I hate it when pundits try to tell us what the future holds. Maureen, we will find out when the time comes.
If peace comes to the Korean Peninsula, it will belong to Kim and Moon. I was just starting to read Dowd's columns again after she bashed the Clintons for so many years. For her to suggest that 45 deserve the Nobel Peace Prize is one of the most ludicrous ideas I've ever heard. To ignore the damage 45 has done: to the democratic process, the rule of law, the sidling up to dictators, the assault on the planet, the truth, science and common decency is an outrage. Ms Dowd, where is your head? Trump deserves to spend his remaining years in jail as a traitor.
162
Better a Nobel Prize in Literature for his tweets.
44
It seems to me that South Korea's Moon Jae-In is more deserving of the Nobel Prize than President Trump.
106
It is beyond ludicrous and disgraceful to be talking about Trump getting the Nobel Peace Prize. Even if his bluster and outright nuttiness can be determined to be a key factor in denuclearizing NK, his lack of character (ie, sexually assaulting more than a dozen women, blatant daily lies, racism, attacks on the First Amendment, etc) certainly should preclude him from winning any kind of prestigious award. If they end up giving him the Nobel, the award would no longer be prestigious. After all, why are awards given in the first place. One reason is to encourage the type of behavior that leads to a desired outcome. We can't encourage this kind of behavior. It is dangerous. Don't forget, whatever Trump may agree to with Kim, he can turn around the next week and tear it up. The only reason that Kim seems to be coming around is because of the sanctions that Obama started as well as his likely thinking that "this guy is crazier than I am." I think much more credit should go to Moon.
66
DJT getting the Nobel Peach Prize would be a slap in the face to all of the prior well-deserving recipients.
71
I wouldn't start throwing out the prizes just yet. We have been down this road before with N.Korea. Hopefully, a lasting peace will come to the peninsula after seventy years of turmoil. But to give Trump the credit for it is a bit over the top.
Peace is for the Asians to decide. Had we not meddled in their affairs, history might be different. My biggest fear is that Trump will probably blow up the deal due to his ignorance on the subject. I am not certain there is anyone left in the State Dept. who can close it.
49
I have large doubts about the source of Kim's turn-about. I suspect he is too smart to fall for trump's bluster. No doubt the cumulative effects of sanctions and of the costs of his nuclear program over time have brought the country to near ruin. It seems unlikely that anything trump has done has had much if any influence. Please stop giving him credit for bringing about peace in Korea via Twitter.
I'm also suspicious of Kim's intentions with regard to his nuclear program. Korea has spent years developing nuclear weapons capabilities. It makes no sense that he would give them up at this point. Is he prepared to hide them and then say he gave them up? News reports have emphasized how difficult crafting an inspection program would be. Surely Kim knows this. He may well be taking advantage of that difficulty.
All this talk of a Nobel Peace Prize for trump is nothing more than Republican jealousy of President Obama. Even if it weren't racist it would still be unseemly.
43
I believe that the Nobel Committee will examine the "ensemble" of Trump's works before making any conclusion regarding the Nobel Peace Award. In that light and having seen previous decisions, I find it extremely unlikely that Trump would end with the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize. To me, it is just another irrelevant pro-Trump propaganda to boost its "image". I have big doubts about the relevancy of publishing an article on such a thing as it seems to me it only contributes to the propagation of pro-Trump propaganda.
35
Don't kid yourselves. These optimistic talks between the two Koreas wouldn't be happening if they weren't approved by China and the U.S. If Trump solves the Nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula without bloodshed, he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize.
14
Barack Obama and James Comey have each expressed the hope that Trump succeeds, “because when he succeeds, we all do.” This sort of dutiful civic sentiment is what can give high-mindedness a bad name. The Trump Moment is where American pragmatism, the old cheerful can-do attitude, merges with American cynicism (what’s right is what gets results): it’s Reagan, Nixon, Roy Cohn and Roger Ailes rolled into one, though none of these worthies could have anticipated the hold of celebrity on our current life or the way even bad-boy imagery can be manipulated to political advantage. Trump’s biggest success is to have convinced us that, like him or not, he’s part of the landscape from now on. No president in his own time has dominated the national imagination like Trump. If the U.S.-Korean strongman face-off comes off as planned and can be spun as a game-changer, he may or not get his Nobel, but the Mueller probe, whatever it turns up, will seem a frivolous distraction. In any case, given the likely competition, he seems well positioned for 2020. A little sleaze is apparently a small price to pay for a restoration of the old (white) male-superior virtues.
11
If Trump can play some part in deescalating the North Korea threat, I'll give him a high five. I'll take peace whenever I can get it - even if the motive is self aggrandizement , the thinking is shallow and the irony is galling. In chaos, you have to take the bright spots as they come.
14
Kim finally has the nukes for which he has sacrificed pretty much everything — well, sacrificed everyone and everything else in North Korea. His most prominent test site has apparently collapsed and is no longer useful to him. Kim met in secret with President Xi of China, to whom Kim is a vassal. Xi and Kim decide it’s time to appear to negotiate. Kim and Moon, of South Korea, do a lot of leg work and background negotiating to get to the table before the US. Tell me again how Trump gets the Nobel for this?
Moreover, explain to me the sudden successes in North Korea’s ballistic missile programs since Trump took office. Russia has been caught several times violating trade sanctions against North Korea, notably in terms of weapons and technologies. For example, it was widely reported just a few months ago by many news outlets, including The Times, that North Korea had acquired solid-fuel rocket components from a Ukrainian factory, and that a significant number of Russian nuclear scientists have been working inside North Korea since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
There is little doubt that Putin has been behaving in more emboldened ways since Trump has been in office. The timing of North Korea’s sudden and dramatic advancements in nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities also corresponds to Trump’s time in office and Russia’s increased aggressiveness. Far from giving Trump a Nobel, it’s worth looking into how Trump’s behavior with regard to Russia has enabled North Korea.
37
Remember, it was the Koreans who announced this summit from the steps of the White House, not the president.
They created this "opportunity" and took control of it right on Donald Trump's front porch.
The "Kim turn" is opportunistic; it is more about its future with China, particularly trade, than it is about anything Trump has said.
If there is any Nobel Peace prize to be (dubiously) awarded here, it certainly does not belong to Donald Trump.
As steps are taken across previously unapproachable and impervious borders, how many believe that American sanctions now in place will continue to be enforced?
The Koreans and Chinese are no fools and know how unsteady and unschooled the American president is in deal-making and following up.
As with Jared, they are relying upon Trump's arrogance, ignorance and naïveté to do their bidding. To many watchers outside American borders this is obvious.
Kim was not merely name-calling when he applied the term "dotard" to the president. He meant it. It was actually a generous caution, though not seen and heeded as Kim also knows that the president does not read or listen.
To use Ms. Dowd's term from her article, there is no "éminence grise" for Donald Trump. He believes his own propaganda.
He knows that Trump is not tough mentally or physically.
Kim knows the value of prestige on the world stage to a president in trouble at home.
Flattery works, and a puffed-up Trump will be warm putty in Kim's hands.
22
I hope Ms. Dowd is not suggesting that there is a moral core bounded by certain prominent individuals in Chappaqua and Hollywood. The arrogance of those places gave us the result of 2016. But with ISIS fading, actual responses to Syrian atrocities, and a real proposal to end the Korean War, maybe the smart crowd did miss something sitting in their expert's blind spot.
11
Ms. Dowd argues that "for the moment, President Trump’s peculiar form of diplomacy — a combination of belligerence, bluster, name-calling and ignorance of history — has somehow produced a possible breakthrough in North Korea that eluded his predecessors."
What? Correlation somehow now equals causation? Please go back to Logic 101 and then try again.
36
Sadly, sadly have to agree with Maureen.
Democrats seem to have a loser mentality that is heartbreaking. Last year in Montana they allowed a folk singer who brings his 15-year-old daughter to a nudist camp when he performed there allowed them to represent their image.
The fact that the Democrat barely lost - showed what a defeatist mentality the Democrats have by not investing the time and money to fight the race with the best candidate possible.
The Democrats gave up before the race began. Deciding they were going to lose it - they lost it to a Republican who was found guilty of assaulting a Guardian journalist. The assaulter trumped the candidate who brings his 15-year daughter to a nudist camp.
The Democrats have to get their act together or Trump will be back for a second term.
20
Even as he threatens to tear up the Iran nuclear treaty, coddles Russian aggression, withdraws from the Paris climate accords, and foments hate domestically.
23
i think talk of a nobel prize is a little premature. let's wait and see if north korea actually coughs up the nukes, or would it be enough for north and south korea to sign a peace treaty. in any case, if trump puts the kibosh on the iran deal and iran starts spinning uranium again, i say take the prize away.
3
"He knows how to determine what people are interested in and like and dislike and respond to. Then he acts in a way that changes the course of things."
This is supposed to be a criticism? In the world that is not overcome with Trump delusional mania complex, it is called politics and leadership.
Meanwhile, maybe Maureen wouldn't mind asking President Obama to give his Nobel Peace prize back.
5
Isn't it possible that Kim is handing Trump this P.R. victory deliberately, because (like Putin) he knows that nothing is better for the enemies of America, than four more years of this nation-destroying president?
24
I almost hope Trump will win the Nobel Peace Prize. I just looked at the history of Nobel Peace Prize winners and I recognized a small number of winners. Maybe I can forget Trump if he wins.
1
President Trump has been in office for only 18 months; in that short period of time he has succeeded in cutting taxes massively for all Americans, eliminated mindless businesses regulations, exploited domestic energy sources, repatriated American companies who had fled to more business friendly countries, unemployment is at historic lows, businesses are raising starting wage rates and paying bonuses. True to its historic promise, America's Israeli embassy has been relocated to it's rightful site in Jerusalem. Instead of spending $1 billion for the Israeli embassy it will only cost a few hundred thousand. The two Koreas are on the verge of a friendly merger. The useless American press can't stand Donald Trump's successes; President doesn't give a hoot what the American press says about him; the more they sneer, the more the American people love him. And why should the American people not love President Trump? He delivers on his promises under budget and in record time.
13
There she goes again. Maureen Dowd is now throwing around phrases like "Trump haters" and "a man so many Americans loathe as a villain," putting the onus on those opposed to Trump. She is engaging in the same manipulation that so many resort to when looking to reposition themselves, and one that the Trump administration deploys regularly. She conveniently ignores what Trump has said and done and portrays those opposed to him as irrational. Maureen Dowd is up to her old tricks, the ones she used during the election to help Trump.
33
It's a little early to be entertaining fantasies about Donald Trump winning the Nobel peace prize… He can barely get through the day without telling another blatant lie. As for North Korea, trusting them to follow through with their promises is like expecting a dog with rabies to be well behaved .
But if North Korea does decide to make peace with South Korea, it will be because they have finally decided to follow the example of China, and build their country economically first rather than militarily. The words and threats of our delusional, "very stable genius " in chief have very little to do with this.
17
When the panel awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to a president who later went on to order the summary execution of American citizens, they stripped it of all but ceremonial status. That makes it a perfect piece of flair, a la "Office Space," for the current occupant of the Oval Office.
Glad I'm not the only one who's repeatedly dumbstruck by the Democratic instinct to do exactly the wrong thing in a moment when that should be almost impossible.
How either party expects voters to be enthused about the messes they present us is beyond me.
5
If Donald Trump wins a Nobel Prize
Our mighty ship of state would capsize
And pundits would opine
That it is a sure sign
Of our great country’s total demise
5
Is it just Republican law makers pushing for this, or is it really Fox News with their hands on the wheel and foot on the gas?
So far, no one outside the right wing echo chamber is promoting this.
23
Face it, Elaine, err…Maureen, if the Koreas, replete with a Trump/ Kim Jong Un meeting, implement a verifiable, sustaining peace in the age of Trump, we will have to admit that we’ve entered “bizarre, opposite world” - an admirable US President’s direct opposite has thrust us into this backwards, bizarre era– up is down, profane is polite, corrupt is commendable, truth is “truthy” (oops, sorry! getting into George W. Bush territory there.).
Don't hold your breath.
5
If the Noble Peace Prize committee nominates Trump for any prize - ever - I will lose complete faith in the process.
To my mine, the prime movers of peace overtures on the Korean Peninsula are the two leaders themselves. S.Korea’s leader was elected, vowing to seek peace with the North. Kim, in the south, seems to have reciprocated. Together they “trump” any bullying by Trump. (And who does Trump think he is anyway, trying to claim responsibility for this, when he has previously done everything to malign Mr. Kim?)
As for a Peace Prize, if this works out, the two Korean leaders should be awardees. And Trump, an erratic, vicious, self-inolved scam artist, should be left out in the cold.
I hope the committee, in awarding the prize, keeps in mind the fact that Trump is untrustworthy, divisive - even in his own nation - and not worthy of description as a Peace Maker.
As for Maureen Dowd’s view of all this .... fortunately she’s not the Peace Prize Committee.
28
Maureen is right. If Henry the K got the Nobel Peace Prize, why shouldnt the Donald? Obama got the prize for what he would have done if the Republicans hadnt kneecapped him.
8
This is a stupid column. There is no way the purported talks between Trump and Kim Jon-un (which may well never happen) will inspire North Korea to abandon its nuclear program. North Korea will never, ever abandon its nukes for the simple reason that it's convinced, understandably, that to do so would mean the end of its regime.
This conviction is based on a rational survey of recent history. Mohmar Quadaffi, the dictator of Libya, gave up his nukes in the 1980s, in order to try to improve relations with the West, and he was overthrown by NATO bombing and brutally assassinated. Saddam Hussein gave up his nukes in the 1990s, after the First Gulf War, in an attempt to ease economic sanctions against Iraq, and he was deposed by a US invasion. North Korea is certain it will meet the same fate if it ever abandons its nukes.
So, the only result that will come of talks between Trump and Kim Jun-un is that North Korea's international status will be heightened because for the first time an American president has sat down with an American president. And the US will get nothing back. To imagine, as Dowd speculates, that the results of the talks could be North Korea agreeing to denuclearize, leading to Trump being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, is lunacy. When Lindsay Graham posits this as a real possibility, it's nothing but Republican propaganda. When Dowd does the same, it's just stupid.
17
What did you expect? With all, and I mean ALL, the TV news media broadcasting Trump's self congratulatory speeches about all his accomplishments over and over and over and over it should be no surprise that some out there may be converted. And for that reason I truly believe those opinions about a blue wave overtaking congress in November are highly overrated.
7
If trump would agree to remove all our weapons from South Korea, if he finds ways to end illegal immigration and amnesties, in my book he will deserve a second term. The Democrats have become so enamored of identity politics and protecting rights of illegal migrants that they can't see all the other interests they should be protecting. And they are every bit as much beholden to and supportive of the military-industrial-congressional complex, as the Republicans are.
5
Democrats.....she is 100% correct with her cricism of our party. Don't be the typical Republican and shoot the messenger. For all our sakes and the future of this country - heed her message!
9
Trump may be a tornado passing through a trash pile, but he's keeping and even increasing his 42 percent of voters, enough to get past a Democratic candidate in 2020. Especially, as Ms Dowd notes, if he gets to run against a horrible, no-good Democratic Congress.
I nominate Sen. Doug Jones of Alabama and Beto O'Rourke of Texas as models for Democratic success by positive campaigning. Beto is needling Ted Cruz, but overall is reminding me of the late Lawton Chiles of Florida, who did a huge amount of walking in his unorthodox outsider first campaign for governor. He became a widely beloved politician. He was a decent person, concerned for his state.
5
Beto is no Lawton Chiles
Trump's self trumpeting may be too uncouth for the Nobel community and one act doesn't earn the Nobel rather a philosophy enacted or enacting.
3
The Nobel Prize?
No. Never.
The Montreal Cognitive Assessment Distinguished Service Award For Outstanding Contributions To The Field of Mental Pathology?
Yes. Absolutely. The sooner the better. Let’s give it to him today.
15
Isn't Kim the one who should get the Nobel? Makes as much sense.
What's next, Mount Rushmore? Oh, I know, the $2 bill.
3
Trump is odious and his biographer has it right.
By surviving in and learning how to manipulate the media for the last 50 years, the man has developed some type of superhero or Rasputin-like sway over the masses.
His lies are perceived as truths.
His patented phoniness is taken as sincerity.
His transparent weakness and and insecurity as strength.
He is a once-in-a-lifetime con man. And he will be remembered as such.
Con men should not win a Nobel Prize.
15
Much like the late President Abraham Lincoln had coined the phrase: "You can fool some of the people all the times. You can fool all the people sometimes. BUT you can't fool all the people all the times".
1
If trump has persuaded Kim Jong Un to back off and decease in his quest for nuclear arms it is because he, unlike most of us in the West, has realized trump is unhinged, and power mad enough to actually push the button. And now with Bolton whispering in trump's ear, the threat to North Korea is truly real. Bolton and trump would love to make their mark in the world.
Maybe, to make an historical jest, they feel a Nobel prize is worth a mess.
2
Nobel should go the leaders of both North & South Korea if an agreement is reached.
13
Apparently Ford is planning to largely pull out of the North American car market to concentrate on trucks and commercial vehicles, while trucks and SUVs make up about 65% of FCA sales.
Just imagine if NASA's data on the planet's CO2 levels and global temperatures is true? What if the satellite photos of the Arctic and Antarctic shrinking ice caps are real?
We thought the crazed lunatic that was preparing to destroy the planet was a fat guy in North Korea. Maybe we should have just looked in the mirror. A "Chinese hoax" ...how ironic.
5
Why shouldn't the Nobel Peace Prize go to an "emperor" holding out a clenched fist at the conclusion of "negotiations" leaving the spectators breathless & finally thrusting a thumb up? Isn't that what we've always called peace through strength?
3
Eventually you all will have to admit, you may not like him, you may not agree with his tactics, but he is doing a great job as President and he is making Obama look like an 8 year intern.
13
Could we please wait until a treaty is signed? Then "will see what happens". The USA is dealing with N. Korea for god's sake!
3
When President Obama was given the peace prize, it wasn't for what he had already done; it was the international community's way of giving an award to the people of the United States. The rest of the world knew of our dirty laundry, the shameful treatment of our black citizens, our violation of basic human rights. They wanted to reward all Americans for what appeared to be healing of systemic racial injustice. They wanted to reward America for living up to the ideals of "liberty and justice for all".
My heart breaks for what We the People came so close to realizing.
17
IF North Korea actually does what it says it wants to do, apparently, then the leading candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize is clearly Kim Jong-in!
3
One thing seems clear, many on the left would prefer a nuclear holocaust on the Korean peninsula over Trump getting any credit for moving the peace process forward. For the left, the prospect of millions of dead innocents seems a small price to pay and would be the ideal "we told you so" moment heading into the midterms and 2020. Democrats, the Party of Compassion.
9
YES YES YES! Nobel committee should award Trump a Nobel Price. However, to do that, they must create a whole new category.
A Nobel Prize for the most ignorant-hypocrate-mysognist-delusional-dumbest-and-lying leader of our generation.
10
According to the Wall St. Journal:
"A large part of North Korea's underground nuclear test facility, which leader Kim Jong Un pledged to close, is unusable anyway due to the collapse of a cavity inside the mountain after the last blast there, Chinese scientists say".
When people as unscrupulous as Lindsay Graham praise Trump for no real reason, it tells us that Trump is a yuuugely successful tool to distract attention from the corporate ultra-right wingers who own and control the GOP. The Republican Party objective is to use the Trump Clown Show to amuse the press while they dismantle every step of social progress we have made in the past 200 years.
21
That's right.... the media is so proud of 1st amendment protections from censorship. But it doesn’t do its duty to inform citizens of the issues affecting our lives.
The media avoids is what we need---discussion of tax reform, jobs, health care, training and education---and above all, to discuss the many groups trying to reform our campaign finance by corporations, so the citizen majority can restore its influence on govt.
Instead, the media is obsessed with the political power play dramas--who is up, down, in, out of the power structure this week. The columns are anti Trump, with no ideas for the future.
This is just as much of a distraction as are Trump’s constant antics.
Corporate control of GOP puts pressure on the Dems to raise money from the same sources. This is how our politics gets corrupted---and it's not discussed in our meda at all.
7
As things stand today, the prize probably goes to Kim and Moon without Trump. But I don't think Kim has suddenly decided to give up the game his family has played since 1953. If I were Kim, with a string of successful nuclear tests, I might want to make my program more like Israel's. In theory, Israel has no nuclear weapons, but everyone knows they have them or could have them in a day or two. I could see Kim negotiating an end to most sanctions in exchange for de-nuclearization, while keeping his nuclear threat.
7
Er---you might have noticed that the Nobel Peace Prize has zero credibility---look at the people they've given it to.
9
I had to quit reading about 40% of the way through. Dowd's hate was oozing through the computer screen and I didn't want to get any on my keys for fear that I'll be stricken with a case of hate myself. The TDS is really getting to the NYTimes.
13
Who's kidding whom? The man who lied about a foot injury (bone spur) to get out of military service in Vietnam getting the Nobel Peace Prize? The same man who refused to let black and Hispanic Americans rent apartments in his family's apartment buildings? The same man who has admitted to sexually harassing many women over the years and who said that what bothered most about what he did to women was avoiding VD? The same man who lied to all of us about President Obama not being an American citizen. The same man who has refused to show us his tax returns over the years? The same man who ........ Donald Trump getting the Nobel Prize for Peace? Say it ain't so!!!
15
"But for the moment, President Trump’s peculiar form of diplomacy — a combination of belligerence, bluster, name-calling and ignorance of history — has somehow produced a possible breakthrough in North Korea that eluded his predecessors."....Sorry. The breakthrough, if there is one, has nothing to do with Trump, and everything to do with the fact that North Korea has now proved they have nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles to deliver them. The only reason there are negotiations now is because North Korea is dealing from a perceived position of strength.
10
Why are we arguing over Trump getting the Nobel? Have we forgotten that a carefully selected committee of five people chosen by the Norwegian parliament will make hat decision? Whether Americans want or do not want Trump to be given the prize is immaterial.
If we are going to argue, let's argue about the real possibilities: "Trump is going to ruin democracy v. Trump's way is the best way to do democracy. "
9
The Nobel Peace Prize? To a guy who has caused more turmoil, more hatred and less unity than any president in U.S. history? Is Lindsay Graham bonkers!
I don't think so.
5
Does the Nobel PEACE prize mean much anymore? I mean really...in light of how peace is actually achieved in any small measures, anyplace...those that get the prize, are often not the ones doing the dirty work.
Those that deserve the prize, should anything meaningful come from this NK-SK-USA negotiations - are the diplomats, and various agents, who will remain nameless, who risked death to get the Head-Honchos information to use in their world stage blustering.
Its the unseen men and women doing the hard work of diplomacy and intelligence gathering - that provide fodder for the heads of state - who deserve a Peace Prize.
Obama didn't truly deserve his, but at least he was of the right temperament and intellect and character to receive one.
Trump in no way deserves one. Not when his go-to is rancorous, race baiting, sexist, all around disgusting behaviors. Those ingrained characteristics, among other ones, should disqualify anyone from the Nobel. No matter the event, or action that would deserve praise. It should be about the whole of the person, not just an event that they might have simply stumbled into...
Trump is a disgusting man. That outweighs all else.
16
President Obama was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize simply because of his political temperment and because he was black. Other useless Peace Prize recipients were Jimmy Carter, Kofi Anan, Al Gore and Yasser Arafat. What lasting testament to World Peace have those five bestowed on the human race?
9
There is zero possibility of Donald Trump being re-elected or for him to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. The revulsion that most Americans and the rest of the world feel about Trump makes it impossible. He single-handedly changed Pax Americana to Pox Americana.
I’ve begun to loathe Maureen Dowd as well for trying to get the readers’ attention with these fear mongering. Maybe it’s time for her to get a sabbatical and reset her agenda.
