THIS JUST IN:

Posted By: Peter DavidPosted On:

Barack Obama wins Nobel Prize for not being George W. Bush.

(Observation by Kathleen)

Just imagine the conversation:

OBAMA:  I got a Grammy and a Nobel Peace Prize.

GORE:  I got a Grammy, a Nobel Peace Prize, and an Oscar and an Emmy.

BUSH:  I got Iraq.

PAD

(Update from the webmaster: Wow, so many first time commenters on a post about Barack Obama! What are the odds? First time commenters are often automatically held in a queue for moderation, so stop complaining that we’re picking on you just because you’re saying unpopular things about Obama or wondering why George W. Bush didn’t get the Nobel Peace Prize (hint: he has to stop spelling it “Noble”). Trust us– it’s often more fun to let your comment go up and then point and laugh reply appropriately.)

99 comments on “THIS JUST IN:”

  1. Y’know, that’s what we’ve been trying to figure out here in the office this morning, what did Obama do to deserve a Nobel Prize, he hasn’t really done anything yet.

    Sure, unlike George Bush, he expects respect for America but he also actually shows respect to other countries, but is that really Nobel-worthy, or it that just courtesy?

  2. And was nominated for the prize after only 10 days in office.

    As far as the Peace Prize is concerned, I believe this is called, “Jumping the Shark.” From now on, a legitimate retort to any prize winner could very well be, “Big deal. Even Barack Obama’s got one of those.”

    1. I think they jumped the shark when they gave one to Yasser Arafat for not being quite as much of a terrorist as he had previously been.
      .
      Well, this should take some of the sting away from not getting the Olympics. I see some potential problems and potential benefits.
      .
      Benefits- it’s always good to have an American win. Doesn’t matter if it’s deserved. Bragging rights count for something.
      .
      he may feel obligated to actually do something to make the win justified and then he’ll have to win again. I mean, if they gave it to him for just getting elected and giving people hope they would kind of HAVE to give him one for bringing pece to the middle east or signing the Organian treaty, right?
      .
      problems- This may push him in directions that are not to our benefit. There has already been waffling on the war in Afghanistan. Will he, a newly minted Man Of Peace, be able to send more troops where they are apparently needed?
      .
      Then again, it didn’t stop his plans for showing those Moon bášŧárdš who’s in charge so maybe theose fears are for nothing.

      1. Bill,

        It should be noted that there have been some pretty bad awards presented in the past. (ie, Arafat, as you pointed out) That hasn’t completely tarnished the reputation of the awards, and this one probably won’t either. Maybe there are multiple sharks out there for the Nobel committee to jump over? Who knows…

      2. Bill,
        .
        I’ve already heard a few people suggest that this might influence him somehow. There’s no way Obama is going to let an award change the way he fights a war. If he is going to (further) screw up Afghanistan by not listening to Mcchrystal, that’s going to be because he honestly believes a counter-terrorism strategy can work.
        .
        Also, I think it’s less a moment of jumping the shark and more another sign that the committee is becoming more politically motivated. To be honest, though, I’m not familiar with how outspoken the committee was in the past.

    3. SHADDUP ALREADY WITH THE STRETCH SOCKS!!!

      (Because someone had to say it.)

      ROFLMAO!
      🙂 😀 🙂 😀 🙂 😀 🙂 😀

      Eric L. Sofer
      The Silver Age Fogey
      x<]:o){

    1. And he didn’t actually invent the Internet either. “Inconvenient Truth” won the Academy Award for best documentary feature; that’s close enough for a blog gag.
      .
      PAD

  5. It’s a shame.

    I would like to think that during his time in office Obama will actually accomplish great things, some of which might warrant a Nobel Peace Prize. But he wil lhave to do difficult and controversial things. Now everything he does, success or failure, will be measured against a prize he got for having potential.

    1. On the plus side, think of what SNL is going to do with this news during the coming show!!!

  6. And to think: Most of the people now spluttering, outraged that the world community would recognize Obama, are the same folks who gleefully declared that Chicago’s losing Olympic bid was actually the world community personally rejecting Obama.

    TDS and Colbert are going to have a field day.

    2. I think the suggestion was that the Olympics situation was less a rejection of Obama and more an example of how his efforts to bring people together and understand America’s compassion for others wasn’t yielding tangible results.
      .
      In truth, the fact is the Olympics was never about Obama. It was about Chicago, Rio and the development of South Africa as something more than a land of tragedy.
      .
      Watching the speech now… Oh, good, it’s Bo’s birthday.

