Canary in the Coal Mine?

The Nobel Peace Prize was given to the 44th President of the United States this last week. By all accounts, the nominating process started within 11 days of him being sworn in as the president. One must wonder what the goal of the Nobel Committee is, whether they actually have the best interests of the world in mind when they make their decisions, or, by sheer luck, do they happen to be “the canary in the coal mine” as it relates to American Presidential success…

The old story is that miners used to bring canaries into the coal mines because they were especially sensitive to methane and carbon monoxide… when the canary was singing… the canary was breathing! If it died… it meant that the air was unfit and that the miners had better make a quick exit.

The canary was the early warning system for the miners, and I am beginning to wonder whether the Nobel Committee is the early warning system for what we will see here from our president.

Four American presidents have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

The first one was awarded in 1906 to Teddy Roosevelt (a Republican). He won the Nobel Peace Prize for mediating the Russo-Japanese War and was known for quoting a favorite proverb “speak softly and carry a big stick…” Roosevelt believed he was a steward of the people, and was known for creating the “Antiquities Act” which allowed him to set aside significant parts of the West as national treasures…

The next U.S. President to win the prize was Woodrow Wilson (1919). Think: World War I and the creation of the League of Nations. In 2002, Jimmy Carter was the only other U.S. President to win. These two were both Democrats… and arguably each did more to weaken our Nation and its standing in the world than any other U.S. Presidents, before or since.

Woodrow Wilson was the father of the Income Tax, the Draft, and The Federal Trade Commission (FTC). He was a white supremacist and an apologist for slavery… and a driver for the League of Nations (the precursor to the UN) which was one of the greatest failures of an organization and one which wanted a pacifist view regarding Hitler. Wilson actually won re-election to his second term on the platform that he “kept us out of the war.” His legacy was a deep weakening of the United States on the international stage, due to his insistence at driving the Treaty at Versailles, and his failure to force the American Congress to accept his League of Nations…

Jimmy Carter won the prize “for his decades of untiring effort to find peace…”. While that makes us all feel warm and fuzzy… his legacy actually includes being the father of 21.5% interest rates and 18% inflation, oil shortages due to “Windfall Profit Taxes,” 444 days of Iranian control of Sovereign American Land, and the giveaway of the Panama Canal… (all in 4 short years!).

And now our newest Democratic President…

Barack Obama won the prize for… hmmm… hope? He is the father of TBD… (since he hasn’t done anything yet… )

The Committee has shown a propensity to choose a unique caliber of American President in the past… So, the question truly is: what can we really hope for from our newly minted Nobel Peace prize winner?

If the Committee has been serving as the “Canary in the Coal Mine”… then we had better start running for the exits before the air runs out and we are all reliving the results of the two previous Democrat “winners.”