29
I agree in every respect.
5
Lets be clear here.
he's only deluding 40% of the population.
if we knock down gmanding and pick local appropriate candidates we can win back the house. that's all we need at a minimum
11
As in the case of an impossibly inflated stock market, the law of gravity always prevails.
Mark my words, this flame-haired bozo will come crashing to earth like one of the Wright brothers' early efforts.
There is no Nobel in this man's future; only disgrace and opprobrium.
He's too incompetent, ignorant, impulsive, and shambolic to achieve greatness.
He may enjoy fleeting (accidental) success, but his fundamental mediocrity will always tell in the end.
30
This is Russia and China correctly identifying how they can further divide the US electorate as well as the Western alliances, by throwing yet another bone to Trump.
Wise up, America!
14
They in Oslo would probably be well advised to steer clear of mixing politics and peace, considering how the fiascos of Obama and Suu Kyi made a mockery out of their prize.
3
Whether or not you agree with Obama's award, you have to note that he didn't run around screaming,
"GIMME! GIMME! GIMME!"
The above sums up Trump's entire life story.
21
I've had the same horror thought, that this idiot president -- ignorant, unprepared, nasty, vicious -- could succeed with his bluster and win a second term, when the reality is he's a joke.
If only he could fake out Climate Change and scare it into retreat. Because that's REAL reality, something Americans are less and less concerned with. Americans mainly want to hear how they're still "The Exceptions" and how if they click their heels three times, they can return to the 1950s.
Only Americans will see this as Trump's victory when the rest of the world knows that Kim and N. Korea are the mouse that roared. They're a puffed-up, famine-and-poverty-stricken dictatorship that suddenly declared surrender, under which expensive terms we'll soon see. Kim didn’t visit Xi Jin Ping for nothing last month.
God save the world from 21st century America, a great nation that collapsed when its plutocrats finally decided they'd had enough of democracy and wanted ALL the money.
Everyone with children should be rising up to take it back.
10
"Humiliating experience of 2016 ... and retreads." So very good, Maureen. At the national level they are ignoring the Sander's phenomenon, the Women's march and the Student's movement.
3
Dowd said that Barack Obama and Henry Kissinger "won" the Nobel --- it would be more accurate to say they "WERE AWARDED" the prize. Evidence suggests that Obama never did anything to "win," and a case can be made that neither did Kissinger --- certainly not in the time frame for which he was honored.
5
“But for the moment, President Trump’s peculiar form of diplomacy... has somehow produced a possible breakthrough in North Korea that eluded his predecessors.”
Produced? Sorry, where is the demonstration of cause and effect?
Sounds like typical American ethnocentrism, assuming anything that happens in the world is a result of our words and actions.
15
I wonder why no one mentions Kim's trip to China just before commencing his "peace initiative." Could it be that Xi Jin Ping (who could make existence very difficult for the North Korean leader) told him it's time to start making nice?
After all, China would have nothing to gain and much to lose from a nuclear holocaust.
6
Not bad, Mo, just one dig at the Clintons ... guess you're moving on, eh ?
11
I look out my window on a lanquid Sunday afternoon, like so many Sunday afternoons in a country free of authoritarianism, free to read and speak and choose what to do, free to be one's self. As a country we fought a revolution, a civil war, a world war (twice), a war in Korea, in Vietnam and in the middle east. We have fought against racism, against women being treated as lesser citizens, against fear from many directions, against people taking charge of things that were ill equipped to do so and yet in spite of all that history, and learning and experiences we find ourselves divided as citizens as never before.
We seem to be heading toward a choice of two options, namely,giving up and allowing the country to slide irrevocably into oblivion or get with our conscience (for once) and decide whether we want to be a free country for all of us or be controlled by a few.
11
Let's for the moment leave the Nobel Peace Prize unengraved. The most likely scenario is Xi, as president for life, would rather not have a war start on his border. While Kim and Don can fling insults to their hearts' content with no real consequences, missiles and nuclear tests can have the unexpected kind, which, I believe was the agenda when Kim was summoned to Beijing. All that has followed has Xi's fingerprints all over it. If so, his fingerprints should be on the Nobel Peace Prize, not Trump's.
13
Trump's acceptance speech: "What! Only one Nobel Prize!"
9
But his will be the biggest and best-est Nobel Prize ever.
How American and pseudo-patriotic is to think that Trump deserves a Nobel Prize! The only person who deserves it is the president of South Korea, who has worked indefatigably to break the ice with North Korea. Drop this silly assumption that Trump had anything to do with it. Give South Korea its due.
34
SHORT-TERM CRAZY
Remember that you-know-who was elected chancellor in 1933…
And was made Time Man of the Year in 1938…
Before starting World War 2 in 1939.
Crazy that succeeds today
is still crazy tomorrow.
Success by luck
is not repeatable.
Today’s peace
can be tomorrow’s war.
Good results within a bad context
can be tomorrow’s worse result.
Narcissism only preens
or smashes.
Expecting crazy
not to be crazy
because it is can be controlled
or matured
or educated
or ridden
is crazy.
18
Caveat: I do not support Trump at all. I still think he is the worst president.
That said: Time's Man of the Year, as Time has said it, does not mean a great or good man, only one that has
affected the world significantly.
Other than that I like your posting.
I'm sorry. But for anyone like me who DESPISES Trump and all he represents, to all of a sudden say he is deserving of something along the lines of a Nobel Prize is preposterous. I simply cannot forgive and forget ALL his nonsense for one thing that I personally don't feel he has anything to do with. No matter how much he tells keeps telling us it is all because of him.
An analogy: To praise Trump, in my eyes, would be like saying, I am so happy I have cancer. Because if I didn't have cancer and stay home today because I am totally incapacitated, I would have driven over the bridge I drive over every day that just collapsed.
One good thing in a heap of garbage does not justify the thinking that all garbage must be good.
13
I don't get it. Why are we awarding Trump with the Nobel Peace Prize? What has he done, but rattle his pathetic sabre? If peace does come from this, the award should go to Kim Jong-un, who began the process, and Moon Jae-in, who made it possible.
11
Is it too early to start trashing Bernie again?
1
Maureen Dowd! Do you truly feel that personal animus toward our duplicitous President should be a consideration for not awarding the Peace prize to Trump? After all, Trump has accomplished potentially more for world peace by defusing the Korean nuclear situation than Obama did for his Peace prize. The So Korean Premier and No Korea’s should share in the award additionally.
3
Obama’s prize was for tangential peace. By extending the Afghan civil war with us as active participants in perpetuity, it just opens the door for someone else to finally end it and claim the Prize for themselves way down the road and after countless lives unnecessarily lost. There should be a Tagteam Nobel Prize, likewise for Syria.
1
If Trump is a Nobel Laureate for Peace then I am Mother Teresa who deserves the prize and sainthood. Trump for the Nobel Peace prize, for what? Bringing wily Kim to the negotiating table? It has'nt happened yet and may not happen. It's NK's President Kim Jong-un we are talking about whose only predictability is unpredictability - just like our President Trump!
The Nobel Peace Prize is getting debased every year. Only Mother Teresa's award was earned after years and years of being overlooked. This prize should be renamed as Nobel War Prize.
6
If Mother Teresa's award was "earned," then anybody, including Trump, deserves the Prize.
Trump's fawning flunkies on the right, with Lindsay Graham leading the charge, are clearly smoking something bizarre. On the other hand, should the Oval Office oaf be awarded such a prize as the Nobel, it would be immediately and forever discredited.
10
Already discredited: Kissinger.
1
If the GOP think Trump deserves a Nobel Prize then they also must support one for Kim Jong Un. Fair is Fair.
5
Nobel Peace Prize. Guffaw. You mean Publisher's Clearing House Prize or at least Clearing W House Prize. Revolving Door there.
11
Maureen's diffuse rambling careens from a backhanded compliment to Trump's influence to Democrat fecklessness in the face of it. Not her best mot, which drops "eminences grises" and "auto da fe's" like bon bons in a punch bowl.
But she misses the Chinese elephant in the room, which is the most likely reason for Un's u-turn. It's more likely that Li'l Kim had a St. Paul moment after his train ride to the Middle Kingdom of Xi Whiz than from Tump's flatulent tweet bombs.
As for the Nobel, Trump's best chance is to pry it from Obama's cold dead hands.
9
Up to 1938, Hitler could have been up for the Nobel Prize too. But that doesn't mean either man has the character or intentions the person winning that prize deserves.
4
Surely we can't be talking about a Nobel Peace Prize to an incompetent dishonest con-man like Trump.
Perhaps, and this is just a thought, he deserves a Nobel Pizza Prize for something he did or didn't do.
6
In 1939 Hitler was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Maybe the US has never experienced anything exactly like Kristallnacht,----but I am sure many Dreamers and others worry that something similar might happen here during Trump's reign. I am sickened by the thought that Trump even could be considered for a Nobel Prize.
12
As I recall, any professor of philosophy can nominate someone for the NPP. People have also been known to campaign for nominations. I wouldn't give it too much credence.
Clearly the man on the urine yellow throne
deserves the Taco Bell Pizza Prize.
If perchance he does bring a stable peace to the Korean Peninsula,
perhaps the Nobel folks can also put a bar of soap on the medal ribbon.
Dear Leader Donnie could use it as he serves his prison term.
2
Find a thoughtful US citizen like President Macron and I will gladly vote for that person!
5
And how much do we owe to you for helping create this nightmare? Any regrets?
14
The True Irony will come when the leaders of South and North Korea, Moon Jae-in and Kim Jung-un, are awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for brokering the peace deal before Trump swaggers his way in. Imagine Trump's outrage if the two Koreans get the Prize and Trump is not mentioned for his Bigger Button and Fire and Fury the likes of which the world has never seen before..That would be delicious. And better yet, a peace accord between the two Koreas will be good for the world, in spite of or because of Trump's bluster.
21
Trump's antics towards North Korea is, in a way, the epitome of American hubris. We think we own the planet, so we can do what we want on it and to it. If North and South Korea settle their differences, the US will be odd man out and Japan will have reason to be nervous.
5
While some comments urge that the Peace Prize go to Trump, first we must have peace. It behooves us to remember Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan. Peace indeed.
6
What has struck me the most about all this premature talk of Nobel prizes for Trump, is that Kim Jung Un has painted Trump into a nice little corner. One of today's headlines in the New York Times stated that Kim Jung Un will give up his nuclear weapons upon a promise from the United States, Donald Trump specifically, that the United States will not invade North Korea. So, given this opening gambit in the negotiations, does Trump give up his only leverage over North Korea to secure what may be a false promise for elimination of their nuclear weapons? The master negotiator, who reads nothing, and knows even less, will have a hard time getting out from this corner without getting paint all over himself.
19
It is premature to think there will be peace on the Korean Peninsula. Things will likely get worse not better once Trump intervenes. And the only policy Democrats need worry about is restoring the rule of law. Period.
10
1) If the Korean Peninsula is denuclearized, that would be a good thing.
2) If the Korean Peninsula is denuclearized, and Iran is re-nuclearized, that would be a wash.
3) If the Korean Peninsula is not denuclearized, and Iran is re-nuclearized, that would be a bad thing.
Maybe we can all agree on this beforehand, so when one of them happens, we won’t be tempted to spin it.
4
Perhaps, one should consider that Kim Jong-un is smarter than Trump. He has come close to S. Korea and made a pact to create large concessions between them. That inevitably distances the United State's position with S. Korea. If the two of them come together, how do we keep sanctions on the north? Importantly, in denuclearizing the peninsular, we may be forced to move our missiles off the south; thus losing our base.
The coming together was a very adroit move.
5
No message from the Democrats?
A candidate with reality TV cred does not constitute a message.
Fpr a message, what about this one? It's probably a little older than Ms. Dowd, but it still rings true:
"Republicans approve of the American farmer, but they are willing to help him go broke. They stand four-square for the American home--but not for housing. They are strong for labor--but they are stronger for restricting labor's rights. They favor minimum wage--the smaller the minimum wage the better. They endorse educational opportunity for all--but they won't spend money for teachers or for schools. They think modern medical care and hospitals are fine--for people who can afford them ... They think American standard of living is a fine thing--so long as it doesn't spread to all the people. And they admire the Government of the United States so much that they would like to buy it.
— Harry S. Truman, October 13, 1948, St. Paul, Minnesota, Radio Broadcast"
If we need something to add, how about supporting Congressional and Senate candidates that support a Constitutional amendment for direct election of the President, and state legislative candidates who pledge to support ratification.
http://www.nycbar.org/pdf/report/SFX101.pdf
17
Begin and Sadat won the Peace Prize for the Camp David Accords, but Carter didn't. The Accords certainly wouldn't have been signed without the intervention of Carter. If Carter didn't merit the Prize, most certainly Trump won't.
14
Trump would not have been elected in the other first world countries.
Think Canada, Australia, Denmark, Japan, etc.
Even the Le Penn voters would see Trump is a know-nothing conman.
What is it that makes even more than 10% of Americans vote for and still support Trump?
This is the problem that needs to be fixed.
11
Less attention to the great Trumpkin and more attention on what Democrats are doing. The more we focus on T-RUMP, be it negative or positive, the more he loves it....it's a childlike response. BTW, how are those coal mining jobs stacking up in Appalachia and coal mining states? Infrastructure projects? All we get is bluster and empty promises.
12
Wait. Exactly how did Trump achieve peace between North amd South Korea? By blustering, name calling and provoking 'little rocket man'? By sending Ivanka and Sarah to the Olympics? This peace making effort between NK and SK is happening between the 2 countries and their leaders. Trump and Company are not mediating or providing any form of help or diplomacy with the process. The two leaders most likely got terrified of the dotard, and realized it is truly in their best interest to create an alliance.
President Obama won the prize due to his historical win, signifying a peaceful racial reconciliation (sadly we are experiencing a viscious backlash to that now as signified by Trump's win).
Trump winning any prize for peace is ridiculous. I wish Dowd and the media would stop playing into this Fox News-esque Trumpian fantasyland idea. It only continues the propagandist ideas that Trump is helpful to the world (he is not) or that he even really wants to be helpful to the world (he does not).
And seriously, it doesn't count in his favor if his bullying of Kim was a motivating force behind the peace efforts and pending agreement.
So please NYTimes and Maureen Dowd, stop it. We count on you to stay in the rational zone where truth is truth and fantasies do not warrant Nobel Peace prizes.
14
I imagine Trump's speech at the Noble ceremony would go something like the speech he just gave in Michigan, or maybe like his ranting call to Fox & Friends last week. Where other Nobel recipients have given boring speeches extolling the virtues of peace and reconciliation, Trump would insult his perceived enemies, list the ways he has been unfairly treated, whine that he has not been sufficiently admired and complain that his efforts are not afforded the same praise as other presidents, most notably his nemesis, Obama. It will be the most bellicose and combative peace speech in history.
4
Finally, China, NK and Russia have realised that they have their man in the White House, and America is looking more like what they thought; not the America that is complexly intellectual, not the America that is the technological superpower, not the America that runs the World, but an America built on thuggery and street fights; maybe, China, NK and Russia are getting fooled as Trump is played up.
5
I have to admit that part of the reason North Korea is talking peace is Trump’s threats. I think equally important is that North Korea is suffering so much economically that they had to capitulate or starve—literally.
But the concept of awarding the Nobel Peace prize to Trump is so misguided that only people like Lindsey Graham could promote it. People who have placed politics above morality. Does Graham think that if we continually threaten other nations with nuclear annihilation that our President should get multiple Nobels year after year?
Yes, give credit to Trump for helping bring North Korea to the table, but capitulation through threats doesn’t qualify for peace prizes.
3
Fiddlesticks! How can any American trust a dictator's promise? Honestly, I think Kim wants to keep DJT in office because he can be so easily manipulated with praise. Just as Putin wants him there for the same reason.
Americans are going to have to screw up their courage and vote DJT out at the first opportunity. We need to get our country back on a stable course and not be fooled by fools.
6
Just as Reagan took undeserved credit for the fall of the Soviet Union and Berlin Wall, Trump cannot claim a North Korean victory. How quickly we forget the arm twisting of Xi Jinping!
9
I have long thought that Jimmy Carter had a lot to do with shocking the Soviet leaders into change. Never before had a US president, during an election year, did things which were a danger to re-election. With the invasion of Afghanistan, Pres Carter cut of grain sales to the Soviet Union (not something exactly liked by farmers, corporate farmers, and commodities brokers, etc.) and announced no US Olympic team to Moscow for the 1980 Summer Olympics (angering many, including the "USA, USA" chanters who saw the Olympics as proof of US superiority over the "Ruskies" and other "Commies", as well as every other country). I can imagine the Politburo meeting after that announcement.
1
If the stable genius wins he will be insufferable and we will never hear the end of it. If he doesn't he will claim it's fixed, rigged and we will never hear the end of it. Pick your poison.
6
Odd article. Maureen Dowd talks about the success Donald Trump has had, and somehow that is bad? She needs to realize that Donald Trump wants what everybody wants: peace, prosperity, and freedom.
And wonder of wonders, that's what he seems to be getting. All this talk about disaster on the horizon is getting pretty old. What you see is what you get. And what I see is pretty good.
Such a contrast with Barack Obama. All this wonderful talk, and he didn't do anything particularly bad. But he didn't do much good, either.
You can have Barack Obama. I'll take Donald Trump.
5
Nobel nonsense aside, the imagery of DJT as Yosemite Sam is masterful.
9
If peace does come to the Korean Peninsula, a huge if, the individual most deserving of the Nobel would be South Korean president Moon.
14
To even in jest imply that Trump would be considered a Nobel Peace Prize recipient is an insult to this prestigious institution as well as such prize winners as Mother Teresa, Elie Wiesel, Mandela, MLK, Jr., and company. Trump is not capable of walking or driving his gold-gilded golf cart within a mile of these people. Their aura alone would blind his malicious eyes.
I just read that Trump supporters in Michigan, besides yelling "Lock her up" during his very, very long rant, were also exclaiming, "Nobel Peace Prize!" To be clear, my opinions have nothing to do with being "anti-Trump." Rather they have everything to do with deluding ourselves of the fact that this man is downright evil.
7
Obama was embarrassed to receive the Nobel Prize. He acknowledged that he hadn't done anything so early in his career to deserve it (and I say this as a big fan). The idea that Trump could actually receive a Noble Prize is enough to turn my stomach - but as has been pointed out, Kissinger got one, Arafat got one, there have been some cringe-worthy choices (if Arafat had followed up with the peace process, we could be in a very different place right now). However, I do hold out hope - if Kim-jong Un and Moon Jai-In get it, and Trump *does not*, Trump will probably burst a blood vessel.
5
It’s amazing to me that Trump should get a Nobel for denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula when the initiation and execution of such is due to Kim who, out of the blue, made the whole thing possible and carried it out. Rather than reward Kim for what would be possibly the most amazing about turn from a position of strength by any leader in history, instead the Nobel should be awarded for supposedly driving Kim to this reversal.
My, my! Nobel peace prize as reward for implementing a siege driving a people to ruin, not for a leader in full control of his people exemplifying an amazing ability to become human and see the bigger picture!
Of course, both scenarios: a Trump Nobel and a Kim Nobel, are fantasies at present. But why emphasize one over the other?
1
Not going to happen. After putting his hands on the glowing ball Trump allowed the Saudis to buy weapons that are used to bomb Yemen. Now Pompeo is telling our BFFs in the Mid East to make peace. Telling Korea we are going to nuke them isn’t a peaceful gesture.
The prize might go to Moon who really is the peace maker in this scenario. Moon is all that stands between the US and two guys with really bad hair cuts.
10
Ironic. But sums up the Trump dilemma.
Many people like his policies/goals, but can't stand his behavior/personality. I tend to vote policies over whether I like or admire the candidate. In the case of Trump versus Hillary it was relatively easy because I detested both of them personally, so I was free to vote on the basis of policy alone.
As for the Nobel, the Obama award for doing nothing greatly diminished it.
2
"And certainly, he loves to light his own auto-da-fe and incriminate himself. "
This is true, but it matters not to his followers. It merely shows that the Leader is bold and dynamic.
Or a very smart conman, as suggested by his Biographer!
3
No Nobel prize for the prez. Perhaps the first, and last, annual Wisconsin CheeseHead Award. Add fries with it. What a tremendous Win for donald that would be!
Ha. Quotes Michael D’Antonio as if he has an important thought.....
Who will I be able to vote for in 2020?
The Party seems lost in their own spin
"Republican lawmakers are pushing Donald Trump, the most combative man in the universe, for a Nobel Peace Prize."
Like a bunch of entitled frat brothers who are in the process of being booted off campus for seedy, indecent behavior. Not content with just destroying the fraternity but intent on bringing the larger institution to it's knees. Cynical, privileged and corrupt.
1
This another area where Trump is clearly in competition with Obama. Look for him to shred Obama winning the peace prize, and come right out and say that Trump deserves it (in the third person). I had forecasted Putin and Trump sharing the prize, after agreeing to massive destruction of nuclear arsenals (benefiting both countries), and possibly some deal on Syria. Now just the discussion of Trump on South Korea makes my scenario more likely. The fix is in, people.
If North Korea completely denuclearizes, the primary credit should go to South Korea's President Moon Jae-in & North Korea's President Kim Jong-un. President Moon, & many in SK have wanted to see a reunification of the two halves of Korea for years. I strongly suspect that NK's Kim's visit to Beijing earlier this month was to be offered a carrot and stick from China's President Xi Jinping. China has an enormous amount to lose if Trump invades NK & reunites the peninsula with U.S. troops moved up to right on the Chinese border. China would also suffer, as would the entire region, by any nuclear exchange. OTOH, one suspects China held out the promise of both major increases in financial aid & the same kind of military security for the North that the US provides to the South.
Trump has relinquished almost all of America's influence & stature in Asia, & the only things he has to bargain with are the threats of continuing the profound sanctions & the threat of military-led regime change. If Trump is smart enough to recognize that the Asian countries are dealing with this situation with no participation from the US & lets the rapprochement continue, this is a historic chance & Moon & Kim would be the most deserving of the Nobel Peace Prize. If Trump continues sanctions or even makes only token cuts in sanctions, and reminds Kim that force is still on the table, his only role will be as a foreign spoiler & he will squander whatever shreds of influence the U.S. still has in Asia.
1
He started the ball going.
2
Yes, we'll allow for the probability of this blowing up in everyone's face. Even so, if a peace treaty actually happens, the Trump administration will deserve some credit, and it would be churlish and childish for his critics to deny it.
Note that I say "administration," not Trump himself. The most likely way for the Nobel Prize committee to acknowledge an achievement of peace for the Koreas, while delivering a smackdown to the President, is to nominate a senior official for the Prize. Say, Mike Pompeo in his role of secretary of state.
1
If Trump were to heal a cripple, I doubt his esteem amongst the "4th Estate" would change. Haters gon' hate.
3
The South Korean President Moon Jae-In is the one most deserving of accolades for being a peace maker. Trump had been nothing but an agitator for more friction. My estimate of him being awarded a Nobel Peace Price is a solid 0%. However, he is a consummate grifter in inventing the reality he wants. He shamelessly created a fake Time magazine cover which he displayed prominently in his golf clubs. He could easily manufacture a fake Nobel Peace Prize for himself.
6
I don't know which is more discouraging: the willful ignorance of the Trumpists who cling to the notion that anything their guy does makes sense or is meant to help this country, or the willful ignorance of "leftists," who can skip the lessons Joe Stalin taught, cheer for letting Korea go hang, and get right back to screaming incoherently at Nancy Pelosi.
1
Is the Nobel Peace Price is a supreme recognition of outstanding achievement?
Quick (and don't google): Why did Obama get the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009?
If you can't think of a single reason then maybe, just maybe, the Nobel Prize is not that important after all.
