Tom Brokaw is worried about the controversy that “will dog [Obama] all the way to Oslo for the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony,” and he’s got a proposal that, in his cunning formulation, “may lift this discussion out of the partisan soup that is now the main course on our national agenda . . . .” To wit: corral a herd of people-pols no less than humanitarians-onto Air Force One and bring them along to Oslo with him to bask in the glory-for glory it will surely be-of his acceptance speech. On the list: Hillary Clinton and Michael Mullen, standing for “diplomacy and arms in pursuit of peace”; Bill and Melinda Gates; representatives of CARE, Save the Children, and Refugees International; Bill Clinton and Dick Holbrooke, for the Dayton Peace Accords; and, bipartisanly, George H.W. Bush, for “the work done during the Reagan-Bush years in managing the collapse of the Soviet Union, and, for example, the reunification of Germany in such an impressive fashion” (!) and Sam Brownback, for trying-futilely-to get the U.S. government to care about the Darfur genocide:
And how true you speak, Tom (may I call you Tom?)! The people on that inventory of the mostly-famous have received so very little recognition over the years.
