Sometimes Pat Buchanan can manage to be typically … well, typically Pat Buchanan and yet be pretty funny. Here’s Buchanan from a few moments ago on Michael Steele’s early morning walk-on freak out about Obama’s Nobel …”Michael Steele had a Kanye West moment coming out there and saying Beyonce should have gotten the award. He shouldn’t have done that.”
Here’s the video.
American Police Force drops its plans to run that prison in Hardin, MT.
You might have picked up on one of the rants coming from wingers today: that the deadline for nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize was February 1, so therefore Obama won on the basis of his campaign for President and a whopping 12 days as President.
On its face that seems like a silly argument, since presumably the winner is selected from the pool of nominees closer in time to today’s announcement than to the nominations deadline. (There’s also an absurdist quality to it since the difference between February and October isn’t likely to satisfy anyone who considers the prize premature.) But we checked it out to make sure. Rachel Slajda reports on how the selection process actually works.
A State Department spokesperson, commenting on the Obama’s Nobel:
Certainly from our standpoint, this gives us a sense of momentum — when the United States has accolades tossed its way, rather than shoes.
Rimshot, please.
Sarah Palin gets snubbed by Bob McDonnell. That and other political news in today’s TPMDC Saturday Roundup.
Obama to tell Human Rights Campaign he expects progress in “coming weeks.”
Liz Cheney denounces President Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize for “ruling in a way that makes sense to the majority of the people of the world,” and for rejecting “American dominance.” That and other political news in today’s TPMDC Sunday Roundup.
Let me get this right. The big news tomorrow is that ‘America’s Health Insurance Plans’ (AHIP, aka the health insurance lobby) has commissioned a study by PriceWaterHouseCoopers that comes to the conclusion that the Senate Finance Committee bill is a bad, bad thing and would lead to health care costs going up even faster than they are under the current system. This is news?
Late Update: And WaPo thinks it’s big news.
Even Later Update: Jon Cohn surveys the bamboozlement.
Hillary: Obama earned the Nobel for “restor[ing] a kind of image and appreciation of our country.” That and the day’s other political news in the TPMDC Morning Roundup.