2
It is almost impossible to believe that Kim is going to go through with the denuclearization of North Korea. Kim's own sense of his identity as a world leader rests upon a nuclearized
North Korea. What else does he have? I wouldn't trust Kim any farther than I could throw him, but it's worth a try to have talks. I still think, however, that he is pranking Trump.
As for a Nobel Peace Prize? I have a feeling that would turn out much worse than the Nobel Peace prize awarded to
Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanamar. But it's their prize.
Anyway, rest assured that a lot will happen between now and the end of 2018 with Yosemite Sam as our President, and Yosemite Kim as North Korea's. President Moon seems to be the only sane one of the three.
1
The prestige of the Nobel Peace prize was woefully diminished when they gave it to President Barack Obama who had done nothing, did nothing, to be even remotely deserving of such recognition. Of Presidents, Jimmy Carter with the Camp David Accords, and possibly George H.W. Bush forcing an end to the Cold War are a recipient, and worthy contender, respectively.
That the bar has been so far lowered, is it any wonder that Trump's name is bandied about? And if he does end up denuclearizing the Korean peninsula and reaching a real peace that they were unable to in 1953, finally ending the Korean War, all admittedly a tall order, but then he will emerge as a contender, rightfully earned. But it remains a BIG "if."
1
Maureen, by now you should know well enough that the Art Of The Deal is all about taking everything off the table to gain leverage.
For Trump, this is his gift. He doesn’t care how he looks and sounds going about setting the stage. And Twitter is the perfect vehicle for him to tee up on.
The problem is that anyone watching can easily figure this out too.
North Korea is a fine example. They started all this by testing nukes and firing missiles into the sea. Trump began tweeting. The rhetoric escalated and the possibility of violence rose along with Kim’s image, dramatically elevating him from the crazy Dennis Rodman days were no one took him seriously. But just who baited who?
The Koreas have a mutual interest in neutralizing the peninsula, their home. Give Trump credit for bullying back via Twitter but if the North didn’t need stability, where would crazy takes us.
So let’s move to Iran where crazy has different virtues. Will the art of the deal tactics work here? The problem with Trump is that if escalation of tensions doesn’t go the way you planned in the business world, you lawyer up. In the real world confrontations can lead to war.
What’s good for the boardroom isn’t necessarily good for summits. That is because the stakes are so much higher. When you clash in business negotiations, you leave Trump Tower in a limo. When you clash in a hot spot people leave in caskets.
So is there a difference between the art of the deal and a moving red line?
1
I totally agree.
I have left comments that have expressed some of these ideas.
I have said that Trump is not as smart as Obama nor does he have moral principles that Obama has.
I then stated it is because of this not despite this that he could be a better negotiator than Obama was with people like Putin and Kim Jong-in because he is more like them and knows what makes them tick.
I even left a comment that ASKED THE QUESTION.
Could a liberal support a peace agreement with North Korea if Trump would get the credit for it and would win a second term of office
Trump would win a second term because he was successful negotiated a peace agreement with the Koreans' would
Obama did not deserve the Noble Peace prize when the only reason they gave it to him was because his name wasn't Bush.
So if Trump did get one he would actually deserve it more.
I did not give Maureen Dowd the credit that she would have the type of intelligence to see what I know is obvious but isn't by liberals who are very smart but can't think outside of the box.
While I voted for and very much respect former President Obama, I thought his Nobel Prize was actually rather...silly. He had about nine months in office at that point and the award was a bizarre Euro expression of relief over the departure of Bush and a desperate hope in Obama's "vision." The vision may have been there but unfortunately the accomplishments were not. Obama's legacy in foreign affairs will be judged harshly or at best viewed skeptically as the continued bleeding of Syria, Ukraine, and other crises bedevil the world.
4
Please, please, Dems. Read this and take Ms. Dowd's advice. The nominee should be a new fresh face with new ideas and a clear message. A plain talker, masterful tweeter, funny/witty crowd pleaser, smart, strategic thinker, wise policy maker, empathetic class/race divide closer and , above all, a great marketer.
2
By convincing most of the world that he is actually insane enough to launch an unprovoked nuclear strike against North Korea, some now believe that Trump is accorded what is possibly the highest honor on earth? By ignoring the fact that such a strike would have had catastrophic consequences for two allies, Japan and South Korea, not to mention two nuclear-armed adversaries, Russia and China, he is considered honorable? All of these countries closely surround North Korea, but would it surprise us if Trump was unaware of this fact? Perhaps he doesn't care, perhaps he is just one big bluff, but the only honor he is truly qualified for is the title of former president.
10
North Korea is not going to give up its Nukes .Kim is not that stupid . He knows that If he did they would be invaded by the US just like Libya. Hence no Nobel Prize for Trump . Instead he will be swept into the dustbin of history .
5
Finally, some brilliantly crafted realpolitik from Maureen Dowd. The reason I started to read her many years ago (until she wandered off with her Hillary Derangement Syndrome).
The Democrats should pay attention.
1
Fortunately, Senator Graham and fellow Trump sycophants do not decide who is to get the Nobel Peace Prize. The committee I believe is in Oslo and is made up of people from different countries. These representatives are wiser and more ethical than the whole lot of the DC Republican cesspool. They base their prizes on superior quality and character and consistency, none of which Trump has. Think about it...is he a Mandela, Martin Luther King, Jr., Mother Teresa, Elie Wiesel? Of our presidents, is he Carter or - and I know this will get under Ms Dowd's skin - Obama? No, on all counts.
The thought of someone so debauched as Trump attaining such a prestigious honor makes my stomach turn. And when it relates to Korea, one person and only one president should be awarded the Peace Prize..and that is Moon Jae-in.
8
"The most successful con man in history "
Must be true: look how well he conned Ms. Dowd in the run-up to the election.
11
The Nobel PEACE Prize? No, no, no, no no. As Jimmy Durante used to say "STOP THE MUSIC."
I think the prize that he is up for is the NOBEL.PRIZE FOR LITERATURE.
LITERATURE, what literature? Okay I will tell.you. Our literary President tells "Bubbe Meisers" (a Yiddishism that means "grandmother tales") Stories. Are they true stories? Ah....I don't know but.you have 35 to 40 percent of the country who kind of believe and then you have others who think....well anyway.
But Nobel Prize? Yes, and there is precedent. Isaac Beshevits Singer, the great Polish-Jewish-American writer of stories, funny, fanciful, creepy...grandmother tales, bubba mesiers won a Nobel Prize for his stories. Maybe just nominate him in a different category?
1
Can they just give the Nobel Peace Prize to North Korea's Mount Punggye-ri for collapsing under the stress of repeated underground nuclear tests? https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2018/04/25/north-korea...
1
The key paragraphs in this are the four beginning with, "As far as the presidential race in 2020.... " I have been yelling around the house for the past year about the lack of anything new coming from the Dems: Why do we have to wait for a new "platform"? ( Bring in some key players from around the country including middle America! Hold town meetings and find out what people really want! Call the House & Senate Dems together for strategic planning!) What do we want for a future? Where is great new slogan FOR the future? Why hasn't the old guard made way for the younger members to lead? We really do have to put some life into this party...or the party is going the way of the dodo.
2
"...honing a seductive message..." Got it in the nut's shell. But that even applies to this year's "wave" (if indeed it is, after all, for the full Hill change 2016 was the time, and all the analyses relying on a grapes to grapefruits comparison of Hillary having won the district ignore the R win in the district in that election...)
What is the message? Well, one could hand out Picketty's das Capital to establish the ground, then run against the top "centinile", old school as that may seem... however old school days is when the Dems ruled supreme.
Dems could even run that the system is rigged, by moolah and the evil Citizen's United... call for public funding solely (since we all are gonna pay anyway, as corps price in their contributions to their goods and services), it would cull candidates who don't handle strict budgets, to our debt ridden benefit. Dems could also push to have pol ads, which fuels media bias to a LCD "debate" on radio and TV replaced by a public service requirement of free time. Only.
Triangulation is death, and should be banished (if we can get "blacks", "Hispanics" and feministas we can beat the p67 of white whatevers... C lost with that, O ran differently). Lose the Russia email conspiracy, cuz the emails were true, and the Devil can beat even god if his sword is "truth", being tongue or otherwise vide chap apocalypse).
But... Dems rely too much on Oligarchs, too beholden to Social identification, suffer from fear of McGovernism, etc.
Donald Trump cannot claim victory here.
North Korea is talking precisely because they have succeeded in building a nuclear weapo, not because of Donald Trump’s “policy”.
North Korea would’ve started talking to anybody once they had the “bargaining chip” they wanted.
1
Kim is playing Trump like a five and dime kazoo. He's about as likely to get a Nobel prize.
5
Instead of bestowing awards on Trump for his lunatic, reckless antics, we should be wiping our brows, grateful to God that we didn't get into a nuclear war.
1
I think you meant that we haven’t had a nuclear war yet.
I believe Trump is so crazed, so out of control, that the North Koreans are terrified that in a fit of pique, he could wipe them off the face of the Earth. Do we really reward insanity with the Nobel Peace Prize?
4
no one worked harder to put Trump in White House
than Ms. Dowd.
Trump the lying warmonger and bigot will win the NObel
the day after Godot arrives or the Jets win a Super Bowl
whichever comes first.
Kim has been playing Trump like a violin. If Trump
walks away from Iran Deal who would agree to anything
wth him as his word is worthless.
Trump and Cohen may take the Fifth but it is the
Country that will need the Fifths, a whole lot of them.
word
1
What a typical, narrow minded, American First viewpoint. The Chinese and South Korea have nothing to do with it? Where did Kim go first? Then, after his visit to China, all of a sudden...Kim is amicable. Nobody besides you, Maureen, and the famous, "deplorables," listen to what Trump says. They'll be no Peace Prize...because the Nobel Panel will look at the whole picture...not just your world...dominated by Trump.
4
It would be a miracle if the Peace Nobel Prize committee, that gave Obama a Nobel prize for just making a stupid speech wishing to return the nuclear genie into the bottle, would even consider giving anything to Trump.
Suggesting that Trump deserves a Nobel Peace Prize for what is happening on the Korean peninsula is like suggesting Conrad Veidt deserved the Best Actor award for Casablanca. Amusing performance, standard Nazi bad guy, kept the plot moving OK, but wasn't all that important to the story.
Moon and Kim are the Bogart and Bergman of this flick. Moon's performance should make him a big star. No matter what happens, we will always have Panmunjom.
2
Does anyone know what President Obama won his Nobel Prize for? Peace in the Mideast? Closing Guantanamo? Being a generally affable and attractive guy with a swell family?
1
Is this a trick question?
...President Trump deserves the Nobel Peace Prize about as much as President Obama deserved his......
2
Speaking of cartoonish, the original, and unrepentant mean girl.
Give it a rest, or a very long vacation. Seriously.
1
Cheer up Maureen.
Most likely with his health issues and incompetent medical
care we will all wake one morning to find out he died in his sleep or ala Nelson Rockefeller in mid tweet interruptus.
President Pence will be worse.
2
Lindsey Graham is about as unpredictable and whacko as Trump. You never know what the guy is going to say. One day, he is threatening Trump; the next day he is praising him. I guess maybe Graham's the mini-dotard.
5
Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize?
Stranger things have happened but who knows, after all Ms Dowd got that Pulitzer for commentary on Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky in 1999.
1
so many things wrong with this column. a retreading of past memes and lies that came from now gone administrations and media comments about them. political horse race handicapping cliches...... ugh.
2
Trump once flattered Maureen and she's still not over it. A nice opportunity to bash Democrats while her guy is sitting in the WH losing his mind.
North Korea is playing trump like a horn and Republicans like Maureen thinks that's great.
2
TRUMP pulling off denuclearizing North Korea? Trump is not the driver in whatever happens in N Korea.
1
Need I remind you, Maureen, that the Nobels are awarded in Stockholm, not in Moscow?!
5
Good lord, is the bar so low? How to qualify for a Nobel Peace Prize in 2018: be so unhinged as to terrify your long-time ally into siding with the its crazier, nuke-toting next-door neighbor which kills relatives by missile for fun. Really.
3
I am not disappointed in DJT, because he has fulfilled every expectation I had prior to his election. He is mean-spirited, ignorant, boastful, dishonest and self-centered. I am, however, disappointed in Americans who put this itty bitty little man in a big chair. Surely Americans are smarter, kinder, nicer and have higher morals than this dolt.
8
Trump/North and South Korea...reminds me of the movies on Lifetime where the estranged husband and wife who previously loathed each other, get back together because there is a psychopathic maniac stalking them.
3
I think President Putin and the North Korean leader are cooking up a big surprise for everyone.
Trump could bring peace to Korea, to the Middle East and anywhere else you care to name but the Nobel Prize committee would balance that with the vicious hatred he spreads across the entire globe...no prize for you, Donald.
1
Maureen: You are certainly on to something here: the Dems and the far left are shrieking in horror at the very thought that Trump could actually be responsible for a Peace Treaty in Korea and the elimination of nuclear weapons on that peninsula. They need not worry about the Nobel Peace Prize going to Trump since the Swedish electors who award the prize would never give it to Trump alone. He might have to share it with Kim Jong-un.
Oh, and what happens if: (a) there is actual peace in Korea after 65 years; (b) the public finally agrees that the tax cut bill was good for everyone & not just the rich; (c) illegal immigration in the country is down significantly; (d) the opioid crisis abates; (e) the wall is under construction; (f) the Mueller investigation clears Trump of collusion with the Russians; and (g) the economy keeps expanding?
The Dems seem to think that nothing matters except Trump's egomaniacal personality and his weird persona. Hillary and most of the pundits thought the same in 2016. Why should the result be any different in 2018? True, the pundits are now saying that a "wave" election is coming and the Dems will likely take Congress. Maybe they should refrain from applauding too soon and come up with some decent policies that will appeal to the white working class. But that is not likely to happen.
3
Does the Nobel committee look at deeds and consequences, or does it look at the nominee?
I'm glad I'm not on the committee.
Maybe I am a majority of none, but it seems to me that Maureen's article made some excellent points and uncomfortable truths (for some readers).
2
The first part of the article about the Nobel Prize is junk sophistry and not worth the time to consider. Trump and the Republicans have done their level best to undermine the world's (insufficient) effort to address global climate change. They have dramatically increased American spending on the military, while exhorting other advanced democracies to do the same. They have supported embargoes, sanctions, cynical power plays, and hawkish tension every which way the eye can see. No Nobel Peace Prizes need be handed out here, thank you.
In contrast, the second part of the article, about the Democrats, is a brilliant, necessary analysis of a crisis of leadership.
The Democrats must find their various voices, stop cowering, and stand FOR things, not only against Trump and the Republicans.
We need courage and ideas, not mushy platitudes. I say that the party should be the one that champions the following causes: (1) infrastructure investment (including a green-energy transformation; (2) education at all levels, including apprenticeships; (4) strong antitrust enforcement; (5) much LESS military spending; and (6) immigration, foreign investment, and free trade (we should be welcoming, with sensible restrictions, not nativist and hostile.
Trump and the Republicans are inconceivably awful. We get it. Now give us a reason to vote for you.
2
I think we underestimate the degree to which the campaign to Make America Irrelevant Again has given the two Koreas both the incentive and the space to work together. Trump has made US presence on the peninsula as much a danger to peace as a guarantee for South Korea's survival. The intellectual and moral vacuum in Washington makes it necessary for the two sides to work out some kind of plan for themselves, perhaps with China providing economic aid and a forum for negotiations. It is not Trump's bellicosity that got us to this point, but the combination of his instability and his isolationism. That's not what they give out Peace Prizes for.
15
Ms. Dowd's style is always one of snarky irony. It makes for interesting reading. But it does not need to be respected as truth. The author breezily focuses on the possibility of Trump winning a Nobel because of his bellicose Tweets and threats against North Korea. NK deserves no sympathy here because, as we recall, it has been firing off missiles over the last year with aplomb. However, it appears as though the fear of both Trump and Kim inspired the South Korean President to come up with a plan to de-accelerate the saber-rattling of both unhinged leaders, including the reach-outs to Kim during the Olympics, the carefully executed diplomatic efforts to end the 60 year Korean War still on the books, and the invitation to Trump to join the two Korean sides in a meeting. Given that Trump has decimated his diplomatic staff including his most recent ex- Secretary if State and has not communicated to the American people he has any plan for the Korean Peninsula, I cannot fathom how Trump to date has earned any credit for what is happening in Korea. Indeed, to award him with a peace prize would be tantamount to recognizing a would-be criminal who is stopped in the act of assault as a CNN Hero, simply because others constrained him before he committed the crime.
Ms Dowd is a great writer, I'll give her that. But what I don't like is her picking up on a latest idea that has no merit and fueling it into reality because it's entertaining to think of. It's why we're here now.
13
I have had the great privilege to attend several summits of Nobel Peace Prize laureates over the past several years. The overwhelming consensus among the laureates is that the accomplishment that gave rise to their nomination and award was seen as only the beginning. They all feel enormous pressure to continue to work to advance peace and that, they believe, is the purpose of the Nobel Peace Prize.
In order to agree that President Trump is worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize, the committee would have to believe in his dedication to the cause of peace, and in his ability and willingness to use the means at his disposal to achieve and maintain peace.
5
Kim has been able to wrangle meetings with the leaders of the largest economies in the world in exchange for nothing.
He's "stopped testing" nuclear weapons, but they still sit ready to go at any moment.
North Koreans still languish in concentration camps.
He's one of the only North Koreans to step over the DMZ without a hail of bullets fired at him by his own army.
US soldiers still stand as human shields between the North and the South.
So far, Kim has gotten everything he wants while his people and the world are no safer. So why does Trump deserve the Nobel? And if your answer is "Obama," stop. Trump supporters need to live in the world the rest of us live in, where Trump is president and has the responsibility to govern. Neither Obama nor Clinton own this now.
8
I imagine that the president is hoping that a Nobel Peace Prize will save him from the Special Counsel. I have my doubts about both premises.
5
Trump is being played by North Korea's Jun.
If any player in this game wins a Nobel Peace Prize, it will be President Moon of South Korea.
8
I admit I stopped reading half way through this nonsense.
Let’s get the facts straight:
Democrats generally don’t hate Trump. We just want a just and functional government for our tax dollars. For everybody.
Second, the Democratic Party is loaded with talent, and we are in the process of using a widely inclusive democratic process (imagine that!) to select candidates.
Third, the voters have had a good education recently, and are not going to get conned again soon.
See you at the polls, folks. Meantime, get your humor from people who are tuly funny, like Michelle Wolff.
8
I did not serve in the Korean War, but I did serve in Vietnam.
The path forward in both places has always, in my lifetime, hinged on the most ancient giant of the region - China.
The sun in Coleridge’s work moving from west to the east as world dominance shifted from Troy, to Greece, to Rome, to Europe, to the Americas - is still moving - moving from us to Japan, China, Vietnam, ...
It would be most interesting if a Nobel Prize went to China and the two Korean leaders.
8
In all probability we are going to have a recession before the 2020 elections and that will be the big issue that will effect the election and end any chance of Trump having a second term.
4
Wow, just think of it - the possibility of the Nobel Peace Prize being awarded to someone who actually achieves results rather than on style points.
4
what results?
1
A treaty with North Korea? Shouldn't we wait and see if Trump and his staff of war mongers succumb to Kim? Who will advise the maniac. Who will keep him focused? Will his very limited attention span ruin everything.
Optimism would be wonderful but do we dare hope?
2
If Nobel does oblige in recognizing Donald Trump, it should be for taking dynamite into the political sphere. Dynamite Donald has so far blown up or threatened to blow up every deal he's encountered from the TPP to the JCPOA (aka the Iran Nuclear Accord). In so doing, Trump has dynamited or it actively trying to dynamite the countless people who've stood in his way from Sally Yates and James Comey to Robert Mueller and now Sen. John Tester. In the Trump "brave new world" double-speak is operative. "War is peace." So please, award Dynamite Donald the Nobel Yosemite Sam prize for most destructive person. We'll all get a big bang out of it!
10
Dowd makes it clear that the Nobel Peace Prize is laughable: Kissinger and Obama weren't undeserving, so why not give it to Trump, also undeserving?
As for the rest, Dowd just loves the sound of her own voice. Democrats are doing more than complaining about Trump - they're winning elections.
It is Dowd's duty as a journalist, not her choice, to continue to point out that Trump is a dangerous, lying, corrupt, incompetent who refuses his first duty to the nation: to keep us safe.
Dowd's effort today is puerile - "na na na - Trump gets a Nobel."
12
Maureen, It is way too soon to act so dismissively about who the Democrats might run for President in 2020. Current "front-runners" aside, you never know who might emerge from the pack and surprisingly catch fire this far away from the next election. Bill Clinton wasn't exactly a household name 2 1/2 years before he won the presidency in 1992. And Obama was only moderately well-known in 2005-6.
Yes, the Democrats can still screw this up, but what might help would be for journalists like yourself to stop focusing on the potential negative outcomes, which is always the case when "mainstream" journalists write about Democrats and, instead, inform your readers with some profiles of the younger potential presidential candidates the party already has in its fold.
Quite frankly, I find yours to be the lazy approach that too many "serious" journalists take today, because snarkiness and sarcasm are apparently so much more personally satisfying than informative journalism.
19
The entire world welcomes de-escalation of tensions between North and South Korea and the US, but it is laughable in the extreme to say that Trump, a person who enjoys actively escalating tensions with Kim and countless other people, has had anything to do with that. Any rational decision making that occurs between the two Koreas will be in spite of Trump, not because of him, and anyone, such as Lindsay Graham (who occasionally gets things right and sometimes has a backbone), to pontificate that Trump should get the Nobel Peace Prize for his actions only continues to expand the absurdity of this new landscape we find ourselves in called TrumpWorld.
The Nobel folks have shown some serious lapses in judgment in the past, most notably with Henry Kissinger, whose covert actions and approvals resulted in horrific bombings and a huge number of civilian deaths in several countries. The prize given to Obama was not about achievements but rather about the tone and direction set by him in his speeches regarding Islam, nuclear proliferation, and global warming. At that time, there was a real sense of optimism among many countries that we were entering into a new era.
Those hopes were dashed, of course, but the committee gave the prize to Obama because he had contributed to setting that optimistic tone. The world did not follow through, and Obama was quickly hobbled by his domestic opposition. Hope and change cannot live without support and action.
What tone has Trump set?
7
Pleasant tone WITHOUT results = Winning?
Unpleasant tone WITH results = Losing?
If only my employer would grade my performance on my pleasant demeanor!
1
There is a concept in science that correlation does not mean causation. Example: Trump being president near the end of a strong economic recovery cycle that started way back in 2010 and then claiming that he Trump is responsible for the results, despite the evidence shown by all economic indicators of steadily improving trends since 2010 culminating in the present results. Obama was about much more than pleasant demeanor. He had an intelligent vision about interactions between countries (not invading them and starting wars without good cause), on how to responsibly take steps to reduce global warming, tolerance for different religions and ethnic groups, and on health care in the US. He only had sufficient help in Congress for 2 years. Presidents do not write laws, so you cannot grade his performance justly given the outright hostility of the GOP that obstructed him for 6 years. Many of the representatives were elected by racist sentiment and some strange fear that Obama wanted to impose communism simply by supporting an improved health care system. Let's wait a bit longer before we assess Trump's performance.
I for one would celebrate a Noble Peace Prize for President Trump.
It would give one hope for similar recognition , albeit posthumous, for Curtis LeMay and Edward Teller .
6
Ms. Dowd is not the first to have implied that Barack Obama's did not enough to win the Nobel Peace Prize. After 250 years of slavery, 100 years of Jim Crow, and a turbulent 50 years trying to right the wrongs of America's past history, he succeeded in being elected the first African-American president of the US. If this was not monumental progress toward a better world, what is?