      1. Yes. Obama should personally stuff birds down Polanski’s throat until the beaks poke through Polanski’s stomach lining.
        .
        Of course, then they might have to take away Obama’s Nobel prize. Already this thing is making him spineless.

      2. What, you need more than that…?
        .
        Well, yeah!
        .
        (ducking and running now… 🙂 )

  8. He haven’t done anything yet to deserve an award not even Ghandi got. And the notion of this award giving him a push to do all the great stuff he has potential to do is… actually encouraging. I want an Emmy now, because I have this GREAT idea for a TVseries.

    Regarding Arafat nobel prize… they gave the prize to Arafat, Rabin and Simon Peres for taking the bold step of signing an agreement that could have led to peace. They did the same with Beguin (with el-Sadat) after Camp David, Mandela shares his nobel with de Klerk who was an apartheid advocate. John Hume shares his with the less than reputable David Trimble… and for christ sake…even Kissinger shares one for signing a peace treaty. The thing is… you usually have to be in a position of power within a violent organization or state to be able to stop the violence, so its only natural if not allways easy to swallow to see certain people awarded a nobel peace prize.

  9. Your wife is prescient. I hope she wasn’t joking because she is probably correct: http://www.mrc.org/biasalert/2009/20091009104100.aspx

    He was nominated for this award 10 or 11 days after becoming President…. because they like him. Nothing more… nothing less. Since that is essentially how a lot of the Nobel Peace Prize winners get their Nobel Peace Prizes, I don’t see a reason to complain. They can give a prize to whomever they wish; it is their money.

    2. This is what annoys me. The same people who don’t like Obama didn’t care for Clinton, Gore or Kerry either. Did these same people oppose them because of skin color?

      It’s Obama’s policies that make him repellent to so many, his skin color doesn’t enter into it. Sure, I’ll concede that there are some true racists left, but I’ll concede there are flat-earthers around too. Neither pull any significant clout in the public arena anymore.

      1. The 4 largest metropolitan areas in Ohio are Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Toledo. I don’t know about Columbus, but racism runs rampant in the other 3. (The other 3 also just happen to be among the 10 poorest areas in the country.)
        .
        And if racism is rampant in these areas generally considered to be northern, then racism is also rampant across most of the USA.

      2. And yet Alan, Obama got elected by this incredibly racist country.

        Dismissing all of the criticism of Obama as racism is just plain ridiculous. And I think most people realize that. In your opinion, can anyone criticise Obama without having racism as their motivation?

      3. Tim Butler said:
        .
        “…can anyone criticise Obama without having racism as their motivation?”
        .
        Why, yes, Tim, people who make sane, rational comments, unlike most of those on the right who are apoplectic today.

      4. Perhaps you could give me an example of a “sane, rational comment” that’s critical of President Obama?

      5. And yet Alan, Obama got elected by this incredibly racist country.
        .
        Yes, he did. But you have to wonder: is the criticism of Obama simply a ratcheting up of things in general, as it has over the last +16 years with Clinton and Bush II, or is it something more?
        .
        There’s fair game for wondering about ‘something more’ when you get comments like those reported during the campaign last fall. One example I recall reading from somebody who was going door to door, in western Pennsylvania, iirc, was that they went to one white couple’s door asking who they were voting for, and the husband said they were voting for “the n*gger.”
        .
        You look at the ‘birther’ movement, you look at how some have tried to portray Obama as Muslim, and so on. There’s plenty of groundwork for a case that there’s a lot of racism behind the criticism.

      6. Considering the South went Red because of LBJ supported the civil rights movement, and still is red to this day, and is the bastion of anti-Obama protestation, yeah, you know what? Racism still has a big part to play in today’s politics. Simple is simple.

    3. SO MUCH OBAMA HATRED.
      .
      And so much of it is color based. Get over it.
      .
      Ladies and gentlemen, a big hand for Ms. Janeane Garofalo. Janeane, take a bow.
      .
      Idiot.

      3. Cool. I didn’t know I was saying something Garafalo had said. I haven’t seen or read anything about her in at least 2 years, maybe 3.

