In next week’s issue of THE WEEKLY STANDARD, Ellen Bork explains how the Nobel Peace Prize given to Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo is a “huge problem for China’s leaders.” Alas, it’s also turning out to be something of an embarrassment for America’s leaders, too, especially last year’s laureate, President Barack Obama.

Clearly, the Nobel committee recognized Obama not for what he had already accomplished, which was virtually nothing, but for what he might do, the potential he might tap to use for good on the world stage – that is, in addition to his own personal charisma, the power and moral weight of the United States. Liu’s Nobel might be understood as Obama’s mid-term, a notice that, to date anyway, this American has squandered his promise.