19
So many comments on here disgusted with Trump's bluster. What did you think he was going to do after the media and the left heaped (and continue to heap) nothing but alarmist criticism on him? There's not actually any real analysis by the media or the left...it doesn't matter what he says or does, it's all BAD. And so, he counterpunches. At the end of the day, this extraordinary development took place during his Administration after he said things that no other American leader would dare to even contemplate. If the Democrats want to keep slinging mud, they do so at their own peril.
2
The Democrats aren't slinging mud. The mud you see on Trump is completely self inflicted.
1
It's not beyond the pale to envision a president who wins a Nobel in the same year that he gets impeached. Yes, we live in strange times.
11
The point of Ms Dowd's story is that this president knows what his people want to hear and no matter what you or anyone else thinks about Donald Trump as a person or in his role as president, the Democrats have to listen better or we will have another November surprise next fall. What's more, the D party operatives better be ready to hit the ground running on November 7 with a slate that includes new faces because the same old mug shots the media keep rolling out as prospective Democratic candidates simply won't make the grade in 2020.
3
Looks like Dowd is back. Bashing Barack (at least she didn't call him Barry in this one) and cosying up to Donald. Obama got the Nobel because he wasn't Bush and the world breathed a big sigh over that. I agree that was worthy of a Nobel. I was here for the Bush presidency and it was bad regardless of what Dowd wrote about her man W. Republicans need to get over Obama's Nobel for Peace. What is it with their jealousy of the Democrats? All of these empty suit celebrity presidents (Reagan, Trump) seem to me as their determination to claim a Republican John Kennedy. Not gonna happen. Christ, just run the country without running it into the ground. Can they do that?
16
Trump will not get the Nobel prize.
I figured it out on my own.
Because I have a brain.
13
OK, go ahead and nominate Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize. Let him brag about that nomination to all his dewy-eyed followers, who hang on his every word as if they came directly from Scripture (hint - they don't).
The South Korean president, Moon Jae-In, has done more to facilitate peace with North Korea than Trump has. Trump placed sanctions on the starving country, insulted its leader, sent his VP to the Olympics, where he snubbed the sister of the leader, and bragged about how much bigger his nuclear button is - that's not bringing about peace - that's poking the bear. If the Nobel Committee selects this lying, preening, braggadocious, disgusting human being the award that should belong to the person deemed to "have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses" - the committee might as well fold up its tent and move along.
6
Alfred Nobel invented dynamite and ended up giving his fortune to institute the Nobel Prizes after reading a premature obituary condemning him for profiting from the sales of arms. Perhaps our explosive, thuggish president, fearing the clock on his premature political obituary will start ticking loudly in November, is trying to be remembered as a do-gooder too.
3
Couple things. As usual white people first name a black when being critical, just as they omit blacks or list them last when being approving. Second removal of us troops from Korea and removal of North Korea nukes are neither irreversible. So if it happens it will be on the order of what others like Clinton achieved in the past— except that returning us troops to Korea will be expensive and time consuming. Who will profit from that? Obviously, Kim.
Maureen Dowd, the cavalier handmaiden of the trump "presidency", strikes again. She will not escape, at least in my view, of the taint of her odious "plague on both your houses" position during the 2016 election. She found Hillary Clinton just as objectionable as this pig trump then. She wrote articles that reeked of fake sophistication. Now she sees the fruits of her labors and doesn't like them? Fine, but before she starts, she should at least admit her culpability in engendering this catastrophe.
12
You’re still tossing grenades at President Barack Obama. You just can’t let him go, can you? He didn’t have the time of day for you—like Donald Trump did—and your reward—and our albatross—is your weekly Saturday afternoon serial cliff-hanger about his latest disaster. LIke an aging dee-jay, your columns come to read: “the hits just keep on comin’.”
The Nobel committee, this observer opines, will avoid conferring any substantial honor on this American president, chiefly because to do so would be an affront to every woman on earth who has ever been groped or pawed or ogled or, yes, raped, simply because her gender just couldn’t help itself. Isn’t always her fault? Bill Cosby needed wine and drugs, but I digress.
Who would (or could) scarcely credit Donald Trump for the successful conclusion of a 70-year old truce when, to obtain it, he thundered a “fire and fury” threat to Kim Jong-un before South Korea stepped in and gently led the young North Korean to greener pastures? Oh, and didn’t peace-nick Donnie duck out on military service back in the Vietnam day?
If there’s a Nobel peace prize, Moon Jae-in (South Korea) should get it. He’s done the heavy lifting, something Trump is loathe to do. And, if Trump is a serious candidate for the medal, why not simply award it to Sean Hannity? He advises this president every day from his Fox Hole.
If you want a clue as to whom and what Trump values, watch his Medal of Freedom picks. There won’t be a dove among them.
7
Nobel Laureate???? More like Dumbbell Laureate.
2
Jae-In could share his Nobel with Trump, but with Jae-In's name first.
Trump had tantrums, Jae-In made it happen.
2
I don't believe Oslo would want to cheapen the Nobel prize by bestowing it on an obiously ignorant, money-laundering grifter - Maybe his "base" can't see it ; Maybe Lindsey Graham can't see it; but his disgusting character is pretty obvious to the rest of the world - Even his own wife can't stand to touch him.
5
Since they gave the Nobel to Kissinger, it has achieved the status of the vice presidency: "not worth a bucket of warm . . .
1
Who would want to be the person who won the Nobel Peace Prize the year after Trump won it?
6
Give us all a break from this drivel. N Korea absolutely has no intention of using those nukes unless they are facing a crushing defeat. They are not so stupid as to start something they have no chance of surviving. You have to be petty uniformed to not notice that their intention all along , as they have often said, has been to get nukes and then negotiate.
Why would they not negotiate with the not so smart and very spoiled D. Trump. He is a dream come true for them.
4
The only thing that Donald Trump is doing is "destroying" our country -- full stop. America, no matter how cynical we all are, is not about lying. Yes, it's aggressive and at times corrupt and even dishonest, but at its heart, it's about humaity. Mr. Trump is, to quote James Comey, a "congenital liar"...He's not a leader, he's a self-absorbed ignorant man who shows no grace or humanity. Ms. Dowd, you can blame Democrats all you want, but it would be nice if you recognized that Russia's helped put Mr. Trump in office -- so no matter who the Dems put out there, they will be subject to false news stories -- remember pizza-gate -- and a demagogue who will do or say anything to win. Bottomline, he's just an old fashioned bully who should not have been allowed to visit the WH, rather than living there. My only hope is that he doesn't have one day of "joy" in the job that he shouldn't have and doesn't deserve. He should be as miserable as he has made the majority of Americans since his election.
4
I wasn't aware that the Nobel was awarded to liars, bullies, haters and bigots. Trump threatened to nuke another nation. He's insane and incompetent.
9
Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn now and then.
3
Ms. Dowd is missing it that Vladimir Putin put Trump in office every bit as much as "alienated voters" who drank the Kool Aid Cambridge Analytica and the Russians plastered on Facebook. Democrats can groom all the gleaming candidates we can find but as long as the next election is corrupt and our choices are determined by Russian bots and the Mercer family posting lies and conspiracy theories on irresponsible social media, Trump will be elected again.
1
An infantile and toothless critique of Trump as a cartoon on the cusp of getting a Nobel is the bait and hook in yet another of Dowd's shrill indictments of Democrats and Democratic initiatives. The mandatory "ghost of HRC" is here, with Dowd's assurance that it will haunt the Party forever and doom anything it tries. Dowd wants us to forget she was Trump's shameless shill during the election, refusing to criticize Trump, yet constantly attacked Obama and HRC. Back when HRC ran in 2008, Dowd's vitriol led to a rebuke by Times Public Editor Clark Hoyt. He found that "The Times did a reasonably good job in its news articles," but that Dowd's "columns about Clinton’s campaign were so loaded with language painting her as a 50-foot woman with a suffocating embrace, a conniving film noir dame…that they could easily have been listed in that Times article on sexism." In 2016 Dowd wrote that Obama was nothing but an "Ivy League east coast cerebral elitist who hung out with celebrities, lectured Congress and scorned the art of political persuasion. He was cozy with Silicon Valley and dismissive of working-class voters anxious about globalization." This article is more of the same. Dowd wants to convince us that a "cartoon" Trump is better than any Democrat. She employs right-wing disinformation (Korea is her compelling evidence) to argue that however ridiculous Trump is, he gets more things done than any Democrat past, present, or future. Dowd is trying to gaslight us. (Yet again).
5
Trump doesn't need a Nobel.
He can have a nice gold-embossed certificate printed up, complete with his photo-shopped likeness and whatever praise he's jonesing for at the moment, and hang it on the wall next to his Time Magazine cover.
Heck, he can install a fresco of the thing on his bedroom ceiling, and stare up at it in pure rapture while Fox News endlessly reminds him how he alone created world peace.
5
So, what does Trump have on Lindsey Graham?
Lindsey takes Russian money same as Trump!
Donald Trump and the political action committees for Mitch McConnell, Marco Rubio, Scott Walker, Lindsey Graham, John Kasich and John McCain accepted $7.35 million in contributions from a Ukrainian-born oligarch who is the business partner of two of Russian president Vladimir Putin's favorite oligarchs and a Russian government bank.
3
Just read the article on the Trump rally in Michigan. The man is obviously unhinged and has lost contact with reality. Mussolini redux. And the suckers just lap it up.
3
I think it's high time for Ms. Dowd to invite Ms. Pelosi and Mr. Schumer to a lunch at The Tavern on the Green and instruct them on the manner in which the Democratic Party should conduct their campaigns, with the threat of endless personal attacks on both of them in her columns if they fail to comply. Action, Ms. Dowd, and not merely words are required if you're to become a major historical figure - the bringing down of the Orange Menace.
Heads are exploding at the NY Times too. We're almost in the middle of 2018 and Donald Trump is still in the White House. How is such a thing possible??
2
Ms.Dowd, Clearly, you have no grasp of what true denuclearization of the Korean peninsula would entail. Best to go back to the left coast and interview hollywood types. That's your thing.
Nobel peace prize started out as a good intention but now is a joke, so yeah, give one to Trump. He can join a club that his hate object in chief is a member of, if he wants. He'll probably decline it, just to rub some noses in the dirt.
Maybe you could even interview him again!
Trump a Nobel Peace Prize, now I know that I woke up this morning in the twilight zone.
Trump's presidency is truly crazy making. It goes without saying, he is a vile, corrupt, and a man without a moral compass. I don't expect him to become less obnoxious as time goes on, he is what he is. The sad part is that one cannot turn off his negativity. The slim of his words and actions covers us from head to toe every day and no amount of hot water and soap can rid us of the stench.
"Cartoon Nobel Laureate"?
And what does that make Barack Obama?
"Our Empty Suit Nobel Laureate"?
I know, let us ask the Syrian people whose relatives made the mistake of being on the wrong side of our "redlines"!
1
Still resent that Obama got the Nobel. Still resent Hillary. You touted this clown when he was running, and you're touting him again while North Korea plays him like a cheap violin. This high school confidential approach to a very dangerous and deranged presidency is wearing thin. Does this columnist think everything is a joke, and Trump is harmless? If so, she ought to move on and write a good tell-all book about the Clintons. The definitive one, delineating all their "Whitewater crimes." This would be a good assignment for her. Leave Trump to the special prosecutor and serious journalists.
4
I would guess that a Nobel Prize would make trump even more insufferable than he is already. The Nobel committee for non violence should give the American people the prize for having to suffer this fool president without thinking violent thoughts.
1
Well said.
1
I think there is flawed logic here. Suppose the assassination of MLK had magically caused Blacks and Whites to come together in horror of the act and forge racial harmony in America. By your logic, the Nobel Peace Prize should then have been awarded to James Earl Ray.
1
Seeing God-Emperor Trump with a Nobel Peace Prize after bringing peace to Korea is a storyline that even the most autistic 4-channer could not have imagined.
Any change for better or worse regarding North Korea has nothing deliberate to do with Trump. Just because he didn't trip over his own feet, does not mean he gets credit. If you continue to throw angry edicts by tweet, some might accidentally hit a mark. But such rantings do not reflect deliberative thought. Trump will always want credit for everything he sees as good. We do not need to encourage such random ill-focused thought and behavior. I can't stop thinking of the film "Being There".
Thank-you Maureen for calling the democrats out. I don't understand why they don't get it. Couldn't we just find one person with big ideas, who is relatively honest and intelligent and can speak plainly to people while not giving unrealistic promises? And under 60???? I feel this way and I am over 60. Imagine what our younger people think and feel. You don't have to imagine, just listen to them.
In a world of lower expectations, anything is possible.
1
Well, Mr. Trump might get the Nobel Peace prize with the perfect celestial alignment despite all the hand wringing by the liberals. The question is whether the deep state will allow him to do so? Remember, Saint Ronald did agree with Gorbachev to ban nuclear weapons which his aides quickly walked back and blamed on his Alzheimer. Peace on Korea peninsula was achievable by any president if U.S. is willing to dismantle the empire. North Korea is interested in unification and survival, not to threat U.S.. If Korea is peaceful which all Korean people desire, the U.S. troops in South Korea and Japan became redundant, so is in Germany or Britain. The logic of stationing troops in over 100 countries when America needs rebuilding is obvious for all to see. The industrial-military complex can't allow this to happen.
3
just like maureen, the socialist dem left is done.. preterite. finished if that corresp dinner didn't tell you what the dems are, then there really is no reason to have a discussion, is there?
1
The best thing Trump had going for reelection is the tired, bankrupt, and old leadership of the Democratic Party. Becoming the Party of NO is not a plan for getting the country on the right path. Democrats need to say no to Pelosi, Schumer, and the others who have no new ideas.
4
I worry that this is just an improved version of “Russian meddling” in our elections. Kim gives Trump a huge apparent victory, Trump and the Republicans sweep the midterm elections guaranteeing a continuation of our divided, polarized status quo, and after the midterms he goes back to improving his nuclear armory. This would both be a repeat of North Korea’s history with treaties, and keep Trump in power.
3
But does anyone really thing what happens in Korea will make an iota of difference in the election? Bush 41 lost reelection after the successful and short Gulf War campaign, Bush 43 won reelection in 2004 after starting an incredibly bloody war in Iraq and maintaining the Afghanistan war in bloody quagmire since 2001 (still not over by the way as the longest war in American history). Short of a North Korean nuclear test in the Pacific I don't see this as a game changer domestically at all.
The North Koreans, Chinese and other adversaries of the U.S. have figured out that Trump is so eager to plunk this laurel on his orange head that he will give them a much better deal than they deserve, or would obtain if an intelligent, rational, mature president was in the White House.
In other words, it's clear to our adversaries that Trump is a child who can be played -- and that is what they are doing. The only prize Trump merits is a Booby Prize.
8
Why r u n others giving him credit for bringing about this possible breakthrough? Do you really think his insults n threats n additional sanctions brought North Korea to the table? It's simply because Kim has a nuclear capability now n can negotiate from a position of strength. OMG
6
Mo , You're giving him way too much credit , he doesn't get into peoples heads . He's just being his ugly nasty self which appeals to the ugly side of humanity . What he does do is get under people's skin like a burrowing parasite . He admires Norwegians but to my knowledge doesn't mention Swedes , whom the Norwegians looked down on because they remained neutral during WW2 .Perhaps it's all become water under the bridge . If he gets considered for the Nobel prize perhaps , gasp , with the help of his pal Putin ? Anything is possible in Trump world . As undeserved as Obama's peace prize was (anticipated ) beforehand , having just been elected , Trump's would be obscene since he has created more turmoil than peace .
1
The Democrats have a strong farm system who would give people a reason to vote.
Raul Ruiz will have eight years in congress by 2020 and will be 47 then.
Part of his bio from wiki "He was the first Latino to receive three graduate degrees from Harvard University: an M.D. from the Harvard Medical School; an M.P.P. from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government; and an M.P.H. from the Harvard School of Public Health.[6]"
His line of questioning in committee was well thought out, but could have used better time management.
The Dem leadership needs to cede power before it again manages to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. There is talent there if the geezers don't suffocate it.
4
My bad. He was born in Mexico. Still look what an immigrant son of farm workers can do.
why can't we nominate Merkel, Macron or May? Just because you-know-who is sitting in the Oval Office when a treaty is signed does not mean he effected it.
2
I don't believe any member of Congress is on the Nobel selection committee. We will see who reak Nobel Committee chooses...I never thought Mr. Trump would win the nomination or the White House either...
1
Dear Democratic Party,
Please find us an electable presidential candidate, ASAP!!
Sincerely,
America
7
Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize?
Sure thing and keep the ball rolling.
Paul Ryan for a Profile in Courage
Mitch McConnell an Obie for staying Off Broadway for the past 10 years
A Clio for Best Ad Campaign ("We've already addressed that multiple times") to Sarah Huck...
A Pulitzer Prize in Weird Fiction for "The Kellyanne Monologues"
A Samuel Beckett Waiting for Godot shout out every sitting member of the Republican Party failing to call out the Yam...
So many awards, so many deserving scoundrels...
5
No. No. No.
All trumplestiltskin did was threaten to blow N Korea off the map, and for this he gets credit for "solving the problem"?
Try this on for size:
Maybe Kim Jung Il has some advisers, and maybe he listened to them. Unlike someone else we know.
Maybe Kim came up with a Plan, which might in fact be working.
Maybe SOMEBODY on this planet accomplished something significant WITHOUT the help of the wise, all-powerful "help" from the USA.
Wouldn't that be a novelty?
Our dear leader deserves no credit, least of all the Nobel Peace Prize. Unless it were to be re-named the Nobel Piece (of....) Prize.
2
While I tend to agree with the Maureen's idea in the following sentence, I am amazed that so learned a writer as she, who sprinkles her prose with esoteric Latin idioms and French language references to n'importe quoi, would fall prey to such a syntactically incorrect sentence as: "As far as the presidential race in 2020, the Democrats seem to be repeating the mistake that Hillary Clinton made: counting on the awfulness of Trump to do their work for them." "As far as literacy in English, Maureen Dowd should be above this level." There you have another example of her error.
1
Trump, of course, is too stupid, too crass, too ignorant, too gauche, and too un-empathetic (if he even knew the word) , to even remotely understand what a magnificent term "peace" truly means.
I've never been a fan of your writing Maureen. Like David Brooks, your conservative bent always seems to twist good writing into a kind of back hand slap.
Donald Trump is, at this point, is a series of IEDs exploding various aspects of our government and national integrity on any given day. He is a disgrace to the nation, and would, of course, be an outrageous stain on the Nobel Peace Prize. I get that a number of rabid sycophant Republican Senators and Congressman are seriously spouting this award for Dear Leader.
But there are, indeed, many decent Democratic leaders who can step up at all levels . The problem is the entirety of the Republic Party at the national level needs removal and redefinition to a kind of left of center Democratic Party (ala Hillary, perhaps).
That's where I think you and David Brooks could do a lot of good. Redefine Republicanism and help us get rid of the curse in the White House as soon as legally as possible.
1
Mo's main message is that the Democrats need to stop relying on Trump hate and get their act together. She's absolutely right, speaking truth to power, as usual. I'm not sure a party of college grads that sneer at the white working class can pull it out. Dowd is one of the few columnists who has her thumb on the pulse of the vast American heartland.
3
From what I've seen over the past few years, it is the white working class that has done most of the "sneering" at college grads (who are mostly too busy working hard and living their lives to care about what some blue collar guy in Michigan thinks of them), not to mention the "sneering" the Trump supporters have been doing to any and all who are non-white in the first place.
The Drumpf family pretended to be from Sweden not Germany. I don't see a Nobel Peace Prize for dotard Drumpf in my crystal ball.
3
Trump may continue to trump the Democrats, until they truly get "fired up and ready to go". This was Obama's slogan in 2012, but now Democrats are still aloof.
Perhaps they need someone like Oprah Winfrey to run for Congress. There might be a draft Oprah movement.
When Democrats wake up and start putting themselves on the line, like soldiers in battle, Trump might be beat....
Will Democrats please wake up and start fighting full force?
============================================
1
Not your best. Barely got through it. Now I know why you're taking Wednesdays off.
The New Yorker's current profile of H.R. McMaster includes the tidbit that after the N.S.A. cut Trump's daily briefing down to a single page - he still wouldn't read it because it was too long. His briefing now consists of cards with pictures on them l(like "See Jane Run" one staffer said). Trump refuses to listen to his staff or his cabinet. He's an ignorant, impetuous, arrogant fool - North Korea or not, it's going to catch up to him eventually and the odds of him making a huge and deadly mistake are enormous. Let's not get ahead of ourselves praising this jerk who's destroyed the State Dept. and refuses to learn his job or listen to experts. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day. North Korea may be Trump's twice a day. And it may be that Kim Jong Un knows Trump is stupid and he can play him - which is what Vladimir Putin seems to be doing. Trump the fool who's destroying our democratic institutions because Putin wants to weaken us doesn't deserve any prize...
6
Amen!
1
It will be interesting to see the two greatest con-men in the World at each other. I am not too optimistic though, my (and history's) bet is that the Dear Leader will con the US yet again.
1
Cynical and rather obtuse. Maureen can't help herself with the gratuitous Obama bashing. And please tell Cory Booker, Gavin Newsom, Amy Klobuchar and others that there is no one coming up in the ranks who might be worthy of the presidency.
3
The Con Don can't stand President Obama being more accomplished, smart and awarded than he is.
I wonder how much a Nobel costs? If it's awarded to this phony we'll need to find out.
2
Awarding the Nobel to Trump would transform the award from a recognition of moral and diplomatic excellence to celebrating the triumph of transactionalism, void of moral compass. Does the character of the awardee no longer matter? Does the totality of his moral world and actions no longer count? Does this signal the completion of the means-ends inversion that destroys nations as they careen from extreme to extreme while their citizens are disenfranchised from democratic institutions? I hope the Nobel Committee sees the larger implication of a Trump nomination.
1
Trump is as Allie Fox is described Mosquito Coast:
"the worst kind of pain in the neck -- a know-it-all who's sometimes right."
2
What a great picture of our sour faced, reprobate president. We should all be so proud.
3
I see similarities here with the Berlin Wall coming down in Reagan's presidency. At that time it was Gorbachev, who was very open to the idea of detente with the West because the Communist system was failing. Here the parallel is a South Korean leader, who like Gorbachev, wants a detente (albeit a different reason) with a leader who sees the limitations of his government.
1
Cartoon? Obama got his Nobel for tying his shoes. Trump will get his for unifying the Korean Peninsula.
3
Hitler was praised for 1938. Didn't make him a better person. Kim is a murderer and Trump is a disgusting authoritarian. Making a deal to improve their own standing doesn't change this.
4
America seem to have discovered a new, fantastic weapon: a presidential utterance. Reagan is already given credit for bringing about the breakup of the Soviet Union by demanding the taking down of the Berlin wall, and now we have Trump who brings about the surrender of North Korea by claiming a bigger button. Since Trump has only managed to weaken the government by giving away needed resources, I wonder why China and North Korea would feel pressed to "give in". There is a bigger weapon they could have used to counter attack, it is parade. Invite Trump and give him a huge parade an he will be your friend.
2
Good gawd, girl - why do you keep campaigning for the con?! I guess you're a closet deplorable. :/
6
Hitler was also nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. That didn't work out so well, either.
13
OK, Maureen, now write a column about why his predecessor "won" a Nobel PEACE Prize.
- Was it for ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan?
- Was it for a peace treaty to end to Korean War?
- Was it for making inspirational/aspirational speeches, that lacked any follow through, but enabled "liberals" to feel good about themselves for the election of a Black POTUS?
Just because you preferred "Tweetie Bird" to "Sylvester" hardly justifies your rant. If you feel bad about mocking Hillary then go to Confession. Tweetie needs all the help he can get.