      4. Yeah, she was on Countdown back during the “Tea Party” flap and blanket stated (to a level far beyond what you did) that all the protesters and protests over Obama’s agenda were based on nothing more than racism and white people not being able to handle having a black man as POTUS.
        .
        At this point I think I’m overreacting to comments like that almost as badly as they people stating that are overplaying the race card to defend Obama. There was some debate last year (granted, pushed mostly by Right Wing talkers) when then candidate Obama was running about whether or not the Left would debate issues honestly with Obama as POTUS or if the Left would play the race card as often as possible to bludgeon Obama critics with.
        .
        Sadly, while not as bad or as wide spread as the Right Wing talkers claimed it would be, I see way too much of it in way too many places by both regular people and news/editorial professionals.
        .
        Yeah, I’m sure there is some racist component of some of the anti-Obama sentiment out there, but it’s starting to get way overplayed and it’s becoming the almost hit-and-run statement of many who come in to a conversation, declare racism and then leave.
        .
        It’s not all about Obama being black. Given that many of the things being pushed by Obama that are being attacked by the Right are things that they attacked WHITE Democrats over (taxes, healthcare ideas, etc.) in the past. Issues and disagreements in the beliefs of how government is run are not dependent on race.

  11. I am infinitely amused that there is so much indignation or puzzlement over Obama winning the award. There is so much even here that nobody has noticed the pun. A most brilliant pun. Let me help those of you who don’t get puns:
    .
    Bush: “I got Iraq.” (a rock; get it?)

      1. Yeah, we got it. It was good. Didn’t think PAD needed to be told how clever he is, should be obvious by now.
        .
        me, I just hope Kanye West doesn’t make a scene in Norway when Obama accepts the award.

      2. Yo Barack, I’m really happy for you and imma let you finish, but Morgan Tsvangira was one the most peaceful dudes ever.

      4. I tried to make the Kanye West comparison somewhere else on the ‘net, but Glenn here did a much better job than me.

    2. I didn’t say anything because it’s been a legendary running gag with Peter since the Marvel Action Figures came out and he used it as a Hulk punchline. Not that I have a problem with running gags. I thought it ranked up there with Rodney’s “I don’t get no respect” and Henny’s “Take my ______, PLEASE!”

  14. Maybe if the conservatives and Fox News are busy foaming at the mouth over this, they’ll be too busy to obstruct Health Care Reform.

    1. Nope- we’ve realized that the Nobel Prize is a joke, , that Obama trying to get the Olympics for Chicago is a bigger one, and we’ve got our eyes on the prize.

      After all- this award is like taking a high schooler who just won her first track and field award and giving her an Olympic Gold.

      1. Denise,

        You’re wrong. At least the high schooler did something. This is really like giving a kid who just made the track team an Olympic Gold because she wants to do a good job.

    2. I don’t think that there’s much foaming at the mouth over this. There was definitely some of that initially. But now that the shock is over, I think that the reaction is overwhelmingly: laughter. This is a joke. And it’s not just conservatives that are laughing. It’s pretty widespread.

      The gags practically write themselves. Even the media is getting in on the act.

      1. Meanwhile, Glenn Beck’s head has just exploded. Rush would’ve exploded, but the singularity at his core has enough gravity to contain it.

  16. I’m so liberal I make Michael Moore look like Sean Hannity but I think the prize committee jumped the gun here.

    1. I agree with you. I lean well to the left on most things but on hearing this news this morning my first immediate response was “For what?!”
      .
      I find it interesting,though, that many of the objections I’ve seen posted around the web have been of the “But he was only in office 10 days!” ilk, referring to the time between Obama’s taking office and the nominations being due.
      .
      It’s a ridiculous and immaterial objection, and the type of thing that folks on the right in particular tend to focus on to the detriment of their better arguments. Obama didn’t appear from nowhere on Jan 20 and the Nobel folks don’t stop considering what people have done on Feb 1.
      .
      They got objections that he hasn’t done enough to deserve the award? Fine. Clearly I’d agree with them. But it seems 7 or 8 times out of 10 the initial objection that is stressed is “He was only in office 10 days!” Weak.

      1. –Sean Martin
        –They got objections that he hasn’t done enough
        –to deserve the award? Fine. Clearly I’d agree
        –with them. But it seems 7 or 8 times out of 10
        –the initial objection that is stressed is “He
        –was only in office 10 days!” Weak.
        .
        I believe that a some recipients have gotten the award with ever having been in *any* office of *any* kind for even ONE day. When one takes the office out of the equation, and simply looks at content of the espoused beliefs and the degree to which he can elevate the level of discourse on the matter of peace, the 10 days in office seems a little less ludicrous. I mean, he had the entire campaign period to promote peace, etc. .
        .
        Even with that said, I also think the award a tad premature.

