It's not easy to follow in the footsteps of greatness. Frank Sinatra sold out the Hollywood Bowl. Frank Sinatra, Jr has trouble selling out the Holiday Inn. No one remembers who followed Abraham Lincoln as president, Michael Jordan as a Chicago Bull, or Joe Swift as Barbara Tucker's boyfriend. (Barbara was the Sandra Dee of Central High School circa 1964).
It's the American Way - Produce or Perish! What Have You Done For Me Lately!
Europeans take a different stance. France produced a King Louis XVIII times with declining results from the sainted IX to the megalomaniacal XIV to the headless XVI, vainly hoping to get it right. England produced a King Henry VIII times. Hey, Hank VIII can't be any worse than VII was, let's give it another shot.
It's the European Way - Let's encourage the New Guy. He's got to be better than his predecessor.
So we should not be surprised that Barack Obama is the 2009 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. It's not as if Obama has ended the bloodshed in Iraq or Afghanistan, solved the Israeli - Palestinian conflict, or shut down Guantanamo. It is that he is not G.W. Bush. Those Europeans would probably vote the Nobel Peace Prize to US President Genghis Khan as long as he showed a willingness to talk to the rest of the world as opposed to invading it.
That's those zany Europeans for you - Giving an award on promise as opposed to results.
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