Obama: It's Nice the King Wants to Meet With Me and I'm Sure Your Peace Center Is First-Rate and Gold-Standard, But Seriously, I'm Just Here to Pick Up My Trophy and the Money

Show me the money. And the trophy.

Are there other awards you can give me? I could meet with the King if he wants do declare me The Emperor of Awesome.

News outlets across the region are calling Obama arrogant for slashing some of the prize winners’ traditional duties from his schedule. “Everybody wants to visit the Peace Center except Obama,” sniped the Norwegian daily Aftenposten, amid reports the president would snub his own exhibition at the Nobel Peace Center. “A bit arrogant—a bit bad,” proclaimed another Aftenposten headline.

“It’s very sad,” said Nobel Peace Center Director Bente Erichsen of the news that Obama would skip the peace center exhibit. Prize winners traditionally open the exhibitions about their work that accompany the Nobel festivities. “I totally understand why the Norwegian public is upset. If I could get a few minutes with the president, I’d say, ‘To walk through the exhibition wouldn’t take long, and I’m sure you would love the show. You have no idea what you are missing.’”

Meanwhile, the Swedish daily Svenska Dagbladet is reporting that the president has declined an invitation to lunch with King Harald V, an event every prize winner from the Dalai Lama to Al Gore has attended. (The newspaper’s headline: “Obama disses lunch with King Harald.”)

...

The American president is acting like an elephant in a porcelain shop,” said Norwegian public-relations expert Rune Morck-Wergeland. “In Norwegian culture, it’s very important to keep an agreement. We’re religious about that, and Obama’s actions have been clumsy. You just don’t say no to an invitation from a European king. Maybe Obama’s advisers are not very educated about European culture, but he is coming off as rude, even if he doesn’t mean to.”

I've left Instapundit's snark back at the link.

Howard Stern wrote something like "I don't even breathe anymore unless I'm being paid."

I sort of see Obama doing something like that. Jaunting around the world to pick up awards and medals that celebrate his many accomplishments at doing nothing. "I don't show up unless there's a ribbon and a hunk of gold at the end of it."

posted by Ace at 04:30 AM

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