Sea Street

"ALL GAB-----AND-----NO JAB"

All gab and no jab was a phrase used on me once after I talked and talked and talked to get a girl in the sack only to have things go badly. Barack Obama has talked and talked with much the same result. As for the Nobel Prize, Nelson Mandela spent twenty-six years locked up on Robben Island before uniting black and white South Africans. For this, he got the Nobel Peace Prize. Martin Luther King won the Nobel Peace Prize for reasons known to us all; Mahatma Gandhi struggled for a lifetime to free India from the British and never received the Nobel Peace Prize. Yasser Arafat, whose hands were covered with the blood of the innocent, received the Nobel Peace Prize. Henry Kissinger, who sat in on the bloody war counsels of Richard Nixon, also received the Nobel Peace Prize. Yitzhak Rabin, after a lifetime of heroic service to Israel, swallowed hard and shook Arafat's hand and for this received the Nobel Peace Prize.

The question is, "How does Barack Obama fit into this company and what is the Nobel Peace Prize worth?" First, let us consider the culture of our times; many fear an epidemic of Swine Flu but an even more dangerous epidemic, the epidemic of words infects our society. We are drowning in words and many, if not most of those words, are dishonest. We call lying "spin" i.e. he is "spinning the outcome." This was so apparent in the performance of Scott McClellen as Bush's spokesman, as to be funny. Even General Powell tried to "spin" the U.N.

The demands of the twenty-four hour news cycle cause talking heads to prattle on endlessly. Gloria Borger, talking about the war in Afghanistan, for example; or Roland Martin spewing his racist opinions about the Nobel Prize situation.

Talk in our culture, (which includes massive amounts of bullshit) is so pervasive that words loose their value. One of talks best practitioners is the wordsmith, Barack Obama. He has apparently talked his way into the Nobel Peace Prize; but I join with Michael Steele, the African American Head of the Republican Party, in asking, "What concrete achievements cause him to deserve this?" During his campaign, Obama constantly said, "We will change America and we will change the world." But at this point in his presidency, there is no indication that he can even change Washington, D.C., and certainly not the Republican Party.

If we go back a mere three years, Barack Obama is just a blip on the radar. He's done nothing that compares to Nelson Mandela or Martin Luther King or Yitzhak Rabin or even Al Gore; and this brings us to the question of the prize's value. If it can be given to Yasser Arafat, how much value does it really have? This award will add to Obama's most serious malady, the malady of expectations. Will he change his approach to Afghanistan now that he has the Peace Prize? I predict that in many ways, this medal will hang around his neck like a millstone*.

Today when I was in Rite Aid on West Main Street buying the New York Times, the cashier asked me what I thought and I said, "I think Barack Obama is all gab and no jab."

She laughed; but as I turned to leave, I could see that the man behind me in line was offended by my remark.

"Let's pray that Obama is successful in bringing peace to the world," he said.

After a short pause I replied, "I hope he's successful too, but before you can bring peace to the world, you have to be effective."

"I don't believe the prize was given for effectiveness," said the man, "I believe it was given for good intentions."

I did not say to him: The road to hell is paved with good intentions. But apparently the Nobel Committee believed in intentions also. A member of the Committee said on Public Radio that the award was given for the inspiration Obama has offered to the future.------ Fair enough, but when the recipient of the award was announced, there was an audible gasp in the room because, as an English lady said in Piccadilly Square, "What's he done so far?"

Of course, there's the standard vitriol from the right, especially from Rush Liverwurst. The prize was roundly criticized in the Arab world from Cairo to Riyadh. Of course, the only way the Arabs would justify him getting the prize is if by force of arms he made the Israelis give up Jerusalem, made them vacate the settlements on the West Bank with a promise not to destroy any of the new buildings or the equipment thereof and further forced them to welcome overseas Palestinians with parades and banquets. And last, but not least, saw to it that the entire Jewish population would end up on life rafts in the Mediterranean.

Giving credit where credit is due, Barack Obama is a good wordsman; he's not in the same class as Hemmingway, Faulkner or Langston Hughes but he's good for a politician.
However, I think there's great irony in all this. I believe that with the power of his words, Barack Obama has hoisted himself on his on petard.
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Be sure to watch David Rojay on The Dan and Dad Show each Saturday night at 9:30 on Channel 17. Read A RED STATE HERO by David Rojay on capecodtoday.com. Read Sea Street-David Rojay's blog on capecodtoday.com and finally check out David Rojay on YOUTUBE. For more information, Google "David Rojay".
See David Rojay with Lou Colombo at the Road House Café Monday night, October 12.