"Obama Derangement Syndrome"

I found this video through a friend after the Nobel Peace Prize embarrassment. He said it would put things into perspective for all of us who were "whining" about Obama winning the Nobel. So here we go. (WARNING: It's 11 minutes and hard to watch)

Rachel Maddow unsuccessfully tries to say that people who think Obama didn't deserve the award have "Obama Derangement Syndrome" and are unable to give Obama where credit is due. She mentions that it's a play off of "Bush Derangement Syndrome", in which the right-wing all accused the liberals of having when they were rightly pointing out Bush's wrongs. (And someone remind me - what does insulting Bush have to do with Obama winning the Nobel...? Well... I guess Obama couldn't have won without him... so yeah, maybe there's relevance...maybe?)

And of course, she needed to mention those evil, hate-mongering people who CHEERED and were "DELIGHTED" that the US lost the bid for the Olympics just because Obama had a hand in it. "Yay! America lost! That'll put Obama in his place", she smugly fake-cheers, trying to show how stupid these anti-American people are.

Then she goes to the actual award, making a face when she says there are actually people out there that think he didn't deserve it and he didn't achieve anything. Those monsters! How dare they point out the obvious! I'm waiting for the r-word shoe to drop any minute...

She then cites many other examples of other winners of the award who didn't accomplish what they wanted or were unsuccessful at the time of winning the award. So she knocks down people who say he didn't achieve anything and then cites examples of other winners of the award who didn't quite achieve their goals either... Looks like to me she was just trying to prove Obama hasn't done anything JUST after she got finished mocking people for saying so... Wow! Liberals make me dizzy... No wonder they don't have talk radio shows - too many people got into car wrecks from trying to follow their logic.

She references Desmond Tutu - saying he won the award for his efforts against apartheid, but it didn't overcome it until 10 years after winning the award. "I suppose they could have waited", she says... The difference here, Ms Maddow, is that Desmond Tutu had at least started something. He led boycotts, organized marches and other forms of peaceful protests, as well as gave speeches. He was very dedicated to his cause and fought long and hard to help his people. He accomplished much more than I could ever give him credit for in one tiny paragraph.

Obama gives speeches about how he dreams about a war without nuclear arms. He talks about it. He doesn't lead people into uniting for this cause. He doesn't hold protests or boycotts. He doesn't challenge other countries to do the same. He just talks about how nice it will be to have a world without those awful weapons that we created.

She cites others who "we could have waited" to see if their achievements panned out, but that isn't how the award works, she says. But she's mistaken - my problem is not that they handed the award out prematurely before his plan had time to come into fruition - my problem is that they handed out a peace award to a guy who has given speeches about it at most!

The deserving people who have won that award in the past have risked their lives for what they believed in. They fought long and hard for years, dedicated to their causes. Some had to face jail for their efforts, all were met with violent opposition. They worked day and night for what they believed in, sometimes never knowing if anything would come out of their efforts.

Rachel Maddow says the Nobel Peace Prize awards effort. "It recognizes people trying in big ways to get the world on a more peaceful path".

She plays clips of some of Obama's speeches to show what he's done to win this award:
-He blames Bush. Says he needs to dig us out of the hole that Bush put us in. (The clip is from a debate between Obama and Hillary!!! When he was running for President!!! How is running for President achieving peace????)

Ms. Maddow said his effort came in trying to convince the American people to chose him (?). Then why didn't all of the presidential candidates win? Weren't they all trying to convince the American people to chose them or were they just running for fun?

-The next clip is from Obama's speech about a world without nuclear weapons.

And apparently he deserves the award because he also is:

-reaching out to other nations, which Bush didn't do. (How? By bowing to Iranian kings?)
-Promising to close Gitmo.
-Says the US "will no longer support a policy of torture".
-says he will go after terrorists "effectively and consistently", without torturing. (And do what? Play "Old Maid" with them? Take them out for drinks?)

ALL of this before February 1st. BEFORE the deadline for the Nobel Peace Prize nominations. So what do we have?
A LOT of speaking... some promises.. says he'll do some other stuff...but not a lot of action. I have been made to see the error of my ways! OF COURSE he deserved the Nobel - he's talked about peace ALL THIS TIME!! How blind we were not to notice...

AND!! He even said he did not feel that he deserved it! How humble of our Great Leader!! Some people give back (or don't even take) things they feel the don't deserve... But he talked people's ears off about peace, so I guess he does... He accepts it as "a call to action". That's like getting a diploma before you graduate, but saying you deserve it because it will inspire you to work hard.

And how nice of him to mention all of those other people, who Ms. Maddow needs to clarify after. Too bad he left them anonymous and could mention them by name...

All Americans should be proud, she says, because our President just won the Nobel. Sorry, but I'm embarrassed for him and I'm embarrassed for the United States that he accepted an award that he did not earn or deserve. He has no class, and his acceptance only magnifies his narcissism and arrogance.

Listen, this past weekend, I visited the MLK Center. I toured his home, saw the church where he preached and learned about his life and his struggles, but most of all, his triumph. I had tears in my eyes the entire time I was there. They'd show clips of MLK marching or clips from his speeches. They had personal accounts written by others who witnessed this time on the wall. One part was a timeline of his life. From the time he started fighting for his cause to the time he won the Nobel Peace Prize was 10 years... and in that 10 years, he gave speeches, he led marches, he led boycotts, he went to jail numerous times, he was threatened, his family was threatened, his house was bombed... and so on...

10 years he fought for his cause, day and night. It took over his life - it became his job, but he couldn't clock out at 5. He never stepped away from it - he lived it every moment of his life. He knew the consequences, he knew the risks, but he believed in it so much that he marched forward. And there was one clip of someone telling a story about how MLK marched down the street and one woman shouted obscenities at him. He stopped, walked over to her and was as pleasant as he could be - he told her that she was too nice looking and too nicely dressed to be using dirty words like that. She changed her opinion about him right then and there. But he did that with everyone - people could be as nasty as they wanted to be, but he didn't have a bad word to say about anyone, even the people he disagreed with.

I felt bad thinking about MLK and others who had won the Nobel in the past, thinking of how Obama winning it diminished it for them. But upstanding people like them, I don't think it would diminish it for them. Their struggles were about helping others - the award was an unexpected bonus - it was never about the award to begin with. They did what they did because they thought it was right. It was a high honor and a prestigious award when they received it - that's all that matters. Obama can't even take that away from them, nor should we let him.

And yes, Rachel, you DO have Obama Derangement Syndrome because no matter what he does, he will never do any wrong.

And ending on a funny note: "This just in..."


h/t The Conservative Lady