o'noble - Nobel Charade, o'war against Fox News, Hillary says no

From: Newsmax.com  Sent: Sunday, October 18, 2009

1. Nobel Peace Prize Called 'Left-wing Charade'
2. Obama's War on Fox News Could Backfire

3. Hillary Firmly Rules Out White House Bid

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1. Nobel Peace Prize Called 'Left-wing Charade'

The Nobel Peace Prize has become "worthless" and should be overshadowed by an award named for a man who truly did achieve peace � Ronald Reagan, according to former White House official Jeffrey Lord.

Writing in The American Spectator after Barack Obama became the latest recipient of the Nobel, Lord observes: "The decision to give the award to Obama was made by a group of Norwegian parliamentarians dominated by socialists."

The prize "has become essentially worthless, a charade for left-wing Norwegian politicians to award like-minded liberals and liberalism under the guise that the award in some objective fashion determines an individual's contributions to peace," writes Lord, who was a political director in the Reagan administration.

"It's easy to cite the current story. Obama today, Al Gore yesterday, Jimmy Carter the day before that. . . Reagan? Thatcher? Pope John Paul II? George W. Bush? Of course not.

"It's time for the Reagan Peace Prize. Actually, it's past time."

Lord cites a number of Nobel recipients whose efforts at promoting peace ultimately resulted in failure, beginning in 1919 with U.S. President Woodrow Wilson. He was honored for his work on the disastrous Treaty of Versailles ending World War I and the League of Nations, which Lord described as "an embarrassing failure."

"The hard cold facts of history illustrate that the peace through strength policies initiated by President Reagan were a success," says Lord, now a journalist and author whose works have appeared in publications including The Wall Street Journal and National Review.

"His belief in the importance of human freedom, in directly opposing tyranny and protecting liberty, combined with the maintenance and, when needed, projection of a strong military, ended the Cold War and the 'evil empire' that was the Soviet Union.

"Reagan's strategy freed millions of East Europeans enslaved since the end of the Second World War, which in turn was brought on by the inexcusably wrong-headed, naive if well-intentioned policies of one Nobel Peace Prize winner after another."

Recipients of the Reagan Prize would be chosen by a panel of conservative Americans drawn from the worlds of politics, journalism, entrepreneurship and entertainment. And it would be presented in Berlin, a "symbol of Reagan's successes: the destruction of the Berlin Wall, the fall of the Soviet Union that built it, and the Cold War that made that Wall and all it stood for possible," Lord writes.

As for who might win the award, Lord suggests likely candidates would be "the three Iranian dissidents known only by their initials in current news reports, all identified as being sentenced to death for protesting Iran's rigged elections."

Lord concludes: "It's time to award real prestige to those who achieve real peace. It's time for the Reagan Prize."

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2. Obama's War on Fox News Could Backfire

The Obama administration's recent declaration of war on Fox News could backfire and be seen as an "admission of weakness," according to an opinion piece in New York magazine.

White House communications director Anita Dunn fired a volley at the network when she declared: "We're going to treat them the way we would treat an opponent," The New York Times reported on Oct. 11.

"As they are undertaking a war against Barack Obama and the White House, we don't need to pretend that this is the way legitimate news organizations behave."

She later said: "Fox News often operates almost as either the research arm or the communications arm of the Republican Party."

Fox Senior Vice President for News Michael Clemente fired back at what he called the White House�s �attack mentality.�

"Perhaps the energy would be better spent on the critical issues we are worried about,� Clemente said in a statement issued by the network.

The White House's logic "seems to be that there's no point in trying to be fairly portrayed on Fox News," Chris Rovzar observed in New York magazine.

"But there are plenty of negatives to this take-no-prisoner approach. . .

"Recognizing Fox as an enemy worth fighting is an admission of weakness for a president whose appeal has been partly predicated on the promise of unity."

Rovzar also wrote: "Beyond the fact that Fox will use this White House move to boost their ratings (Obama winning the election has always been their golden ticket � they're on track now for their best year ever), it makes it seem as though they're actually wounding the president."

In June, President Obama attacked Fox without mentioning it by name, saying it was devoted entirely to attacking his administration and that its coverage of his actions was entirely negative.

And last month, the president appeared on all the major networks� Sunday talk shows except for "Fox News Sunday," which the White House called an �ideological outlet."

But Bill Shine, Fox�s senior vice president for programming, told The Times: �Every time they [attack], our ratings go up.�

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3. Hillary Firmly Rules Out White House Bid

For the first time, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton clearly has ruled out another presidential run.

During an interview with NBC's Ann Curry on the "Today" show on Monday, Clinton discussed her role in the Barack Obama administration. Curry suddenly asked: "Will you ever run for president again? Yes or no."

Hillary laughed and said firmly, "No."

Curry: "No?"

Clinton: "No. No. I mean, this is a great job. It is a 24-7 job. And I'm looking forward to retirement at some point."

Hillary's declaration came just days after leading political analyst Dick Morris suggested that Obama could be vulnerable to a challenge from Clinton for the 2012 Democratic presidential nomination.

Appearing on Fox News Channel, Morris told Bill O'Reilly that Obama was elected as a "peace candidate," but the U.S. is still in Guantanamo Bay, Iraq, and Afghanistan, and the president is going to increase troop levels in Afghanistan.

Obama, then, "is vulnerable primarily to a primary from the left," Morris said, "and he's got a Secretary of State who would make a dandy candidate for the left."

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