Barack Obama's quite self-serving statement regarding Liu Xiaobo's Nobel Peace Prize, wherein Obama devotes more emphasis to his own award last year than to the imprisoned Liu's this year, has created a stir because it is so much more about Obama than it is about Liu. I lean toward giving Obama some slack on this one, assured as I am that the President's statement was the creation of some eager, butt-kissing speech writer who is fully aware that the more The One hears about The One in any press release about anyone or anything, the happier is The One with his sycophant speechwriters.

To my mind, the best summation of the situation comes from James Taranto at the Wall Street Journal. Taranto notes that because Liu is presently imprisoned in China, the peace award this year was made to an empty chair, to which he comments, "Better an empty chair than an empty suit." Ooooh! That is just so wickedly on point, James.

Perhaps, when considering our president's awards status, we should consider the Nolan award rather than the Nobel. By that I mean the Philip Nolan Award, a tribute to the sentiment that led to the exile of Edward Everett Hale's tragic character who found himself exiled forever upon the oceans, without home or country, because he so damned the nation which had so blessed him. It is but a small stretch to adapt the same concept to our president, especially now that in the past few days he has seemed as defiant as Nolan in challenging and damning all those around him, both the liberal-described, negativist Republicans and the too-demanding, purist, far-left, Kosconut Democrats. Only he, Obama, and only he, has the answer, so the Republicans, the Democrats, and yes, the whole damned country, liberals, conservatives and every damned political persuasion between, be damned.

You gotta love it when the man without a resumé becomes the man without a constituency.