

However, the right wing, by and large, just doesn't care about world opinion of the USA.  As a matter of political theory, they think that we should act in our own interest and not particularly care what anyone thinks  (e.g., see invasion of Iraq).  I say that not as a criticism, but simply as an observation, and many of them would candidly agree (surely Tony Blankley would say exactly this, wouldn't he?).  Part of this has been accomplished by "not being Bush", but the transformation of the diplomatic outlook has certainly gone well beyond that.

As a matter of outlook then, if you don't care what the world or world leaders think, and if the major accomplishment of BHO has been to change something you don't care about, then he has accomplished nothing of worth....