2
The Times editorial writers need to take a big fat Western Civ course, being sure to cover Machiavelli: many bad men have been great leaders.
2
MoDo continues to normalize this guy. Writing about the Nobel Peace Prize legitimizes it for people.
OK, Korea winds up being great but what about America?
1
Trump should get the Nobel Peace Prize.
The idea of Donald Trump getting a Nobel Peace Prize is even more ludicrous than him being elected President, because the Nobel Committee, even if they make mistakes, aren't ignorant idiots.
If peace comes to the Korean Peninsula it won't be because of Donald Trump's brilliant diplomacy, but because KJU finally figured out that Trump really IS crazy enough to start a nuclear war just to prove he's got the biggest...button...on the planet.
That's like saying Hitler and Stalin deserved to share the Nobel Peace Prize for driving the powers of Western Europe to finally put aside their differences to found the European Economic Communities, now the EU.
In other words, the guy threatening nuclear war, forcing those in danger to make compromises they otherwise would forego to make peace, is NOT the peacemaker!
Get real, Maureen. The Nobel Committee knows this.
6
The biggest difference between Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump is that Trump believes the garbage that pours out of his own mouth.
3
Bottom line - Trump is a proven thief and liar.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/09/28/i-sold-trump...
He manipulates the worst of human weaknesses with his dishonesty.
Is this what the USA has to offer the world now?
2
The truth is that everyone lies.
1
This is a quite uninformed piece of work. The NYT should take away Dowd's license as an op-ed columnist. Reading more widely, you learn that Trump has in fact given Kim Jong-Un major diplomatic successes (eg, the promise of a summit with the US presidency, legitimacy on the world stage) while Kim has given up **nothing** except the most vague promises of "denuclearization," a path US negotiators have trod twice before. And then she starts bad-mouthing the potential Democratic nominee before he/she is chosen. The NYT front webpage just now points out Trump's reduced negotiating leverage now that the South Korean leader has decided he wants peace. Really, NYT, this is embarrassing. I guess Dowd has repented of recent Trump scare-mongering. Back to her favorite Obama bashing. She probably will get an "exclusive" Trump interview out of this.
9
Was this piece written before or after that mountain collapsed allowing radiation to escape? Just asking......
President Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize because he was spiritually brilliant enough to get himself elected as the first Black President of the most racist nation on this planet. The benefit that his accomplishment holds for Black children all over this planet is invaluable and priceless. His achievement is more than worthy of the Noble Peace Prize. But perhaps Ms. Dowd's own world is just too wealthy and White to appreciate this. Obviously the Nobel committee was not nearly so obtuse.
8
Actually, Obama was the first bi-racial president...although the played the race card to his own advantage. He made a number of African Americans feel good about themselves and the country (some, especially his wife, for the first time) did he really do much to really improve the lives of average Black Americans? He seemed to spend more time in Malibu than South Central (can't blame him I guess). Well, his wife made out pretty well with that $30 million book deal. Let's see how much of that she donates to African-American causes. Maybe that will make her proud. Or not.
1
You can stand by the train tracks yelling "McGuillicuddy! McGuillicuddy!! McGuillicuddy!!!" and when the train passes by you can believe that it was your yelling "McGuillicuddy!" that caused it to pass by.
Just saying.
5
Here's the future Maureen...Little rocket man gathers up all his nuclear capability and surrenders them. Iran decides their nuclear deal is in fact the worst deal ever and surrenders them to. Mexico builds a wall, a big beautiful one by the way. Palestinians decide Jerusalem should be the capital of Israel and only Israel and that apartheid is a pretty good deal. Americans decide health insurance isn't such a big deal anyway and oh yea there are some good Nazi's out there, good people. And one other thing. Tax breaks for people and corporations who were getting along just fine are good for middle and lower income people. Oh and did I mention the Trump Cabinet...best one ever, by far the best one ever....no swamp there folks, no corruption there, collusion? Never. Nobel Peace Prize? Big deal ...Sainthood maybe then a big deal.
6
This is the nth NYT article on N.Korea and Trump´s impact on negotiations, but none has made reference to the fact that there are credible reports that NK´s nuclear site recently collapsed following its last test detonation. See: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/26/north-korea-nuclear-test-s.... Why is this not part of the NYT reporting. Do we suspect it is fake news? From the Guardian, no less? If it is true, it is explanation enough for Kim´s U turn.
1
There are few, if any, credible reports that come out of the Guardian.
Since you have trashed every democrat that gets near the white house, why don't you run? Oh...never mind
1
A charismatic, manipulative and delusional imbecile is still an imbecile. It is not complicated. But some are pushing the envelope beyond recognition: no human language has the word to describe those that are asking for a Nobel prize for this infinitely incompetent president.
4
Why does Dowd jump on the "Democrats don't have any policy ideas... just Trump hatred". I've heard any number of excellent ideas from a myriad of Democratic leaders on things like the minimum wage, student loans, "free" community college and regaining the respect of our allies. Does anybody think that a new Democratic regime would rescue the EPA and the Consumer Protection Agency? Dowd just isn't listening and falling into the White Nationalist/Racist/Homophobic/science denying group of ignoramuses otherwise known as the Republican Party. The party of the damned.
4
Way to go Maureen..... another blunder within the NY Times..... it is so sad that a world renowned newspaper has gone downhill fast at warped speed.... THE NEWS THATS FIT TO PRINT.... HAS DISAPPEARED
Talk about putting the cart before the horse[or ass for smaller carts].Trump should remove himself from any talks with Kim as south korea appears to be doing just fine w/o him.Furthermore any agreement will take years to achieve and monitor so let's just sit back and see what unfolds as we have been here many times before..with exception of kim going outside his sad little country to visit the south.Stay outta this, dotard, before you mess it up.
1
This is entertaining and might even come truce except Maureen forgot to mention Mueller, Southern District of NY, Schneiderman, and prison.
1
I hate this column....every word of it rings true :(
1
I'm sure you'll do you best Maureen, like you did in 2016 to help Trump get a second term.
4
"The Democrats are counting on Trump to self-destruct. And certainly, he loves to light his own auto-da-fe and incriminate himself. But the Democrats’ delight in this distracts them from rising from the humiliating ashes of 2016 with some dynamic new ideas and messengers."
Right. It's like a dream in which you're trying to cross the street but your legs can't get traction. You should easily reach your goal, and yet it's all you can do to inch forward on hands and knees. By the way, I hear that women seldom have such dreams. Is that so?
"'He’s shaping the behavior of much of the world, getting inside people’s heads. ... Then he acts in a way that changes the course of things.
"'And expecting him to be different or less crazy only makes us the crazy ones. His behavior gets more outrageous, out of control and florid as the pressure on him persists. And it’s only going to get worse.'"
Right.
"That’s comforting."
Right. I mean, Yeah, right.
Sorry guys, but many of us living outside the USA conclude that TRUMP IS AMERICA in the same way that HITLER WAS GERMANY or MUSSOLINI WAS ITALY. Perhaps Americans will be able to change this but to do so they should change their attitude to basic values. For instances, money and bullying seem to be beliefs deeply ingrained in America. Love for gold can easily turn golden crooks into role models. Sanctimonious self-righteousness breeds hypocrisy, another stigma at the core of the American society since the Scarlet Letter was written all those many years ago. Racism, white supremacy, despise for the poor, and manipulations to prevent people from voting are at the core of the so called American democracy. It is all about lobbying and money. Surely there is another America, as it was another Germany and another Italy during WWII. Let´s hope we can see more of it in the coming months! And please forget for a moment of Nobel Prizes, Oscars, etc! They mean nothing in the world of politics.
2
I'd like to ask Ms. Dowd what person or party could possibly succeed in talking about health care or education with a circus monkey sucking all the air out of the room? While many of our fellow citizens continue to be entertained by his endlessly repetitive tricks, many others have grown weary and simple voter fatigue will result in the cancellation of the Trump Presidency show in 2020 or before. Stay calm, insistent and steady Democrats, and change will come.
1
"The Hillary Clinton of Universe New York Times (UNYT) is similar to the Hillary Clinton of the known universe (U1) except that in UNYT she was the rightful winner of the 2016 election.
"Chozick’s subject is time travel—impossible in U1 but commonplace in UNYT . By means of technology unknown to the inhabitants of U1, Chozick transports her UNYT readers to an ancient period of fossilization that political paleontologists of U1 have named “Who Cares?” There, she and her audience experience phenomena hardly imaginable to us. In U1 we sometimes beat a dead horse, but in UNYT they feed it and groom it and ride it around."
-P.J. O'ROURKE
April 27, 2018
It’s funny because Obama won a Nobel Peace Prize for absolutely nothing while Trump may finally end the Korean War
If Dowd were to just come out and say that she supported her friend Trump that would at least be honest. Instead she sneaks her support in between the sentences and then, of course manages one more attack on Hilary Clinton. Hitler brought together the US, UK and USSR but I don't think that is what Nobel had in mind. The moves for peace in North Korea are despite him and no due to him. Moreover, the greatest risk to this initiative is the meeting between Trump and Kim. Kim would always have been willing to denuclearize if he got a treaty with the South guaranteeing his continued rule and enormous infusions of aid while not committee him to any degree of regime modification. If Obama had negotiated this it would have been Maureen's allies at Fox whose heads would explode. This is actually clear from the recent reporting in the Times ....but then again she has always been to busy personally attacking Democrats, such as when she said that Obama was not a real man, to actually ever study policy.
1
The dumbest, most dangerous among us will occasionally and unknowingly do something smart in the same clueless way they do harm. That explains anything Trump does that might be considered good.
As he continues to unravel more and more each day (it's only a matter of time before he completely implodes) his filthy rants will get worse. He's not done doing damage. And never forget it was Republicans who made this madman possible.
2
I don’t find Trump’s diplomatic success hard to understand at all.... you stop a thug by threatening to hit him with a baseball bat... not by fear.
I'll bet we see a Trump Tower and Golf Course in N. Korea before you know it. That's what will come from a meeting of these two towering nitwits. Trump does nothing that doesn't add to his personal aggrandizement or his wallet.
If it even happens.
2
A cross between Yosemite Sam, the Tasmanian Devil and Wile E. Coyote.
And NOT in a GOOD way. Or, maybe just any old Man, screaming
" Get off my Lawn, and presidency ".
1
Seems the commentators have more on the ball then the journalists as they are the ones making it clear that it was North Korea's ability to launch a nuclear missile anywhere on the planet that changed the equation, not Trump. In fact, the Idiot in Chief is playing into the hand of Kim by placing him on the big stage where he and his father and grandfather all wanted to be. Nuclear weapons are the only cards North Korea has to play and he thinks they are just going to give them up? They will exact huge payments and Trump will give it to them only to be able to say he did something nobody else could do. This is what North Korea wanted all along and their strategy may inspire other countries to follow their lead. Pathetic that this isn't the story being told instead of a hypothetical Peace Prize for a man who doesn't even value the concept of peace.
1
This ludicrous column will only have a point if the Nobel committee ever decides to consider awarding Trump a peace. Seems to me that there is a zero chance for that, as Maureen Dowd no doubt knows, so she evidently produced this piece just to rile up the reliably liberal Times readers. We should refuse to play.
1
Isn’t anybody paying attention to the fact that Kim's offer of talks with The Dotard only occurred after the collapse of the mountain where he was doing his nuclear testing? Conceding the ball game to the other team is simply an attempt to hide the fact that you’ve lost all the balls.
1
"And here’s the part that would drive Trump haters into a frenzy: If he could pull off denuclearizing North Korea, he would deserve it more than Barack Obama did when he had that bouquet thrown at him seconds into his presidency."
Absolutely true on BOTH counts. Obama getting the undeserved Nobel was as unjustified as the many honorary PHDs bestowed by ultra-left wing Universities (but I am repeating myself) on worthless liberal biased TV anchors (many of whom were fired for sexual harassment later) and equally biased and dishonest op-ed writers from the Washington Post or even the NYT.
1
The reason North and South Korea are making peace is to huddle together and join forces against the Crazy Dotard who they fear would push the nuclear button on an impulse. That sudden alliance might bring peace to the region, but the Nobel is given to one who actively works to bring peace, not one who scares the hell out of peace loving people.
1
Hey Mo, Detach and reread what you wrote: Good for America and the world equals bad for the democrat party. What does that say about you and your party? You are so blinded by your Trump-hatred that you've utterly lost sight of what's important.
Thanks Maureen, you once again cut to the heart of the matter. Trump is completely unfit for office and lies daily. As David Brooks says political partisanship has become "totalistic." We can't prematurely try to impeach him without an overwhelming evidence of crime enough to convince Republican congressional members to dump him. A large number of his millions of voters will simply not believe anything that Democrats accuse him of because they have dismissed everything negative about him as "fake news." Apparently, if you do repeat a lie often, it does become true to 2018 partisans.
As far as Nobel, all I can say is when hell freezes over, but that might be in our lifetimes!
1
Here's the irony. The leader of North Korea, who literally starves his population and assassinates his enemies including his uncle and brother. And the leader of the United Stars of America, who said the press is the enemy of the people, accused our neighbors on our southern border of being rapists and drug smugglers, slandered a federal judge because of his Mexican heritage and seems to cozy up to other leaders like Putin, the president of Turkey and Duarte of the Philippians. Could conceivably both win the Nobel Peace Prize. Up is down. Night is day. Black is white. And the Bizzaro world has finally arrived.
5
Republicans are out of the mind, yet again. Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize?? Hey, why not? And, while they're at it, they should nominate Scott Pruitt for the Nobel Prize in Economics for his deregulatory policies of fossil fuels. How about nominate Steve Bannon for the Pulitzer Prize in oustanding journalism? To quote Barney Frank, "What planet do you spend your time on?"
4
Maureen is desperate for good news, some prism to refract Trump as a white light, er, .. knight.
The N Korea thing is not going to be shaped by a guy who can’t count, can’t focus, can’t accept advice, and can’t tell if it’s raining when he’s outside.
5
Right on all counts. Maybe having the Olympics just a few miles over the DMZ was a good thing??? Kim could see for himself how backward and deprived he and his country really are, and how much bling he's missing. He's jealous, and willing to make nice. If anyone deserves the prize it should be Moon, not Trump.
1
Actually, the "Cartoon Nobel Laureate" was Obama, who had done absolutely nothing to earn the award, and continued to do nothing for the next eight years.
3
Trump being a Nobel Laureate aside, I can't tell you how disappointed I am in the Democratic Party. They seem to be more interested in revenge than new and visionary leadership. Is the best that they can do is Biden and Sanders? (not to mention Pelosi and Schumer). I'm going to be 65 next month and compared to these folks I'm just a youngster. And curiously nobody younger seems to be stepping up. Hopefully after the midterms we will see some motion. To drop a Dowdian French phrase -- Sacrebleu!
3
the nobel peace prize isn't about peace, it's about politics.
The "Dotard" is more deserving of a prison sentence than a Peace Prize. He's earned the former.
4
Given Ms. Dowd's point about Kissinger and Obama receiving this prize, she should argue it isn't as prestigious as it seems.
But it may be that the means to the end don't matter for the Nobel committee, only the end itself. Hardly noble, pun intended.
Adam Schiff in 2020!
1
I laughed so hard at your suggestion that I chocked on my coffee!
The Nobel Piece Prize should go to Colin Kaepernick.
I may not agree with what he did, but he openned the door to a national discussion about race relations in this country and in the world.
5
Trump has nothing to do with Kim Jung Un backing off on nuclear testing. According to The Guardian, the test site is no longer usable. It collapsed and is leaking radiation. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/26/north-korea-nuclear-test-s...
2
As dangerous as Trump is to the environment, here & abroad, to the labor movement & the health of every American, let's give this peace overture on the Korean peninsula a chance.
We've had seemingly stable & deliberative presidents in our recent past who left our nation with retrograde lasting internal problems & global devastation & destabilization.
Making peace is more important to Koreans than to us. Let's not forget that.
1
"Republicans paid a price in 1998 for pushing to impeach Bill Clinton and Clinton regained popularity."
Yeah, and two years later, his vice president's campaign strategy to win the White House was to separate him from an outgoing president with a 62% approval rate.
Again, many "thanks" to Bob Shrum and Donna Brazile for your contribution in proving The Peter Principle.
3
Sometimes only gut feeling and common sense observation can provide clues. We've all wondered why Trump is incapable of denouncing Putin. It's both obvious and head-scratching. And a clue that something's afoot with Trump's finances with Russian oligarchs and/or Trump is neck deep in kompramant.
Now, suddenly, world dynamics change and Trump may deserve the Nobel Peace Prize. Huh??? A man who cannot even foster peace in his own country suddenly becomes Mahatma Ghandi?
My gut is churning. What's really going on here? Who else is behind this? I'm obviously no foreign policy expert, but my common sense screams that something's not right with this picture.
2
The bar is so low for Mr. Trump, who plays our nation's bellicose, bumbling presidential apprentice on TV, it is ridiculous.
So many of us just want to duck and cover our eyes out of embarrassment for our country whenever our Chief Executive executes his personal government policy, conflicts, and firings by tweet or steps in front of a camera to spout more disinformation falsehoods and self-congratulatory accolades to himself.
Yet while about 60% of us see an empty-headed, narcissistic and dangerous man exhibiting probably several personality disorders, about 35-40% of us appear delighted by Trump's unpredictability and his poke-his-pudgy-little-fingers-in-everyone's-eye approach to diplomacy, human decency, and accepting personal responsibility for his mean-spirited actions.
Maureen appears to favor the latter team and, like the other Trumperians, finds politicians and political parties that have the above attributes mundane, boring, and unexciting.
No Nobel Prize for the unstable, incompetent, bullying, bad role model for our kids Mr. Trump.
If Trump keeps going like he is, perhaps he will earn a portrait--along with his pals Putin and Kim Jong-un--in the Museum of the World's Most Infamous Dictators and Demagogues.
This fawning support for Trump is the tyranny of the minority in action.
There is about 60% of us and 40% of them. It will come down to opposing the unnoble, unpeaceable Trump brigade with decent candidates (Democrat and Republican) and voter turnout.
1
This idea that whatever happens in North Korea can be directly attributed to Trump is preposterous and, frankly, racist. By all accounts thus far, it's President Moon Jae-in of South Korea who has brought North Korea to the table. While Trump was tweeting about "Little Rocket Man," Moon was laying the groundwork for talks. If anyone deserves a Peace Prize--should we get a favorable outcome in Korea--it's Moon and Kim. For Lindsay Graham to suggest that a no-nothing buffoon like Trump deserves credit is just evidence of how far Graham will go to flatter the president and advance his America First rhetoric.
4
Here in California I see no signs that the current Democratic Party would heed your words, Maureen. Who would you nominate to be the adult whose supervision it so desperately needs? The current tribe is determined to jettison Feinstein, one of the few they need to learn from. Unfortunately, the catastrophe you describe is, possibly, the only hope to push the party toward maturity.
"Democrats could help Trump two years down the road if they take back the reins of Congress and go too far, as Democrats are wont to do." This is an example of the false equivalency the media loves to spin--and which has put into place a number of extremists in government. Take just one example, Scott Pruitt's complete dismantling of the EPA and support he receives from Republicans. Yet when Dems propose legislation such as universal health care--an idea that deserves at least a rational discussion--it is positioned in the media as one shade short of communism. The list of imbalances is long.
1
If some type of deal where North Korea actually gives up its nuclear weapon development, agrees to open inspections and an open dialogue with South Korea and the U.S. in order to help find diplomatic solutions to future conflicts, then shouldn't we be happy? Would that not be a great victory for the U.S. and generally, the world?
I don't think Trump is a good president. I hope in two years, there is a better candidate that can win the presidency. In the meantime, if the Democrats do retake the House or even all of Congress, they'd do very well to prove that they can govern, solve problems and prove that their message, that government is crucial to a well functioning country, helps the country actually function well. Otherwise, Trump will absolutely win a second term if he wants to run.
The President of South Korea deserves the Nobel more than Trump. I doubt that Trump's bluster and threats did much to sway Kim, the tightened sanctions did more than anything. Why didn't Obama turn the screws more in the past? I also doubt that Kim will give up the nukes, he could still get peace with the South without doing so and the World is better off. Where would that leave Trump? Everything else Maureen says about the Dems seizing defeat from the jaws of victory is right on target unfortunately. FoxNews is just way too powerful to spin and influence the Trump base.
4
Let's not forget Kim now has his nuclear weapons and doesn't feel the need for further testing. Having reached that goal why not sit down and talk about the lesser issues while probably demanding---and getting--massive amounts of aid to bring the rest of his country out of the dark ages.
In my opinion even if the dumpster manages to control himself long enough to get a deal he will never be worthy of the Peace Prize.
Booby of the Year perhaps; I'll give it that.
1
Noble Laureate? Sure why not. And while you're at it give him Husband of the Year and Father of the Year.
6
Mo, have you been living in a cave...
Milner is the new Nobel...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakthrough_Prize_in_Fundamental_Physics
Only a physics prize for now, though...
Nothing for the hard things - like economics and literature...
Though I hear (or not) he may start offering a Peace Prize next year...
Right now - looks like two front-runners...
Like so many momentous scientific advances - two people in very different places, who discovered the same thing at just about the same time...
Far more earth-shaking than dynamite...
As it turns out - they might have collaborated, early on...
Why are we assuming this is going to play out like the fantasies of our simpleton president? There is zero chance that Kim will get rid of his nukes. Kim and Xi are going to play Trump. Trump will agree to some role for China that will severely diminish our influence in Asia, and Kim will keep his nukes.
2
Ms Dowd, is this your warm up column for yet another encomium to Trump? All over the country, including in my congressional district, ordinary citizens are marching, organizing, protesting and yes, getting ready to run for office. Unlike you, I admire them and take hope from them and their passion for justice and goodness. Your cynical louche dismissal of them and your inching towards another embrace of Trump's depravity makes me wonder if you have any moral compass left at all.
6
As unhinged as Trump seems he understands his one third of the country better than anyone. For him to sit in Washington and be subjected to vulgar abuse from a so-called comedian would be a total waste of his time.Better in Michigan with real people and not in the Capital with too many self-important and self-centered elitists.
2
I remember Ronald Reagan warming up the crowd, before a news conference in 1984, saying: "My fellow Americans, I am pleased to announce that I've just signed legislation to outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in 5 minutes." (har har har)
This is a good example of Nixon's Madman theory styled foreign policy: pretend you are a mad man as negotiating position. And Kissinger gets a Nobel Prize (har har har)
And now we have a real live mad man. One who brags about having a "bigger button." Anyone laughing yet?
So, the Democrats when in power usually go too far? Really? If only! I need more information on this one, Maureen.
Maureen and her band manning the progressive barricades want pretty, tall, polite and well-spoken speakers.
Those guys tend to never do any good for the country, but Maureen et cie are perfectly willing to have ZERO results as long as the pressident fits within their skewed mindset.
But now we have a breash outsider who never even WANTED to fit into the ersatz image of a progresive-friendly President, and it is driving the more aged among progressives TOTALLY bonkers.
Now we even have black voices calling out for freedom of thought. No progressive een has a plan to try to damage rappers like they have to destroy Presidential nominees for agency heads.
What's a Maureen to do? Insults are all she has.
3
Facts (e.g. Kim Jong Un's unprecedented visit to South Korea) will clearly NEVER interfere with this crowd's rantings.
1
You have to realize that the Nobel committee really can't give the prize to Trump without giving it to Kim Jong Un as well. That'd look great: the Nobel Peace Prize to a murderous tyrant. Oh well, it's been done before. And what happens in two years when Kim Jong Un changes his mind as all his predecessors have? Do they have to give back the prize?
1
The Nobel Peace Prize cheapened itself into farce when Yasser Arafat was named a winner. Trump might as well get one too and join Kissinger and those other worthies, for all the meaning it has.