  17. Old Spanish saying goes ¿A quien le amarga un dulce?

    Basically, the president didn’t expect it, last I’ve read or heard, didn’t campaign for one – it could be argued he still hasn’t earned it – but it’s still sweet.

    When he spoke this morning, even he acknowledged the fact and humbly accepted it. As he should. And it makes the greatest country in the world look a little better than it did previously.

    It’s all good.

  18. The perception that I get is that the massive feat of winning an election as a black man in this racist (not my opinion, but the worlds) nation makes him deserving of the award. OR that time he teamed up with Spider Man……….

    1. Gene, do you have something to back up that perception? Because honestly, I’ve not heard that at all. I’d be interesting in reading something that might bring to light the thought process behind a conclusion like that.

      1. I have no quotes or web links to back up what I think. This perception comes from watching the world reaction to his win on election night.
        Clearly the world saw it as a turning point for a country that they saw as racist.

        This of course is just what I THINK, and what I get from the news I see. The world does not have a very high opinion of the USA, and Obama winning despite that is (I think) why he received the award.

        Now as a disclaimer, I do not think that we are a racist nation, and I voted for Obama. I am just stating what I think the world is thinking.

      2. That’s cool. I just wondered if it was your conjecture or if you had actually read that somewhere as some commentator’s opinion.

    2. “Clearly the world saw it as a turning point for a country that they saw as racist.”
      .
      Perception is a wonderful thing. I saw the world’s reaction as being thrilled that we had hit a turning point by getting rid of The Idiot-In-Chief and his band of merry hawks and replacing them with an administration that was far, far less likely to make up reason to start wars with other countries and flush the economy down the toilet than the Idiot-In-Chief’s administration.

  19. I – along with many others of all political stripes – heard this news and immediately said “Say what?!?”
    The first line sums up the likely thinking perfectly, “Obama won this for not being Dubya”.
    Well, isn’t that great? After all this time, what many (although I’m sure their ranks dwindled significantly today) consider one of the most prestigious prizes given has been awarded to a man who has done …. what, exactly?
    Even ,many liberals are disappointed he has won this award right now. They would have preferred the committee wait until AFTER Guantanomo has been closed; AFTER he has ended the Iraq war; AFTER he has ended the war in Afghanistan; and AFTER he has negotiated a fair and lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
    If he is considered a peacemaker without doing any of these things, why should he change?
    Actually, this ironically might make his trying to end more troops to Afghanistan a little more problematic, which might have been the intent – since it will be an even harder sell for him politically to prolong/expand/up the ante on a war effort soon after receiving the Nobel peace prize.
    But i feel this is part of a European plan to influence U.S. policy.
    More on that later. For now, Obama belongs to an exclusive club that includes Roosevelt…and Gore and Cater…and Arafat. Nice crowd.

    1. For now, Obama belongs to an exclusive club that includes Roosevelt…and Gore and Cater…and Arafat. Nice crowd.
      .
      A crowd that also includes the likes of Mother Theresa, the 14th Dalai Lamai, Gorbachev, Mandela and Tutu, Amnesty International, UNICEF, the Red Cross, etc, etc…
      .
      Yeah, some will view this as a black eye for the Nobel Committee (I’m scratching my head over it), but if you think this will truly diminish the respect for the award because of the names you’ve cited, you’re going to be in the minority.
      .
      And since everybody wants to be one-sided: Arafat won with Rabin and Peres. It’s funny how the latter two do not receive criticism over their being chosen.

      1. Bleh, I just realized I forgot MLK in the list of ‘the likes’ above.
        .
        Oh, and you can probably safely add Kissinger to your list of questionables, Jerome. 🙂

  20. People, you should have more sympathy

    for the Nobel committee.

    They clearly don’t like their job. You have writers and scientists who spend years working to create something great, and then the Nobel committee gives them a check and a medal. where is the fun in that. wouldn’t it have been cooler if they had a time machine and they could go back and give the scientists and writers the money before they created their great work, thus taking part in the creative process. But alas, no time machine.

    But there is the Peace prize. You can give the prize before the acheivement.

