A few weeks ago, the media were abuzz over how the brilliant Obama (compared to that stupid cowboy from Crawford) had reset relations with Russia. Obama had pleased Russia by cancelling the missile defense shield in Eastern Europe. Now the grateful Russians would surely work with us to get tough on Iran. Great theory, but apparently Obama forgot to check the fine print in the “understanding” he made with Russia.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton flew to Moscow this week to work out how Russia would join us to impose real sanctions on Iran. But, alas, she left the meeting murmuring that the time wasn’t right for sanctions. Today, we found out why she was so glum. The real power in Russia, Vladimir Putin, warned the U.S. and others not to “intimidate” Iran and pointedly added that talk of sanctions was “premature.”

So, let’s add up the score:

1. The U.S. won’t install a defensive missile shield, angering our allies in Poland and the Czech Republic.
2. Iran has stepped up its work to get the bomb and produce missiles to deliver it.
3. Russia continues to make sanctions against Iran impossible.

Final score: Nobel Peace Prize winner Obama 0, Russia/Iran 3.

Here’s a news story that you probably didn’t hear about over the weekend. Some of Obama’s staunchest supporters are beginning to question his foreign policy. Former Senator Bob Kerrey (D-NE), a Medal of Honor recipient from the Vietnam War who endorsed Obama last year, wrote a Wall Street Journal op-ed Friday. He congratulated Obama on his Nobel Peace Prize but criticized his foreign policy for being too “naïve.” Kerrey also criticized Obama for “apologizing for America too much.”

Kerrey wrote, “[Obama] has made too many apologies. And at this point, his strategy is too naïve and has too little coherence to be called a strategy.” Kerrey even went so far as to praise George W. Bush on Iraq. He wrote, “Then, against all reasonable predictions, President Bush chose to increase rather than decrease our military commitment. The ‘surge,’ as it became known, worked. Victory was snatched from the jaws of defeat… Great American leaders of our past had ignored popular sentiment and pressed on during the darkest hours, even when setbacks give rhetorical ammunition to skeptics.”

Kerrey is respected in and around Washington for his foreign policy opinions. In fact, he is respected so much that he was placed in charge of the 9/11 commission. Normally, when a top supporter begins to criticize a president’s foreign policy, it is a lead story on the nightly news. But then again, the mainstream media would never want to insult this Administration.

Obama Takes The Prize!

Eyes rolled across America today as the sunrise brought news that our apprentice president had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.  Obama’s name is now added to an esteemed list that includes such note-worthies as Jimmy Carter (2002), Kofi Annan (2001) and Yasser Arafat (1994).  (Somehow the Nobel Committee never got around to recognizing the achievements of Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher or Pope John Paul II, who brought down Soviet Communism and peacefully liberated tens of millions of people behind the Iron Curtain.)

All the commentators are suggesting the prize is premature because President Obama hasn’t actually accomplished anything yet to bring about peace.  That view fails to understand the mindset of leftwing elites who run international organizations like the Nobel Committee.  To them, America is the real threat to peace, particularly when we are led by men like Reagan and Bush, confident leaders who believed in American exceptionalism and willing to confront tyranny.

It also sends a message of just how much disdain the European elites have for the rest of us who dare to oppose the president’s appeasement and his socialism. George Bush’s efforts to keep America and the world safe from radical Islamic terrorism – the biggest threat to world peace today – were never deserving of recognition. But by electing Barack Obama, America got it “right,” and the liberal elites want to make sure you understand that fact, so they have bestowed Barack with one of the highest honors the international community can offer.

Today America is led by the “anti-Reagan.”  In his eight-and-a-half months in office, Obama has made apologizing for America a top priority.  He couldn’t find his voice when the Iranian regime crushed skulls.  He tells the United Nations that no country or group of countries can be above anyone else.  He has turned U.S. policy in the Middle East on its head – reaching out to Syria, Iran and Libya while regularly suggesting too many Jews in Jerusalem are the roadblock to peace.  He has dissed our allies, cancelled a defensive missile system and has been silent on human rights abuses in Cuba, Venezuela and around the world.

Just so you know, there were other nominees, including folks like Greg Mortenson, a decorated Army veteran, son of a Lutheran missionary and best-selling author. Mortenson has dedicated more than a decade of his life working in remote regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan building schools and helping to educate tens of thousands of children, especially young girls. You can read more about Greg Mortenson here.

That Mortenson’s incredible record of accomplishment lost out to Obama’s rhetoric is not surprising. If you are a left-wing internationalist who thinks the key to peace is a weaker America willing to take orders from the U.N., who in the world would you give the Nobel Peace Prize to other than Barack Hussein Obama?