Trump deserves the Nobel Tyrant Award. He represents the antithesis of America's best ideals. He appeals to anger, division, racism. He has only slogans and is used by his Republican appeasers to promote an unpopular agenda of tax cuts, deregulation, and pollution.
He is a loud mouthed unempathetic demagogue who
admires Putin. He is a corrupt and likely criminal liar.
If he gets re-elected, he will confirm the total abnegation and loss of Democratic American ideals. I have confidence that Democratic voters and independents can select an inspiring candidate to defeat Trump and renew a progressive American vision that can offer all Americans a better future with more social and income equality and greater unity!
1
I think it's rather foolish to discount the role China may be playing in getting Kim Jong-un to rethink things.
1
Oh Maureen, you just can't break up with Trump, can you? That being said, I very much doubt Oslo will consider him for the award as it would forever damage its prestige. All that lying, bullying, paying prostitutes, misogyny, racketeering, etc. is not Nobel Laureate material. Just saying. Instead, it's possible see it going to the leaders of North and South Korea as they seem to be working it out amongst themselves, as they should. Time will tell.
5
Yes, I'm trying to imagine Rachel Maddow's or Charles Blow's or Paul Krugman's faces when they have to comment on Trump's acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize at the same time they have to comment on whatever is the latest Democratic Party effort to get him impeached. Better than Monty Python.
2
We will see what the meeting produces, but it is the N. Korea and S. Korea presidents who are driving this show. Trump is just a bystander.
1
"If he could pull off denuclearizing North Korea, he would deserve it more than Barack Obama"
Maybe. But--
(a) Don't do a "post hoc ergo propter hoc". (After this is not because of this.) NK might de-nuke; but that doesn't mean Trump did it--tho he'd take credit for the tides too.
(b) That alone (tho a step) won't make the world peaceful--not with Yosemite Sam on the red button. Think Iran, Palestine, Africa--etc. Macon would still deserve it more.
(c) NK might be thinking--De-nuking gets Trump re-elected. Thus destabilizing the West--and making the world LESS peaceful--potentially and actually--while increasing its prestige.
The cartoon Nobel Laureate was named in 2009, as history has shown.
1
The 'presumed success' of the approach used by Trump with North Korea might have tragic consequences for us all as it will be used, it already is, with Iran, will it work with them?
Peace thru strength fills the mouths of belligerent hawks, but this is more peace thru bullying.
Finally I cannot keep from detecting a significant amount of hypocrisy with Trump wanting to significantly increase and vary the nuclear capability of the USA, but of course you are the good guys,
troublesome that your chief is a bully.
Saluti
Dowd bashing the Democrats once again. She helped get Trump elected by trashing Hillary any chance she got. I don't think she has recovered from her trip to Colorado when she ate like 8 times the dose of a marijuana candy bar.
Anyway, the South Koreans (and Chinese) are going to be amazed at what Trump (the great negotiator) will give away on their behalves so that he can claim a great victory.
It will be worthy of an award, an emmy anyway, for someone acting out being a statesman and privately giving everything away.
2
The Nobel is highly politicized award. I doubt those wacky Swedes would ever give it to a politically incorrect blowhard like Trump. But if North Korea dumps its nuke program and the North and South make nice, he probably deserves it -- and I say that as someone who voted for Bernie Sanders. He would certainly be more deserving -- in case peace breaks out on the Korean peninsula -- than Barack Obama or Henry Kissinger.
2
**Resubmission** The only thing nearly Nobellian about Donald Trump is his willingness to dynamite every deal in his path along with those who stand in his way. Dynamite Donald is one constant angry, mean-spirited, tweet-taunting, destructive explosion after another. My big fear is that he'll do just that to the summit with North Korea by blowing his top and dynamiting the peace overture by North Korea's Kim Jong-un. And then, of course, the flip-floppers like Lindsey Graham will also genuflect in praise of the [truly] mad bomber saying "War is Peace" is the only way to deal with the chameleon charlatan in Pyongyang. And we know how the nation rallies around a "war president." Remember, even leading Democrats like Hillary voted to authorize the Iraq War. Unfortunately, the "humiliating ashes" the Democrats and the world confront may prove to be radioactive. The problem put simply is, "'We're dealing with a person who's psychologically" very impaired and so unstable as to have said "Why have nuclear weapons if you don't use them." Dynamite Donald may be delusional, but we, too, have deluded ourselves in constantly normalizing what is clearly abnormal behavior in the first president "categorically different" in suffering from a mental illness. There is and should be no Nobel oblige for his actions.
1
"If he could pull off denuclearizing North Korea, he would deserve it more than Barack Obama"
Maybe. But--
(a) Don't do a "post hoc ergo propter hoc". (After this is, not because of this.) NK might de-nuke; but that doesn't mean Trump did it--tho he'd take credit for the tides too.
(b) That alone (tho a step) won't make the world peaceful--not with Yosemite Sam on the red button. Think Iran, Palestine, Africa--etc. Macon would still deserve it more.
(c) NK might be thinking--De-nuking gets Trump re-elected. Thus destabilizing the West--and making the world LESS peaceful--potentially and actually--while increasing its prestige.
Maureen,
How I once loved your columns. I looked up to you.
The Democrats are doing their best, with a broad constituency, to fight a monster.
Rather than critique with your keyboard, you could help. I'm doing my part to make this country better, professionally and in my spare time.
Maybe you could be a speechwriter for a good politician you believe in, one with a soul and empathy, and a positive vision for America. Someone like Barack Obama.
Find the positive, Maureen, and do something.
Yours,
Terribly disappointed
6
Nothing unites folks like a common enemy - or at least a common madman.
Rather than risk being collateral damage in a US-N. Korea dispute, clearly it is now preferable for S. Korea to move to a new accommodation with its neighbors.
The Nobel itself like so many awards, is silly.
The Dotard and Lil Rockey Man may cook up a scheme that makes it falsely look like a deal to de-nuclearize. Liars love to concoct things. Trump gets to take the heat off the Republicans in November and Kim gets intros to a few porn stars. The NFL would be jealous of such a headline trade.
5
Lindsey Graham is hardly the first to do a one-eighty on Trump after 15 months of the very behavior that astonished and disgusted him throughout 2016. It's easy to do. We used to joke about the "new normal", but it's no longer a joke. The new normal is now... normal. To get in step, just watch a few hours of Fox news and amaze yourself by not gagging. Well, mostly.
For Trump to be awarded the Nobel and then invite the entire nation of Norway to immigrate to the U.S. - while complaining that the fake news press understated the ceremony's crowd size - would be normal. For Trump to promise to donate the Peace Prize to a veterans group and then disremember to write the check would be normal. For Trump to comment that Queen Sonja is in pretty good shape for an old broad would be normal.
Next thing, coal fired Fords and Chevys will be normal. Just you wait.
1
Who knows what the end result will be? The talks haven't even started yet. South Korean President Moon seems to be the major negotiator at this point.
Trump will claim the victory for himself no matter who did the real work if a real peace treaty is accomplished. Let's not forget who is advising the President, regime change proponent Bolton who also loves bombs. So Nobel Prize thoughts are a nice distraction for now.
And what would the Nobel committee do if Trump declares peace on the Korean Peninsula but then turns around and goes to war with Iran? No, right now there are too many balls in the air to predict such glories for our Dear Leader.
1
The Democrats had damned well better realize that tying themselves to the liberal wing of the party in the next couple of elections will do them no good at all. People are very tired, and not a little annoyed, at the holier-than-thou, politically correct identity politics of the liberal wing of the Democrat party.
It is the responsibility of the Democrat party to show that they deserve to govern by coming forward with policies and candidates that reflect an understanding that a vast swath of the country is hurting badly and losing faith in the promise of America. If the party does not stop focusing on "safe zones," "gender identity/fluidity/whatever-it-is-this-week," and its constant litany of offenses and personal slights experienced or imagined by the more exotic elements of the party, they can kiss a chance to actually govern goodbye.
There are a lot of us out here who are not particularly exotic in any way that liberal Democrats are attracted to, yet we have families to feed, kids to put through school, health issues to deal with, and the entire litany of challenges facing many, many Americans. Yet no one out here truly believes that the Democrat party cares one whit for those types of problems. Simply because Democrats are generally too busy making sure that someone who woke up and decided he was female that day should now be allowed to use the Ladies Room.
Grow up Democrat party and represent all of us out here who desperately need you to do so.
1
Resistance is futile. However, sloppy Ly'n Trump is fascinating to the chattering class, but decreasingly interesting to the rank and file resistance. Sure he'll get another term( it's hard to dislodge a sitting president), but on the margins, in the localities, determined opposition candidates believe they can get elected. I never read his tweets, no matter how many times you make them headline news. It's bad for mental health to let a birdbrain's thoughts into your head. The news media makes him more powerful then he really is.
Thanks Maureen. You’re absolutely right Trump could ride into a second term based on resentment that a newly Democratic Congress was preventing him from being himself. Remember the Schumer-Pelosi “Better Deal” from last summer? Neither does anybody else. Both of them should have stepped down after that. The difference between Trump and these two is Trump revels in his ignorance while Schumer and Pelosi clearly have no idea how clueless they are about the concerns of working families.
3
That Trump is even being mentioned as a possible Nobel Peace Prize winner just reinforces my perception of just how bogus the whole thing seems to be. From of a recognition of true achievement in strengthening world peace to a global Miss Congeniality prize.
1
I don't favor impeaching Trump until and unless the facts warrant it, which at present they don't. He violates his oath of office every day Pruitt is in his, but impeachment is not a legal judgement. It's a political one.
Dowd is wrong to assume that a Trump impeachment would play out the way Clinton's did. The Republicans failed to impeach Clinton because the country saw through their charade. The impeachment was seen as illegitimate, and Clinton's popularity rose because he was seen as beleaguered by Gingrich & friends.
Democrats, if they decided to impeach, would be much more deliberate and legalistic in their process. See the difference in 18 months of deliberation and hearings to enact Obamacare, and lack of hearings and deliberation during the effort to repeal it. Besieged, Trump would whine and act out, as he does, and would not be a sympathetic figure to most voters.
A better comparison is Nixon. Once the facts came out, Nixon could could his friends in the senate on one hand. Sympathetic he was not.
Also, Ms. Dowd, how about a little reporting with your assertions? Agreed, Democratic leadership is ossified, and petrified of losing the center by going left. They remember Mondale all too well. That said, what do you know about who's being groomed? Who would you put forward as eligible but insufficiently recognized? Just observing the surfeit of octogenarians isn't telling us much, and doesn't show you know anything your readers don't already know.
2
“Barack Obama”?? Who dat, Maureen?
Oh!, you mean “Barry”, right?
Tell us again how your daddy saved your vacation home neighborhood from racists. And please, give us some more wisdom from your Trump-loving brother.
Apple, tree.
2
I suspect the prize would be a joint award to Xi, Moon, Trump, and Kim. I'm not holding my breath.
3
Talk of Trump and the Nobel is merely Dowd counting on the dozen eggs she bought at Walmart to become a small flock. Not bloody likely for either to happen.
3
In 2016, there was talk of president Trump. Not bloody likely.
Could well be... Could well be...
i'm not sure why a democrat would want to declare he was running for potus just yet.
better to wait to see what happens in November than have six extra months of attacks, cheap shots and lies.
3
The apostle of nonviolence and peace, late Mr. Mahatma Gandhi, was not awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. It will be a shame if the toxic agent orange is bestowed with the award.
5
I'm a Trump hater. He makes me want to deny my American citizenship, but if he can peacefully denuclearize North Korea, maybe he does deserve a Nobel Peace Prize.
But, if Kim reaches an agreement with Moon, who says Trump deserves credit? Oh, Lindsey Graham. So, in other words, no one we should take seriously.
But, what if Kim refuses to give up his nuclear weapons? Should we then blame Trump? Well...yes! If you're eager to award him a Nobel Prize for de-nuking North Korea then he deserves the blame should negotiations fail.
But, what if Kim agrees to de-nuke and then secretly continues to nuke up as his sire and grandsire did?
Lots of "but's" and "if's" and that's because the subject is Donald 'The Humper' Trump. Who is like "Yosemite Sam — just hopping around in anger, firing his gun wildly, sometimes at his own foot."
Just because one hates Trump doesn't mean one cannot be balanced and fair. Give him a Nobel Peace Prize if we can certify North Korea gets rid of nukes and Trump was critical to the agreement. However, LOCK HIM UP, if Kim plays Trump for the fool we know he is. Now that is balanced and fair!
4
Hate is not healthy
Trump still would have achieved something Obama the Harvard graduate was somehow unable to achieve.
Dowd concedes Trump would deserve the Prize "more than Barack Obama did when he had that bouquet thrown at him seconds into his presidency..." Thank you for mentioning that huge embarrassment. The Nobel Peace Prize was tarnished immeasurably.
4
A couple of things, Maureen Dowd --
1. Read your colleague, Bret Stephens, in this Saturday's Times. He has a grasp of history and details very succinctly this method has been tried before.
2. A long time ago, Donald Rumsfeld said in regard to one of your columns, "If anyone believes Maureen Dowd," etc., etc., etc., being none too complimentary about something you wrote.
3. Using Lindsey Graham as a great prophet and reliable soothsayer is betting against the house.
4. No one that I can think of has drawn a parallel between Trump's love of Putin and dictators, with his lifelong quest for his father's love and approval. [Fred Trump was reported as a kind of tyrant, so why not Putin as his transference object?] As far as Kim, they could also come out of this as best friends.
5. As for the Democrats, yes, they need a better script. Where is Harvey Weinstein when you need him . . . ?
6. One more thing. If Trump wins the Nobel Prize, it will be the blackest of comedy, having been foretold by Mel Brooks in "The Producers" . . . "We picked the worst candidate, the most inhumane of dictators, we demolished the State Department, where did we go right!"
My quibble with Trump biographer Michael D’Antonio: Trump is EXACTLY like Cambridge Analytica which uses A.I. for bio-psycho-social profiling of Americans. Trump calls his natural 'gift' version: "instinct".
In 2016, Judge Curiel was attacked by Trump because he released the documents showing the sordid truth of Trump U. These excerpts personify the uncommonly "common" salesman.
"Objection: I Don't Want To Go Into Debt - Every single company goes into debt when they are first starting out, EVERY SINGLE BUSINESS!" Exhibit A-2, page 43 of 81. Understand that A LIE is sold with hyperbole.
"Pay attention and Target Potential Students." Exhibit B, page 84 of 133. Read through page 105. Understand that your best interest is NO PART of the sales equation.
"THE ART OF THE SET" Exhibit D, page 15 of 48. Understand the graph, "The Roller Coaster of Emotions", is the HARD SELL ride of every Trump deal.
https://americanbridgepac.org/searchable-trump-u-documents-released/
The mining of social media continues. The craft-work from Cambridge Analytica is endlessly messaged. You, the voter targets, ARE NOT ALLOWED TO LEAVE the sales presentation. It has no end.
The one big thing about Obama that Trump can't undo is the Nobel Peace Prize. It really sticks in his craw.
3
What did President Obama do to deserve the Noble Prize? Nothing?
Not being George Bush is not enough.
Enough with the crazy talk that Trump's unhinged mad behavior forced Kim Jong Un to negotiate. By that same brilliant piece of logic, Kim Jong-Un forced Trump to come talk to him, by demonstrating that he could bomb the US. The North Koreans seem to have been right not to trust the US, and they should continue not to trust the US.
The real powers in the US, the unimaginably Republican enablers, do not want a unified peaceful Korea. All the profuts from maintaining the troops and the bases would vanish. Bad, very bad!
3
Don't trust Iran, but trust North Korea? Why, other than one has Obama's name on it, and the other does not. Or maybe oil in the Mideast...
3
The “president” may shoot himself in the foot repeatedly but his supporters would rather throw themselves off a bridge before either admitting they were conned or disparage him-even after his unveiling his inner unhinged persona.
I would vote for the dotard to receive some type of prize-when he really wins at something and does something that benefits this country and all of the people. The tax con job doesn’t count.
Indeed, if the Democrats don’t field viable candidates who have the intestinal fortitude to counter act the orange unhinged president we will be stuck with whatever nonsense he can brag about on his favorite comedy network. And possibly get an Emmy for his performance in a reality show rather than a Nobel.
2
Well, Trump didn't kill his uncle (that we know of), but he did cut off health insurance for his sick newborn nephew after the nephew's father challenged Trump over their father's will.
So there's that.
5
Doesn't mean diddly that Lindsey Graham told Fox news yester that Donald Trump deserves the Nobel (not booby) Prize for bringing about peace on the Korean "peninshalla" as Trump's uber-careful Queen's accent pronounces it. Heck, Maureen - it's beyond human comprehension that Donald Trump, our Groper and Cheater in Chief could not only get the Nobel Peace Prize, but that he could finish out his first term, or even run for a second term in 2020.
The Orange Dotard is holding a rally tonight in Michigan, north of Detroit; its just another campaign rally for the guy who beyond human comprehension won our 45th Presidency. Meanwhile the White House Correspondents are gathering tonight to roast the odd-coiffed Kahuna at the Washington Hilton, scene of the failed assassination attempt of Ronald Reagan by the Hinckley guy who is now free at home in Virginia.
The Democrats can't count on Trump self-destructing sooner or later. Maybe sooner, given his demented 35 minute rant on Fox and Friends yesterday. Notwithstanding his outrageous behaviour and cascade of vomitrocious tweets, and his failed V.A. appointee, Ronny Jackson's blithering assessment that the President could last to 200 years of age if he went easier on the burgers and fries...
Whatever. Anyway. Thanks for your exegesis on our "Cartoon Nobel Laureate", Maureen. A nice read to enjoy with our cornflakes. And "have an eggroll, Mr. President"!
1
Bait and switch is the method. This will certainly backfire in the Republicans' faces. Trump started on Friday, after the pix from Panmunjom were shown; in his press conference with Mrs. Merkel he modulated his voice and uttered a word hitherto unknown to him: "responsibility". That was the giveaway: he can't abide that Obama got the Nobel. Now his "base" will chant "Nobel" (it should be "NO-NObel") and turn our heads away from his bullying, his bromance with Putin, his no-tax-returns, the "Access Hollywood Tape" and his endless belittling name-calling. Mrs. Dowd's day will also soon dawn.
1
Poor Democrats, who would have thought that white supremacy would been the great winning message for America the global super power. Hurrah.
After two years of pouring battery acid over Hillary Clinton, the GOP had to bring in the Russians to deliver knock out punch. The new norm of Republican 21st century political game plan use the Russians to destroy their political opponents. It truly makes one proud to be an American. Maybe John McCain could give a speech on the senate floor extolling how this is the crowning glory of his leadership of the Republicans party.
In this regard the nobel peace prize belongs to Vladimir Putin. He along had the foresight to bring Trump and the Republican Party to such grand achievements.
3
The Nobel Peace Prize lost a lot of its meaning when they gave it prematurely to Obama who then went on to overthrow Libya and turn that into a failed state, started a CIA backed program with Islamic rebels for the overthrow of Assad in Syria, sold billions of dollars of weapons to the Saudis to be use on civilians in Yemen, gave billions of dollars in aid to Israel with no strings attached to stop the illegal encroachment of settlement in the occupied West Bank, and still kept the war going in Afghanistan. Like the other prizes, the committee should wait years before giving it out so that the test of time will truly determine if the recipient is justified in receiving it.
1
"President Trump’s peculiar form of diplomacy . . . has somehow produced a possible breakthrough."
Wrong, wrong, wrong. Outrageously wrong!
[And this entire column is "off its crumpet".]
1
Blessed are the peacemakers.
Blessed are those who are persecuted with fake news and witch hunts for righteousness sake.
2
My understanding is that the liberal Moon, and several liberal presidents before him, have done the hard work here of Korean diplomacy, over many years. Meanwhile . . . a Nobel Peace Prize for a man who denigrates the poor in our own hemisphere? "Will new neighbors welcome us as brothers and as friends? Or will they scoff and send us on our way?" (Charles Anthony Silvestri, Tuvayhun)
3
Ms. Dowd has missed Trump's greatest strength.
People who think just like Ms. Dowd.
1
Dear Ms Dawd: Please don’t panic yet. If theres something learnt from the 2016 election is to not count eggs before they hatch.
That said, it’s very unlikely Trump would get a Nobel Prize; He is white, conservative and republican. In fact, I think Oslo rather give it to the NK guy first, just like it gave it to Gorbachev and not Reagan. In fact some of your commenters here are already doing just that. The liberal world is extremely predictable by now.
Finally, I know you all are struggling to admit Trumps assertiveness. No worries there either; we’re used to it as well. Its been said “if you have nothing nice to say about someone, don’t say anything at all”. In Media’s case regarding Trump is the opposite: “If you have nothing bad to say (about him), don’t say anything at all”.
Moving on.
1
Are you inferring that the Nobel Peace Surprise is now for sale, if so DJT will be the high bidder.
2
I am horrified that anyone would even suggest Trump get the Nobel. If anyone deserves it, it is Moon Jae-In of South Korea. If you really think about it, the North Korean leader is wiser than Trump anyway. He at least seems to recognize the total destruction nuclear war would have whereas our imbecile president doesn't seem to understand. Kim is selecting the wise course of making peace with South Korea. Why tangle with an insane and inane dotard who threatens to destroy you? He just might be--probably is--THAT CRAZY.
I agree with others here who complain when you say the Democrats don't have a great message. At least they care about health care, gun control, fair taxes, and climate change.
The faster we can get rid of as many Republicans as necessary to take the House and Senate will not be too soon for most of us. AND the faster we can show Donald the door won't be soon enough. We'll finally be able to breathe a sigh of relief.
1
I am really tired of hearing about Trump. Trump is incompetent and full of hate. Hate for the press, the other party and even important American institutions. George Bush left the country in a shambles and Trump is far worse. If Trump continues in office, the United States will be set back for a generation and will become perhaps the most despised nation on the face of the earth.
1
Trump should get the"ignoble"prize. He is the epitome of the anti noblesse oblige. As far as him running again, this ruminant of a man won't make it. He's in a self destruction mode and is due for a wake up call after Cohen gets indicted. Mueller may not show proof of collusion with the Russians, but there is probably a cornucopia of evidence in the FBI raid of Cohen to charge Trump ex post facto of crimes such as defalcation, fraud, money laundering, tax scams, payoffs to crime bosses here and Russia, obstruction of justice, and other crimes.
I know Ms.Dowd was not a big fan of Hillary, neither was I, but I think the Dems have some viable candidates such as, Booker, Harris, maybe Biden, Kennedy, Tester, and others. Short list, What I'd wish she'd satirize is Ryan's dismissal of Chaplain Conroy, aka Padre. She's catholic and maybe can convince Ryan to go to church and confess why he fired Conroy. Maybe Ayn Rand told him to do it in a dream.
2
I don’t know but it looks pretty suspicious that there was a sudden meeting between the North Korean and Chinese leaders, followed up quickly by the meeting between the Korean leaders, in advance of the meeting of Trump and Kim Jong Un. Basically China controls North Korea, and things were getting a little too disturbing between the US and North Korea for China’s interests. So China may have laid things out to Kim Jong Un as to how he was going to conduct himself if he wants to remain in power. And he is now doing what he has to do to stay where he is. Trump may not appear dangerously crazy to a lot of the people in the United States, but to most of the rest of the world, he does, and nobody is quite sure of what he might do with his military. China does not care if Trump gets the credit for this turnabout as long as things settle down and they can continue with business as usual. I find it strange that the US media (as far as I have seen) has not looked very much beyond Trump for the major reason for this change.
1
I totally agree and will add that Chinese influence here will translate to better trade terms with the United States, despite the president's protestations to the contrary.
1
I totally agree, @Geraldine, but I’ll say that Trump appears dangerously crazy to a lot of people in the Unites States.