    That’s why they gave the award to Arafat. It was the beginning of a peace process between Israel and the Palestinians and they wanted to be part of it. If they had a time machine they could travel to the future and see that the peace process would collapse and that Arafat was nowhere near peace (and to a lesser degree neither were the Israelis0. But alas, no time machine. In this case they literaly jumped the gun.

    In this case it’s just stupid.

  21. Wow, so many first time commenters on a post about Barack Obama!
    .
    It just leaves one with the impression that people go stumbling about the internet looking for sites where they can bìŧçh about Obama, doesn’t it?
    .
    While it’s fun to laugh at them, I’d be just as happy if the drive-bys were left to rot in the queue.

  23. “Yo Barack, I’m really happy for you and imma let you finish, but Morgan Tsvangira was one the most peaceful dudes ever.”

    Out of all the posts this was the only one is the only one that recognized not whether or not if Obama should have won, but rather who lost.

    I’m certainly curious to read the stories of the President’s fellow nominees.

    –Captain Naraht

    P.S. I did find out that Morgan Tsvangira is the opposition leader in Zimbabwe who gave Robert Mogabe fits . In January 2009, Tsvangirai announced that he would do as the leaders across Africa had insisted and join a coalition government as prime minister with his nemesis, President Robert Mugabe. On 11 February 2009 Tsvangirai was sworn in as the Prime Minister of Zimbabwe.

  24. He should refuse it, graciously, saying that he’d rather they came back when he’d done all the work he needed to do. It would make me respect him so much more if he refused it, and so much less if he took it.

    1. He’s already accepted the honor, if not physically received the award.
      .
      He’s donating the money to charity.

    2. To refuse the award would be a horrible mistake.

      The right would say “He is too good for the Nobel peace prize” and the left would claim that he kneled down to his “foes”

  25. Craig,

    No one’s denying that there is some racism out there. But nothing that you’re pointing to is inherently racist. Take the birthers for example. If you put aside the merits of their case, all their demanding is that Obama be Constitutionally qualified to serve. Racist? That’s ridiculous. And the Muslim thing? Would the same people have objected to a white Muslim? I think they would have. So where’s the racism? I’m not saying they’re right. I’m saying that bringing up the racist boogie man every time someone criticises Obama is pretty sad. Really leads one to think that the President’s defenders don’t have a lot on their side.

    Which is, interestingly enough, what I do think.

    2. The birthers not racist?
      Right. So, I have a question – was Bush born in this country?
      Was George Washington?
      I think we need to start unearthing some graves and get to the bottom of the REAL mystery. Someone call Dan Brown.

      1. Definitely NOT George Washington. I mean, how could he have been? It’s like people who think that Christ was raised a Christian.

    3. all their demanding is that Obama be Constitutionally qualified to serve. Racist? That’s ridiculous.
      .
      Why is it so ridiculous? Obama was born in Hawaii. For fûçkš sake, his mother was a US citizen; that’s two out of three ways to be a dámņ American citizen at birth (the third being his father). How much more qualification is there to be gained?
      .
      You’re telling me that race isn’t a motive when they’re STILL carrying on about this when it’s so obvious that they’d have to be brain dead to not notice that they’re flat out wrong?
      .
      McCain, on the other hand, was in fact born in Panama. Yes, to US citizens. But so what? If Hawaii isn’t good enough for the birthers, why is Panama acceptable? Yet, I don’t see a ‘birther’ movement over whether McCain is an American.

      And the Muslim thing? Would the same people have objected to a white Muslim?
      .
      I doubt it would be to this degree. Obama is black, therefore he’s different. Muslim is bad, so they paint Obama as Muslim because it’s easy to pick on Muslims. They’re terrorists, after all. Then they can claim he’s not American because he’s an African Muslim terrorist.
      .
      No, what’s ridiculous is to dismiss racism as a motive.

    4. It’s a chicken and egg kind of thing.

      Is it that the political hatred is so great that people who don’t like his politics are simply using his foreignness (black, Muslim, strange-name, foreign father, over-educated) as the way to attack him? If he were white it would have been something else?

      Or is it that his foreignness, his race, the strange name, are causing some people to see him as this terrifying boogyman in a much worse way than they would have reacted to a white political opponent?

      Probably both answers are true to a degree. It’s hard to tell.