Also, the DPRK and China have to get something out of this. It seems to me that they’d demand that the U.S. remove its nuclear capability from the region. That’s not possible.
Trump is going to be doing what China has planned. His position has been very much weakened by China’s moves on this, and US infuence in the region is going to be much less in the end. They are countless steps ahead of him.
Even though I am a Democrat, I would give Trump the credit he would deserve for a successful treaty with North Korea and a final end to the Korean War.
He will have done something that no president could do since 1952. However, with political and cultural changes taking place in various countries (such as Saudi Arabia), more than likely, it is just a matter of luck for Trump to be in the right place at the right time.
When the Cold War ended, there was no feeling of elation or celebration (such as the end of WWII). The Enemy was not vanquished, they just chose to end the game. It will be the same if an agreement is struck with North Korea.
And yes, the Democrat wave of victory is becoming smaller as we approach November. More focus on working people and how the GOP tax cut screwed them, good candidates, some good policies, and less obsession with Trump would help the Democrats.
And finally if the Democrats do take over the House and/or Senate, they need to just corral Trump not get rid of him. The Republicans proved that trying to impeach a President (Clinton) who is popular is political suicide.
1
So if Trump had surreptitious relations with a hostile power, that’s okay?
2
If Trump's autocratic tendencies complete the destruction of our democracy, you will be complicit, Maureen, because your hatred of Hillary Clinton coupled with your freedom of the press is partly to blame. And when Trump destroys the First Amendment, what will you do for a living? Hmmm. Ever think that through completely?
3
The Donald wants journalists thrown in jail. Beware Maureen, beware. Enjoy your freedom while you can. Well said Dee Dee.
Can we please forget Trump for a few hours, days, weeks?
Could we please focus on someone from the Democratic side who could be a possible candidate for President?
We're in the middle of the "Hillary Effect" right now.
Democratic Candidates for President stepped aside to make room for her, the presumptive candidate, and did so up to very last minute of the 2016 election. Her presumptive win squashed the foreseeable future. That dream is over, time to wake up to reality. It's time to move on. Immediately.
13
So you are OK when they vilify Trump but can't stand when one word is used that doesn't.
I can hardly control my laughter....The Nobel, aka, the "Dr Dynamite Award" (recall what Nobel actually invented--munitions) has gone to a series of people who never deserved it. But as another vanity, I'm sure that Trump would accept it and then make a speech threatening others, if he actually even went to the ceremony. I don't know, maybe there would be some women there he could put the ugly rush on, and so he might go. There has been plenty of that kind of stuff around the Nobel committee lately, so he could fit right in. If the two Koreas come to terms, give THEM credit for that, or even China working behind the scenes. Or international pressure--but the Trumpster is the least part of the equation.
12
Thank you Maureen for pointing out what we need to be reminded of right now. It is not just about midterm elections then holding our breath for another 2 years. We need to find a candidate for 2020 who will be representative of who we need to be; a nation of leadership, with a strong moral compass, thoughtful with regard to human needs, environmentally responsible, and willing to work with each other first and then other nations.
Calling for candidates - no political or religious affiliation needed. Billionaires, media moguls, extremists, and well- connected or "its my turn" politicians need not apply. Out-of-the-box thinkers should consider this a formal invitation.
8
GREAT SCOTT!! He continues to do everything he can to keep the world up-side-down and NOW we hear NOBEL and PEACE PRIZE!! Stop the world and let's hope TrumpelThinSkin gets off!!
6
Lindsey Graham and Fox & Friends surely have inside information on the leanings of the Nobel committee. Assuming they in their worst moments would consider a nincompoop as a member of this august group of peacemakers is fodder to Sunday TV political entertainment who soon tire of Stormy Daniels, litigation, upcoming indictments and canning Robert Mueller. It just might be that the leaders of the two Koreas are brighter than our beloved leader, ready to pull the rug out from him whether provoked or not. I agree, though, the the absence of new Democratic faces articulating visionary messages that have genuine appeal to voters doesn't bode well. Their party is top heavy with policy dictators, armed with control over funds based solely on conditions precedent. Come on, ladies and gentlemen purporting to represent our better angels. Step forward, speak out in language understood by all Americans, don't cede every fresh idea, every reform to party hacks. Our country needs you.
4
Thank God for Donald Trump who someone calls the 'Very Stable Genius" at https://sarmaticusblog.wordpress.com/ Donald Trump has made the world interesting and the United States effective again. Donald brings peace to the world and prosperity to the America. Compared with Trump Democrats are 'white noise'.
It would be insane to end this party now.
2
Oh brother. Now I've heard everything.
1
Anyone who considered Kissinger, Obama and now our less than well hinged President worthy of this prize deserves a seat alongside those esteemed misogynists who make that determination.
Some, perhaps most, men sitting on that debased board are living in their version of la la land.
To even consider either side of our political aisle competant is delusory.
If there is any compensation it may be that we cannot fall any further.
America is not the end all be all of peace between North Korea and South Korea. Give some credit to those countries. All Trump has done is name call and tweet. A Nobel for that?
14
The answer for 2020, just like 2018 or 2016 for that matter, is child's play. "Don't boo, Vote!"
8
By all means let that Committee give it to him. The world will laugh a lot louder than they did when Obama got his symbolic one, which the Republicans have resented for 8 years. It'll be the Pyramids in downtown Los Vegas. Seoul won't be amused, because they'll have made it happen, not Donald. Let the Republicans eat their brains out, there's no stopping it.
1
I hope to God that Trump helps achieve the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
But we have been down this road before with Clinton and Bush, both of whom negotiated agreements that North Korea violated. We also can't forget that Trump promised (in a tweet of course) he would not allow North Korea to test an ICBM. Not only did they do so, they also claim to have tested a hydrogen bomb.
So Trump's happy end zone dance is premature, to say the least. Trump has a history of selling lead as gold to the gullible. Ask those who invested in his casinos, attended his "university", bought "amazing"condos that were never built, or did work for him and didn't get paid.
Trump's diehard base will accept any outcome as the greatest thing any president has ever done. The rest of us--those who haven't enrolled in his new Trump U--will keep our eyes open and vote accordingly.
8
Great stuff! What grotesque irony: Trump beating his indictments into Nobels. If on the other hand vindication is not handed to the Orange one, and Democrats overcome their wobbliness, perhaps exile at the new Trump International Hotel in Pyongyang might in order.
4
We the people could have created a noble and compassionate land, but instead we created decadence and desperation.
Trump is the reality of the nightmare. This fake billionaire, in love with himself and money, is America writ large. He is US.
We can't love money and think anything else would have happened. If community means little, and selfish gain means all, then Trump is our hero.
We rant and rave over lots of important issues, but never the crime of inequality. We never talk of luxury and poverty being a cancer we must end. No, we love money, and are led by it, through media, lobbyists, politicians, churches, etc.
We have the cartoon Nobel nominee because we are a decaying and angry and selfish cartoon of a democracy.
Only when people like Trump and the billionaires and the right-wing Republicans and their media fakes/shysters fall, can the good and true and honorable and compassionate America rise. Only then will the 'more perfect Union' become reality.
And, some clues seem to show that that very thing may be slowly starting to occur. God speed.
6
Trying to understand trump is easy. This week on his "call in" to Fox News he reverted back to his pseudonym "John Barron" (or is it "John Miller"?) with his rant to the media for purposes of publication. Now he does not need to use an alias to get space on Page 6 of The Times. Rather, he uses the Office of The President to insinuate himself into the public domain for "free" publicity using his State run Propaganda outlet.
It is all about ratings.
3
Excuse me, but this is utterly absurd - how short are our attention spans? The idea that Kim Jong Un is about to give up his nuclear weapons because Trump called him little Rocket Man or whatever it was ... it's like Maureen Dowd hasn't read newspapers, let alone contributed to them, for the past few decades. How many times has North Korea cheated and lied? And if it turns out Kim is sincere about peace with South Korea - which is of course unlikely - is it not fairly obvious he aims to weaken the U.S.'s influence in the region? Obviously, he understands full well that peace with the South would likely be the end of his the North Korean regime as we know it. Do we really think he's just decided he's all done being a totalitarian dictator? The rainbows and warm fuzzies here are a little premature. And any notion of Trump as some kind of peacemaker is simply psychotic.
11
you've touched upon why one feels pain reading Maureen today. Somehow she finds a level plain from which to observe rather than acknowledging the ditch we've all been dragged into. Commenting before any plausible beginning has occurred with N. Korea as though it's foresworn for DJT to be measured as accomplished, even projecting some sort of victory while ignoring judgement of the despicable actions within the last 24 hours leaving us to remember and provide for ourselves the multiplication of horrors and lies. Maureen has perfected the art of fence sitting so she might step onto whichever side is helpful next weekend. Weary
2
Maybe Democrats should look to its governors for prospective presidential candidates.
I'm sorry, but I don't think that the warming relationship between the two Koreas is because of anything we, Pompeo or Trump did. I worry that, because blood is thicker than water, they will bond so closely that we will be aced out, that North Korea will hide his nukes in South Korea, and then somehow, Kim Jung Un, who cannot be trusted not to kill anybody, will take over South Korea and they'll both be after us.
I also think that there are only three reasons that Trump wants a Nobel Peace Prize. One, it's a prize and like a spoiled little toddler at his own birthday part, Trump must win all prizes or he'll throw a fit. Two, because Obama has one. And three, the prize comes with money.
5
Come on dew drops say it, Trump is a genius.
He reminds me of one of those guys who plays many instruments at once. There was a fellow from Canada who played eleven together.
These musicians looked nuts surrounded with musical clutter yet sweet and not so sweet sounds sprung forth.
The problem is Americans enslaved with rules and form just do not know what to do with Trump.
We have been in an insane asylum for so long we lost sight of free form and spontaneity.
This really is fake news, nothing but stories made up out of nothing. Nothing has happened except some Kabuki theater which all the actors in the drama have choreographed so well.
I will believe nothing that Kim says or pretends to do until United nations inspectors after exhaustive inspection that NK has no nuclear weapons and no capacity to create more. I will not believe that Kim has opened his society until all of his citizens can go south at will and they can use the internet unhindered.
As for Trump he must fully condemn Putin and instigate a full investigation of Russia's hacking of our election. He must apologize and make restitution to every woman he has damaged and the people he has slandered personally through out his career. He must immediately reconfirm American treaties including the Paris accord, treaties with our allies and the Iran agreement. He also must agree to have his mouth washed out with soap.
Perhaps the only innocent one here is Mr. Moon of SK who seriously desires peace for his country, but must understand the costs if he deals with the above two.
Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize? Should I laugh or cry.
2
Me think you give him to much credit. In the early days of the 1930's many people from many countries (including the U S) were singing the praises of the Little Corporal. Remember how that turned out.
3
You've got your Nobel Laureates and you've got your noble prize winners. I'd like to see trump win a noble prize "for having inadvertently stumbled into contributing to a good outcome, despite all odds. In fact, I'll fund it. $10.00 USD and a trip around the globe in the last row of any low-cost airliner(s) to any island of floating volcanic ash anywhere in the Pacific rim. Due to the lack of an airport, the winner is jettisoned from the aircraft with a parachute and collects his $10.00 prize upon landing on the ash.
It is foolish for the Dems to be putting any single person forward at this time. The GOP hate/lie machine, also known as Fox News, takes any Dem and creates a whole new and mostly false narrative. They've done it with Warren for almost two years already. They did it with Kennedy. Who on earth would step into that sooner than needed?
The Dems are being smart. The country can change a lot in the next 12 months, and I don't think anyone is counting on anti-trump sentiment to carry the candidate. Let's focus on the midterms, on the revolving Cabinet door, on the avarice, on the corruption. As for the Nobel committee?? I'd give it to the gentlemen from the North and South.
3
Denuclearization ain't a gonna happen with tRumpolini, no one need even think about that pipe dream.
2
If Trump wins the prize, will he resign in glory?
Nothing left to do?
Leave a winner?
If it get's Trump out of office, he can have it.
2
Maureen, it appears that you, too, have drunk from the cup of eternal peace and tranquility on the Korean peninsula. Perhaps I'm cynical, but I believe that we are a long way from awarding peace prizes to anyone associated with this matter . . . I suspect that there is still at least a 50% chance that the draft-dodger in chief, along with Bolton and Pompeo, will be dropping bombs on North Korea well before the 2020 election.
Does Ms. Dowd believe she should have won the Nobel Peace Prize instead of President Obama? Does she believe she should have been the presidential candidate and not Sec. Clinton? Dowd writes nothing here to disprove these hypotheses.
Is that why she uses Trump Republican insults to taunt the Americans who supported Obama and Clinton, and who now have the good sense to maintain a skeptical attitude vis-à-vis Mr. Trump?
We Trump critics aren't hysterical or in a frenzy. Our heads aren't exploding. We aren't emotional hysterical hand-wringing basket-cases. We aren't any of those insults that were once used to incorrectly describe women.
The Nobel Peace Prize for President Obama was not a "bouquet thrown at him seconds into his presidency." Trump would not deserve the prize more than Obama. Does Dowd share the race-based Trump Republican obsession with Obama?
One doesn't get the Nobel Prize for flailing. It isn't given out for reckless bellicosity. If one out of ten thousand erratic ignorant inept actions produces a good result, that is statistics (and miserable odds besides) but not a Nobel Prize.
1
If Trump tears up the Iran Deal and bombs Iran as Bolton, Pompeo, and Bibi want him to, I doubt he will get the Nobel, even if he brings peace to the Koreas.
2
3200 years ago, Homer wrote a poem, The Iliad. Perhaps Trump is more literate than we thought. Dactylic hexameter is now, Tweetily Do. Could be Tweetily Duh?
Either way a Trojan Horse is still a Trojan Horse. They're not fooling anyone!
5
Homer, the supposed compiler of the long oral tradition concerning the Trojan War, does not write of the Trojan horse. Vergil, however, includes it in his Aeneid, drawing on another part of the myth cycle concerning Troy. Both wrote, as you note, in the epic meter: dactylic hexameter. One quibble: Homer's epics are generally thought to have been written down in the late 8th century B.C.; the Trojan War is believed to have occurred in the 13th century B.C.
1
I'm trying to remember - did Reagan get a Nobel when he stated: "Tear down this wall" ? (Nope - Mikhail Gorbachev won it... Kim Jong Un anyone?...)
I'll give Trump this - he got under the skin of L'il Trump, and that resulted in the accidental destruction of his nuclear labs. Add the Chinese visit whose leader probably saw the potential Korean reunification as being better for China than re-building Kim's nukes.
1
Trump had no more to do with this Korean development than a serial mugger has to do with increased police patrols, or the formation of a community organization to respond to a rise in crime. There's a fly's chance on a frog's tongue that Kim would give up his weapons without heavy pressure from China. Let a bully in your yard and next thing he's on your porch, as has been said. Republicans gave the bully the keys to the house, the gun safe, and the passwords to the accounts. All cons require the complicity of the swindled, who try to cover their foolishness by attributing amazing powers to the con man.
3
Of course Trump's behavior is going to get worse. There is no one to stop him. The best we can hope for is the end result of Mueller's report, which hopefully finds collusion with Russia. And then for Treason by Trump and cohorts to be tried and convicted for committing Treason.
As far as the Nobel Peace Prize, this should go to South Korea's President Moon Jae-in. His invitation to North Korea to participate in the Olympics is what opened the door for the chance of peace on the Korean Peninsular
3
True, the Dems are not seizing this moment to put together a simple, coherent message on their policy goals. Trump hate may win the House, and even possibly the Senate, but overall, the Democrats, who are the only party that seems to care at all about "average Americans", have no core message that resonates beyond Trump.
The "awfulness of Trump" is not something that good, honest, loyal American people are ignoring Ms Dowd. We are marking the days and watching this horror show on a daily basis all the while checking off the myriad of reasons why this man is unfit to lead anyone much less those of us who honor our county and our social mores. We are working to change this scenario in one way or the other and send this guy back to reality TV land If you think that we are impressed with his so-called Korea maneuver you are sadly mistaken. We will not be CONNED.
4
Perhaps Alfred E. Neuman can be given the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, too.
1
You make good points...however it won't be North Korea that wins him a second term. Remember how unstoppable GHWB was going to be in 1992 after Operation Desert Storm? Americans, aren't that impressed by foreign policy triumphs.
Not saying Trump can't get a 2nd term, not saying Dems don't need to get their act together, but NK would probably not be a linchpin.
2
Some food for thought. If Trump was given the Nobel Peace prize, I think that he would use that as an excuse to push for a change in law and make it possible to have a president in office indefinately, similar to the leader of China. He would tell everyone willing to listen that he, and he alone, was capable of stopping all wars and putting that chicken in every pot.
If anyone deserves that Nobel Peace prize, Moon of SKorea might be a better candidate.
IMPO, I'd rather see Kim Un get the prize before Trump.
2
The Nobel "prize" became a joke once they gave it to Obama. And subsequent choices in all categories have confirmed. It holds about as much weight as winning the "Westminster" Dog Show. So sure, why not give it to Trump.
Are we really going to credit this to Donald Trump? Or could it be that he was in the right place at the right time when sanctions finally pushed Kim Jong-un to the limit?
1
Trump couldn't have gained office in a country with at least one viable political party; he was among the first to realize the dry rot at the center of American politics had created a nest hole for civic wrath expressed by voter spite. Trump ran against both parties, but knows Republicans won't oppose him unless he threatens the criminal corruption of their donors. And Republicans know he's unlikely to threaten the criminal corruption of their donors because he himself is criminally corrupt. It's another of Trump's deals, held together by bonds of avarice and culpability.
2
“He’s shaping the behavior of much of the world, getting inside people’s heads. He’s like Cambridge Analytica. He knows how to determine what people are interested in and like and dislike and respond to. Then he acts in a way that changes the course of things. And expecting him to be different or less crazy only makes us the crazy ones." But didn't this a piece, in its way, normalize Trump? And does that make you, Ms. Dowd, the "crazy one"?
As usual, Maureen nails it. What nobody seems to accept is that sometimes it takes the most illogical person to be the best prrsident. The cookie cutter president who seems perfect for the job rarely accomplishes anything. A big picture man or woman is needed and Trump is certainly that.
1
Call me crazy, Maureen, but even if the talks with North Korea are successful, I don't see the Nobel Committee listening to Lindsey Graham and the GOP.
3
Maureen seems to have missed the point that the North Korean initiative is about Kim Jong Un not Donald Trump. Donald did nothing but bloviate, prevaricate, irritate, and pontificate. He offered no solutions, no programs and no policy. He has still offered no thinking on the issue at all. Rather, he has demanded credit for throwing rocks and screaming. Lindsay Graham has been suckered, like most republicans, into believing that Donald makes it Kim dance, just like he makes it rain and snow.
DJT has contributed little to the situation other than embarrassing behavior and has the interesting option of an inability to make things better and an infinite capacity to make things worse.
2
The only thing nearly Nobellian about Donald Trump is his willingness to dynamite every deal in his path along with those who stand in his way. Dynamite Donald is one constant angry, mean-spirited, tweet-taunting, destructive explosion after another. My big fear is that he'll do just that to the summit with North Korea by blowing his top and dynamiting the peace overture by North Korea's Kim Jong-un. And then, of course, the flip-floppers like Lindsey Graham will also genuflect in praise of the [truly] mad bomber saying "War is Peace" is the only way to deal with the chameleon charlatan in Pyongyang. And we know how the nation rallies around a "war president." Remember, even leading Democrats like Hillary voted to authorize the Iraq War. Unfortunately, the "humiliating ashes" the Democrats and the world confront may prove to be radioactive. The problem put simply is, "'We're dealing with a person who's psychologically" very impaired and so unstable as to have said "Why have nuclear weapons if you don't use them." Dynamite Donald may be delusional, but we, too, have deluded ourselves in constantly normalizing what is clearly abnormal behavior in the first president "categorically different" in suffering from a mental illness.
There you go again, Ms. Dowd. As the Gipper would have said.
You were among the many Hillary Haters that helped tip the balance and help the Dotard win. And you have already started nitpicking on the leadership of the Democrats.
I think it is high time for you to openly declare your distaste for Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, and other women who, according to you, are not "honing a seductive message that could win back the alienated voters."
Isn't speaking about healthcare for all not a seductive message? Isn't jobs training in the emerging energy sector not a seductive message?
Anything is possible. Philip Roth doesn't get one. But, one was awarded in my lifetime (1949) for the Pre-frontal lobotomy. Maybe the Nobel Committee sampled too many lobotomies? Or, maybe they just used that old drinking toast-- I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a pre-frontal lobotomy"
1
The Democrats are spending $$$ on a frivolous lawsuit instead of using that money to help elect Democratic candidates.
I don't think this writer gets just how deep Trump hatred is seated. Y'all seen nothing yet. Blue TSUNAMI indeed.
People act like the repulsion started when he became president. Hello? It has been present throughout his candidacy.
He will get credit just like Obama got credit for getting Osama bin Laden. A little bit, probably a lot more from the right. Cause they're the only delusional people who think he deserves it.
The rest of us will go: Meh.
His misdeeds so outweigh anything resembling the word "good". Everybody get a grip. He did not just solve the Korean Peninsula problem.
And for the fact that he is incredibly disliked all over Europe, the commission handing out the Nobel peace price may, just may have some reservation giving it to a misogynistic, racist bigot and wanna be dictator.
Give me a break.
1
And she’s back! The fawning over and kissing up to trump by Dowd begins anew! And just for good measure a touch of bashing President Obama thrown into the mix. The words trump and the Noble Prize don’t even belong in the same sentence. But let’s just tell him that cause he’s not quite ego maniacal enough. We have definitely entered an alternate reality now where nothing means anything. Especially the truth.
2
If real progress is made in Korea, perhaps, the President OF South Korea deserves at least a tiny bit credit?
3
If we are not focusing on human rights then what's the point of this agreement. Unless that is on the table, then the deal is a total sham. That is what happened with China. All the lies about China allowing more human rights have been overestimated.
1
The most provocatively thoughtful Op-Ed by Ms Dowd I can remember. A highlight for me was "The Democrats are counting on Trump to self-destruct."
And the subsequent pondering about the generation of Democratic leaders gone AWOL while the Clintons added eight more years to their not-quite-power.
The thing that hit me hardest from the photos of the two Korean leaders was HOW YOUNG THEY ARE. And Macron and Trudeau and Ardern and..., while the UK has to choose between May and Corbyn, and people here are talking seriously about a Trump vs Biden race in 2020!?!?!?!
2
At the moment Kim has everything that he wants: a bombs, long range missiles. Now it's just time to see if he can con trump out of a little extra. The sad part is that trump has deluded himself into thinking that he (trump) is a master when in fact he has been had.
2
It's a That Too.
I recently ran into the brother of a old friend whom I'd read had embezzled money from a small town, been convicted of the crime and sent to prison. The brother told me that my friend had quit drinking, gotten his GED, and launched a new and flourishing boat rental business. Huh? I said. I thought he was in prison? The brother said: Oh, that too.
Much as Trump's behavior causes so much harm and eye-rolling, he gets a That Too for stubbing out the glowing nuclear cigarettes.
Even Stalin loved flowers.
2
It is with great sadness I read these comments.
Never forget it was China who called north Korea’s leader on the carpet to strategize how to handle this resolution with South Korea. Trump will always just be standing at the ‘curbside of History’
Trump is irrelevant!
1
Trump deserves the Nobel Prize about as much as Fox and Friends deserves a Pulitzer. The Nobel Committee should never have gotten involved in giving prizes to sitting politicians. They would never give away a prize in Medicine, Physics, or Literature with such carelessness.