      Conclusions:

      1) When there is no certainty of race or religion related motive, it is better not to level accusation of racism, since they tend to backfire and also because it becomes more difficult to point out racism even in cases where there shouldn’t be any doubt that it exists.

      2) Even if we assume that the political hatred in Obama’s case is not racially motivated, people should be troubled by the way the way the most violent criticism against him is trying to appeal to xenophobia and racism. Even if it is not the cause but an effect, it is pretty bad.

      3) There is certainly a reason to be concerned about the way political disagreement becomes so shrill and virulent regardless of the issue of race. I don’t know if Obama is getting it worse than previous presidents, Republican or Democrat, but it seems pretty insane.

      ———–

      “Take the birthers for example. If you put aside the merits of their case, all their demanding is that Obama be Constitutionally qualified to serve.”

      The attempt to challenge Obama’s legitimacy to serve as president based on such flimsy grounds is not innocuous criticism. It’s highly questionable politics to go around challenging presidential legitimacy like that even if we leave aside the question of race. Especially since it presumes a kind of dark conspiracy theory surrounding Obama. It is similar to the accusation that Bush was responsible for the attack on the Twin Towers.

      I know that some liberals questioned Bush’s legitimacy based on the Florida recount. But did they actually try to challenge his legitimacy the way the Birthes are doing (on much weaker grounds).?

      “Racist? That’s ridiculous.”

      One cannot help but feel that the traction the idea that Obama is a foreigner infiltrating the White House has a lot to do with the fact that he is of a different race/ethnicity.

      “Would the same people have objected to a white Muslim? I think they would have. So where’s the racism?”

      Bigotry toward Muslims is hardly better than bigotry toward Blacks.

      “bringing up the racist boogie man every time someone criticises Obama”

      When does something stop being criticism and becomes blind and insane hatred? Comparing Obama to Hitler (or Bush for that matter) might not be considered racism, but it is nothing to brag about. It goes beyond criticism.

  26. “” I recall reading from somebody who was going door to door, in western Pennsylvania, iirc, was that they went to one white couple’s door asking who they were voting for, and the husband said they were voting for “the n*gger.” “”

    Craig, I don’t know if this actually happened or not, but I DID see the same story used as a gag in a cartoon strip just before the election…alas, I don’t remember which strip, but it was something on the line of “Red Meat” or suchlike.

    Busted my áršë off laughing at it, it pointed out simultaneously the inherent racism that still lives below the surface in many peoples’ lives, and the absolute disgust that the average American had built up against Bush and his neocon cronies. A gorgeous statement altogether.

    If it was based on a real incident I’d love to see it documented.

    1. If it was based on a real incident I’d love to see it documented.
      .
      It was reported on the site FiveThirtyEight.com in one of their blog entries before the election. I don’t recall at this point how long before the election, but I’m trying to locate it. Ahh, here it is, dated October 17th:
      http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/10/on-road-western-pennsylvania.html
      .
      I guess it’s up to each individual to determine whether they believe the account. But then, as the next paragraph points out, this is the same part of the state that Murtha himself called racist not long before this.

  27. How does a guy who’s portrayed as a barbarian in a comic book win a Peace prize?

    Actually, I’ve been having fun making jokes about it today (and not because I’m a racist or a foaming-at-the-mouth Obama-hater). I just find it odd. And the jokes can be really funny (the Kanye West one posted here being one of the best).
    That’s about as far as it goes for me. I hope he lives up to all the potential. I’m sure I’ll agree with him some and disagree with him some as time goes on.
    Oh, and by the way, the buzz is that Leonardo DiCaprio will win Best Actor for his performance in the trailer for “Shutter Island.”

  28. I think it was a bit silly to give the award to Obama.

    I think the over the top reactions to it are even sillier.

  29. You know, come to think of it, there is something Obama accomplished to advance the cause of peace, some years back.

    You may be familiar with the Nunn-Lugar Bill, that authorized the US government to basically purchase nukes from the former Soviet nations in order to keep them off the black market. However, there was a followup, the lesser-known Lugar-Obama Bill, that did the same thing for handheld anti-tank and anti-air missiles – Stingers and the like. It wasn’t quite as successful, because the sponsors couldn’t seem to get Congress to actually provide funds, but it is something Obama helped do, back when he was a Senator…

  30. Late to the party, just surfing through.

    Note to Kathleen:

    You owe me a new monitor and keyboard.

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