1
Nominate all you want he ain’t gonna win the Nobel Prize. China is the broker bringing the Koreas together, as any fool can see. NK collapsed a mountain with nuclear testing, threatening the release of radioactive fallout into China. Furthermore, China is rushing into filling the power vacuum left by a declining US. I don’t think the Nobel Committee is going to be throwing us any roses any time soon. We elected 45 after a prize winner. Unlike us, they won’t be conned.
1
Another reason for the breakthrough: China wants Trump to succeed because, by trashing the foundations of our democracy including a free press and impartial courts, he has done more to undermine democracy in a couple of years than authoritarian regimes like China and Russia could hope to do in decades.
1
"despite Trump’s lack of a moral or political core, despite the fact that he has tarnished the presidency with his nasty bullying, race-baiting, unmoored tweeting and authoritarian tendencies, he could get a second term." --- Well, he had help, didn't he.
Thanks for reminding us all of the absurdity of the Nobel Peace Prize.
After inventing the explosive that has claimed countless human lives, there really is no contrition.
But maybe it could be un-invented and we could skip all this silly search of an excellence that does not exist.
Thanks for your column. I knew Trump is playing the faux NKorea card to distract us from his awfulness and find his redemption, but I never thought about the Nobel in regard to him. Good grief.
1
As the closing sentence notes, it is only going to get worse....Trump's name calling, dog whistles, rants, and unhinged behavior are signs of a person with no moral compass. He must be removed from office via the voting booth, because I seriously doubt that our feckless political leaders in Congress have the will or courage to act.
Trump's noxious bullying and threats of fire and fury upon North Korea also menaced South Korea, who would be in the direct line of any fire. The South Korean government realized they couldn't depend upon the US to protect them any more. So they started working instead for their own solution of peace and reconciliation with the North. This does not translate into a Trump achievement. And won't translate into a Nobel Peace Prize.
My American president who does not start a war or attack another country, is worth a mention. But with Bolton around the peace might be temporary shudder.
"Lindsey Graham, who once labeled Trump “a kook,” “crazy” and “unfit for office,” told Fox News on Friday ... We’re not there yet, but if this happens, President Trump deserves the Nobel Peace Prize.”
Apparently the opiod crisis has reached the Senate. Seek help Mr. Graham.
The Nobel Peace Prize decisions are often inexplicable but there is no need to add the Prize to the list of things Trump has despoiled. Our very own Dear Leader is doing a fine job destroying the reputation and democratic norms of the United States. That should be more than enough reward for any hate-filled, corrupt authoritarian.
2
This dictionary-heavy piece could hold some weight if one fails to consider that the Democrats were overtaken due to election shenanigans by the Russians who were in all fifty states' election systems, according to the NSA. And Facebook. And the media, including a certain NYT columnist who blew kisses to Trump,
The idea that Trump had anything to do with Kim's signed agreement to denuclearize is naive folly. North Korea made these promises in the past. And to even think that Trump deserves the peace prize because Kissinger received it despite his dirty Vietnam manipulations is twisted logic.
The Obama and Democrat digs are predictable, too, and without merit. There are plenty of qualified newcomers in the pipeline.
Then there's the glee at the thought of keeping Trump in office while he destroys our country.
What exactly will be written in this space when the Robert Mueller III team hands down indictments?
2
Couple of quick questions: first, can anyone explain what Trump actually did to bring this about, other than simply being president of the U.S. at the time? (Pointing out that Obama didn't do anything to deserve his Nobel doesn't really answer this)
Second, anyone want to bet that if anyone gets a Nobel Peace Prize, it will be Kim Jong-Un and Moon Jae-in (you know, the two people who actually made peace)?
1
Talk about an inappropriate Nobel Peace Prize winner!
Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize after about 8 months in the White House. And look at what he did to bring about world peace during the rest of his first term and then during his second term. What was that, exactly?
If Trump succeeds in de-fanging North Korea he certainly deserves the Nobel Peace Prize far more than Obama.
Any Nobel Prize coming for a breakthrough in the Korean mess should go to the South Korean President. Trump will only foul up the progress that has been made.
No. No. No. No. No. No. No.
In the words of Yosemite Sam: "When I say whoa, I mean WHOA!"
I get it:
If this is a failure it would be entirely Trump's failure.
If this is a success than we will try to present it as a failure and it will be Trump's failure.
But if it is a success and there is no way to present it as a failure.. then Trump had nothing to do with it. It was all good work of NK and China.
Maybe there's an invisible hand of democracy at work somehow. So even though he's a total u-know-what he could still do good things. A second term is terrifying to think about though....
Oh, come now! Michael D’Antonio gives trump credit for far more intelligence than he has. This entire column sounds as if he cleverly and deviously planned out all these subtle moves so as to have everything work out. C'mon! When did we ever see him act subtle or devious? About as much so as Wile E Coyote, methinks.
If a Nobel prize derives from this, it will be deserved by South Korean President who has pushed the idea of peace in the region, in spite of Trump.
These same Democrats said Trump could never beat Hillary Clinton. Given their utter fail on that one, it seems even more plausible he could win the Nobel Peace Prize if something good comes out of the Korean situation.
When Obama won the NPP in 2009 he had not yet done the Iran deal, or made any progress in Iraq or Afghanistan, and had already begun making a mess of Syria. So let's be honest--He won it because he was the first black U.S. president and the Europeans just loved the guy.
I hate Trump and think he is an utter buffoon, but even a broken clock is right twice a day. His idiotic bluster and personal taunting of Kim Jung Un may have scared the South Koreans--not the North--so much that they are bending over backwards to get something done. And Kim may simply be worried that his Chinese rich uncle, weary of his escapades, may be cutting off his allowance soon.
Should Trump get a Nobel Peace Prize? Of course not. But neither should have Obama when he did, either.
1
I hardly think the threat of a reign of terror upon a portion of the world should qualify for a Nobel Peace prize. If a father threatens to beat a child to death and the normally fighting siblings join forces to protect each other from his wrath, that father does not become a defacto "good parent." And since one of these"kids" is just as abusive and crazy at the "father" we will have to wait an see if any real accord will be forthcoming.
Oh Mo.......Why waste time and platform on old fake news when the future is what we can and will rebuild to the specs of our Democracy. Here in WI. we Demos have our heads down, nose to the grindstone working one day at a time with full focus forward. We are so over djt and the sound and fury of 2016. Suggest you do the same. Do something good for your Country.
The surest way to ignoble the Nobel Peace Prize is to add Trump to that august club. is not for the ilks of Trump...he is not a peaceful man. It would be an oxymoron.
Your article is vintage media covering Trump. He has another awful week (Pruitt on the griddle, continued Russia allegations, Ronny Jackson VA debacle, Mueller in pursuit, Comey on TV every day, Stormy Daniels, Cohen, etc) and out of this comes talk of a Nobel Peace Prize. Wow! Talk about going from the outhouse to the penthouse. To be sure a large peace settlement between the two Korea's would be fantastic and if Trump played a role as a catalyst he should be given some credit. That said, the voters and the world will judge Trump on his total performance. Not sure what planet Lindsey Graham is on - one week down, one week up. To me, he does not appear to be a wise and intelligent sage when it comes to analyzing Trump.
The Democrats need to pull themselves together & offer some intelligent moderate candidates with brains & strong track records - who aren't old as the hills (no to Biden & Bernie!!!) Sherrod Brown & Mark Warner come to mind. Hopefully they won't fall for someone in their 70s or someone too radical (I love Bernie & Elizabeth Warren - but Trump will mop the floor with them, calling them 'socialists.') I also hope they won't be determined to run a woman against Trump, who will tear a female candidate apart & who in the world wants another election where Trump makes the gender war a huge distraction that drowns out everything else?
I'd love to see Mark Warner run with Amy Klobuchar, Tammy Duckworth or Kamala Harris. The trouble is the Democrats can't get out of their own way & don't learn from their mistakes. With so much at stake, we need a course correction to elect an intelligent, reasonable moderate to the presidency who will dig us out of this nightmare. After watching this mess for over 60 years, I believe the Democrats are going to blow it again. Making Tom Perez chair of the DNC was a serious mistake. Let's fight against the DNC running things this time.
And Nancy Pelosi needs to go. Her time is past.....
Watch the movie "Idiocracy" to see how low the intelligence and moral standards have sunk for what the American People now claim they expect from an American President and his thoughtless base of supporters.
Please don't scare us, we are already fearful enough as it is.
Don't know why Obama got one... Have any recent presidents deserved a Nobel Peace Prize?
I hold my breath on the topic... and am just glad that stuff with N. Korea hasn't accelerated seemingly .. OTOH given that it is a new situation.... that no other prez thus far has had to deal with I think that despite the name calling --dotard esp and some saber rattling. Was glad that nothing else occurred and hope it stays that way.
.
No contradiction there. Nixon, the anti-Communist sidekick of Joseph McCarthy, opened up China and Russia. But he was also a crook and resigned rather than be impeached. Trump even more so.
I'm sure comments like "They should be the éminences grises" will convince the broad populace that they should revolt. I have an MS degree, 18 hours of English literature, and I have no idea what Maureen is talking about. I really dislike Mr Trump, but wish you would express yourself in a way more than 10% of the population can understand
Dear Madam: "Suffering Succotash!" You have got to be kidding! What underlies the reconciliation in progress on the Korean Penninsula is the desire for reunification on the part of all of the Koreans. The fact that "SAM" (short for Strategic Anti-Ballistic Missiles) threatened to blow the place up might have had a stimulating effect upon the people, including Marshall Kim Jong Un, but really, even before, he had stated that it would not be the DPRK that instituted nuclear war, and that if all the nations of the world possessing NUKES agreed to disarm, then he would most certainly follow suit. This brings me to the needed scenario, that whilst "SAM" meets Kim, diplomatic efforts to bring together India and Pakistan in efforts to disarm their NUKES as a segue into other pairs of nations undertaking the same should be undertaken. If you think "SAM" would even consider being a party to this, well, then, I think that the delusory pattern must be infectious. That said, I clearly perceive the scoffing tone of your interesting meditation upon fatuousness.
It is beyond ludicrous to think that the level headed and civilized members Nobel Peace Prize Committee of the Norwegian Parliament would consider the president of the United States for such an honor. They are not so dumb as the Republican party donut heads who are creating this talk as a circus side. If these circus barkers were serious, they would be promoting Mr. Moon Jae-in,but of course that leaves the door open to the pariah Kim Jong-Un.
Regarding Barak Obama, he was awarded the prize: "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples." That is the level at which the wise heads operate in Oslo, and the current president doesn't even get close to such a benchmark.
We've already been here before. History and foreign affairs are more than just entertaining columns. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/26/world/asia/north-south-korea-summit.html
It seems to me that the two Koreas are uniting in order to protect themselves against anything trump dreams he will do.
trump is successful in making himself the most unstable non-genius by his constant taunting and childish twitting. He can't help feeling he needs to bully to get an imagined upper-hand, which is what I saw in his gesture to remove dandruff from French President Macon's shoulder. Macon should have poked a finder in trump's belly as a pretend thank you.
On target she is this fine morning. Much to be learned here, if only any of us can learn anymore, given our minds are made up and stay that way. As for Nobel's, they only make laureates out of those who've done nothing before or after they didn't do it. Take Obama for example. He received the Peace Prize while his inauguration was still warm. Neither he nor Trump brings Great Expectations to mind, if by "great" we mean "for the people."
1
I just can't wrap my head around why things appear to be happening the way they are. Why is North Korea seemingly handing over everything without so much as a whimper? Why does it look like bullying is the answer? After all these years? After all these presidents? After all the shots of missiles from North Korea across the bow? To just get threats and sanctions and just completely cave? To apparently just shrug their shoulders and say never mind, the nukes are yours? To suddenly find a conscience? For China to just sit there and watch the Korean peninsula, backed by the U.S., reunify, a clearly threatening development for them? That Trump knew all along how to make the stars align from the tees and greens of his golf course? No use of experts in the area. No reading up on the matter. No graduate degrees in international history or political theory. Just thug mentality from the street. None of it makes any sense. Why would anyone fall for this? And then it dawned on me.....Maybe North Korea, China, and Russia came to the realization separately, but contemporaneous that the way to fight back is to watch America have to deal not with their own behavior, but with Trump's. They all have said: What I'd give to see America suffer. And the lightbulb goes off above their heads. And inside the caption reads "Trump. The gift that keeps on giving" .
285
After six nuclear device tests, following a standard testing protocol, North Korea has convinced the world nuclear powers that she is nuclear bomb capable and no need for further testing. There has been an observation that both the North and South Korea feel the nuclear bomb membership as being collectively earned by the Korean people. You can almost feel that the South by herself will not push abolishing and destroying the bombs already produced by the North, which is the likely outcome of all the talks and negotiations to follow.
8
My suggestion is that you accept reality for what it is. The headlines today suggest that there may actually be a nuclear deal with North Korea. Assuming that you're like most people in the world and think that a nuclear North Korea is dangerous, then you should be happy if this is true. On the other hand, it seems clear that so many things our government does never really is delivered as advertised. So, maybe Trump can buffoon his way into a peace agreement. Or maybe it'll be a little more like the tax plan: not much in the way of peace, but a whole lot in the way of gifts to business interests. Meanwhile, see what happens and then analyze the results.
14
You ask: why?
Because the young cherub is plain scared; we now have our own lunatic who probably would bomb him out of existence because he wants a casino in downtown Pyongyang, and a highway to gambling crazy-Chinese (or did you miss the success of Macau, now bigger than Las Vegas in terms of gambling revenue). Or some such.
We have always over-estimated the enemy. We thought the Russians would put a nuke in a suitcase and ship it over (we did not know they couldn't build a suitcase). We think N.Korea will destroy S.Korea if they are attacked. Or so we did until Trump. Now Trump doesn't care if S.Korea is attacked; he may just may go full postal on the young, inexperienced tyrant. Both the north and the south realized that, and got to the table to make nice.
The entire explanation here seems to be a four letter word: FEAR.
Now we should thrown in 'greed.' Let Un and his key generals take a few billion, and live where they want - and plain get out. The grinning fool did not look like he was eager to die for his beliefs like his grandfather likely was.
Trump should, whether he does nor not, get a Nobel Prize. It will break the myth that it is an award based on integrity, or awarded to true merit.
14
“He’s shaping the behavior of much of the world, getting inside people’s heads.“ Putin and Russian psychops helped to and continue to orchestrate support for Trump. Why? The real motives for this Strangelovian moment have yet to be revealed but there can be little doubt that it is anything but benign.
At the core of the democrat's problems is the fact that speech is green, not blue or red, and it takes a lot green speech to make a candidate. Corporations and investors are among the few with enough speech to get congress moving. Any democrat who might create an agenda that serves the people may end up well short of the speech needed to get the word out.
Teddy Roosevelt's foreign policy was summed up as "Talk softly and carry a big stick."
Trump refined Teddy into: "Talk loudly and carry a big stick."
Say what you will, but so far it seems to be working a lot better than the NY Times good housekeeping seal of approval approach adopted by Obama : "Talk eloquently, ruminate over how big a stick you want to carry and move those red lines when convenient."
And who knows? Years from now after all things are weighed, the final cold-eyed verdict of history regarding Trump -- at least for Americans -- will be the same as the famous quip regarding lawyers: "He may be a liar and a scoundrel; but he was my liar and a scoundrel."
38
Never.
11
Obama kept us out of a nuclear war with North Korea for eight years. Trump has verbalized out loud that nuclear war is just fine with him; worse yet, he changes his mind, his rhetoric & his behavior literally from minute to minute. Bash Obama's thoughtfulness & awareness of possible consequences all you like, but under his watch, not only did we not drop any nuclear weapons (or even come close to doing so) but most Americans did not wake up every single morning terrified of what insanity was going to come out of the White House that day. The verdict of history on Trump, assuming the world survives his erratic & irresponsible presidency, will be positive only if the only people alive in the future are the equivalents of today's Holocaust deniers.
31
I have read only a small sample of the comments submitted so far (6:20 Eastern Time). But I haven't seen anyone yet point out the fact that if Kim gives up his nuclear weapons, he still has conventional weapons pointed at the heart of South Korea. And the North has many more tanks, mortars,and foot soldiers than the South.
134
You left out chemical and biological weapons.
9
Kim’s nuclear arsenal site has been physically imploding for months. His army is poorly fed and by some accounts restive.
The ROK army is very large (mandatory draft that heel spurs won’t get you out of) and well resourced. They’re well fed too.
7
You got to be kidding Maureen Dowd.
Seems to me your dislike of Barack Obama was so much whom you always called Barry disrespectfully deep inside you want this to happen.
No one is undeserving as Donald J. trump, if anyone who would deserve a Noble Prize it should be President Moon Jae-in of South Korea.
That is, if denuclearizing North Korea happens !
13
If by threatening fire and fury leads to peace, then we have to alter the definition of peace. He did bring Kim to the table of South Korea around the same time he was also attacking South Korea. So again is intimidation and name calling the road to peace?
I still am scratching my head over Obama getting the prize, so until anything is a done deal, no he doesn’t deserve it.
However Tillison was a proponent of diplomacy for N Korea all along, so give it to him so Trump’s head can explode!
4
The Norwegian Nobel Committee gave a Peace Prize to the terrorist Yasir Arafat, Palestinian Liberation Organization chair; another to the mass-murderer Henry Kissinger, U.S. Sec. of State. The Nobel Prize is named for the dynamite inventor whose nitroglycerin factory killed his own brother.
So why not a Nobel Prize for Trump? Hasn't he already murdered enough Middle Eastern children?
https://theintercept.com/2018/02/22/civilian-casualties-soared-in-iraq-a...
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/11/16/magazine/uncounted-civili...
2
I hate to feel old, much as I cringe at the thought of a loutish megalomaniac possibly deserving the Nobel Peace Prize (btw, once conferred on Y. Arafat, lampooned in an SNL skit as the first terrorist so honored).
Yet, Ms. Dowd & I both must consider much of the world possibly having left us & our 20th century prejudices behind, creating just such possibilities, & we risk legitimate accusations of lethal spite & pettiness by being stubbornly closed-minded about changing prospects.
Here's my take: we are arguably entering a genuinely post-ideological age, in contrast with the ersatz, ideologically laden one trumpeted by the likes of F. Fukiyama that confused the triumph of western democratic capitalism over Soviet block communism w/ "post-ideology," whereas it was in fact merely the near universal ascendancy of neoconservative structural-functionalist political ideology left alone by Soviet implosion.
What may be unfolding today is an internet/social media induced new universalism: in a word, the technology so thoroughly humanizes, by bringing counterparts so close-up-&-personal, that it seems childish/inane to regard whole populations as savages warranting destruction: the most different people just aren't that different, & we see ourselves increasingly as just human, just like them. War is starting to seem archaic.
If this is true, you will see the current generation of leaders simply recognizing war's folly, avoiding it at all costs. Trump will have had lucky timing.
2
trump is the future of america. If you don't like it, get out.
#calexit
2
Another really sour, cynical article from Maureen Dowd. Time to get some new writers on the Times' op-ed pages; Dowd has had nothing new to say in decades.
5
For once, Trump’s oft repeated “time will tell...well see” is more appropriate. It’s way too soon to even think about a Nobel Peace Prize, let alone to be seriously considering it. We’re talking about two wildly unpredictable and historically unaccountable individuals, and there is no certainty whatsoever of results.
Perhaps being a Nobel Liar-eate would be a safer bet, and a Nobel Putz Prize decidedly more of a sure thing at this point.
3
"...a special episode of M*A*S*H..."
Omg. Thats brilliant. Get together Alan Alda & Co. (are they all still alive).
The plot could be that they've been living in a remote, hidden camp all this time...like those Japanese that refused to surrender for decades...refusing to come home until the war is officially over.
1
Trump as Yosemite Sam? Fog Horn Leghorn, more like. As in these famous Leghorn quotes....(could have come right out of Trump's mouth....)
Leghorn Trump to Kim Jon Un “What’s it all about boy, elucidate!”
“That’s a joke, I say that’s a joke son”
“Go, I say go away boy, you bother me”
“I made a funny son and you’re not laughin’
“I keep pitchin’ ‘em and you keep missin’ ‘em”
“That woman’s as cold as a nudist on an iceberg”
“Nice mannered kid, just a little on the dumb side”
“I say, boy, pay attention when I’m talkin’ to ya, boy”
2
Foghorn Leghorn, Genius, Esq.
But, it stops being funny when it's true. And, so far, it's true.
1
To be as civil as possible, I warned in letters to the editor and letters to all sorts of people in news media, that the worst thing Obama(who I voted for hesitantly, and would now not vote for if his GOP opponent had been a decent regular GOP candidate backed byu good senate and congress people.
I warned Obie and the Times, when it became impossible to send any advice to him, not to take the poisoned prize, which would come back to haunt him Basically what Obama did as to pick up a big fat wallet he found on the street and , after asking if it belonged so some poor guy who lost his wad of SS money-Obie took the cash and pocketed it. He then dumped the cards and wallet in the nearest PO box after wiping his prints off the damnable thing.
Mr T may not deserve the prize "more" then the Gray man, but the Gray man, Obama, never deserved the thing al all-he was given the prize because he was A Black Democrat, elected in deepest, Dark, Racist slave holding America and this, to Europe was magic juju enough for him to get some kind of prize American black folks had deserved for decades.
The Big Prize has been debased, and is now worth no more then the last thief who insisted they deserved it and thus accepted a piece of cheap fake coperry finished junk.
The next person who "wins" Nobel's grand Prize should run as fast as he can, in the opposite direction-leaving the thing to be the social poison which men like Obama and Trump have turned it into.
Trump thinks the award is the Nobel "Piece" Prize. A prize for narcissistic chauvinists who notch the most female conquests on their belt.
Kamala Harris, Mitch Landreau, Corey Booker, Amy Klobuchzr, Beto O'Rourke, Kristen Gillibrand........Democrats all......seriously qualified to be President....the future.
5
This column is an example of journalism attempting to sway public opinion. It is this kind of journalism that got Trump elected and negatively impacted Hillary Clinton . If Trump is ever considered for the Nobel, it will denigrate the value of anyone who ever received such a recognition.
Maureen, you are just about writing junk to get attention. Sort of like Trump and his embarrassing twitter habit.
4
Oh please, Ms. Dowd...you are as gullible as Lindsey Graham.
If there is a good outcome with the Kim/Donald meeting, it will be because our chief narcissist has caused nations to re-align in the face of the bumbling ignoramus and decided how to play him. In the long run, we will pay a price.
6
World Wide Wrestling, meet Nobel Peace Prize Committee.
1
Far more likely (and deserved), if a stable peace is established in Korea: Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong-un share the Nobel prize. Do you think the Nobel committee is so stupid they won’t realize this?
3
Would the bully-in-chief merit the Peace Prize if the two Koreas ended their state of war while he tore up the Iran deal and nuked them? While we reflect on that, I think we can award him the Pee Prize, which may very well have been the prize on which he had his eyes while contemplating who would walk away with the Miss Universe crown in Moscow.
6
Yeah, Maureen -- you helped put him there with your repeated hatchet jobs on Hilary. Thanks.
5
Lindsay Graham said What? Naw he di'int! Foghorn Leghorn..the World is Bugs Bunny..........
1
On cue- Lindsey Graham, aka Trumps poodle, removes his brown nose from trumps rear and touts the noble prize possibility . Have some self respect senator graham....
4
He's not a cartoon. He's real. He's a vile, disgusting maniac that threatens everything that makes (or used to make) the United States a shining example of democracy. And, you and other members of the media and press put him there. Despite obvious lies, one right after another on a daily basis, despite his revolting mockery of everyone and everything, despite his evil and nauseating description of what he considers making America great, the press drooled over him, yourself included. There was little rebuttal to anything he did or said. Your focus? Same as his. Hillary Clinton will destroy America. There is nothing you and the majority of the press can say now that matters. Nothing. Nothing. You helped put the Devil in the WH and the United States on the highway to hell. The history books will not be kind. If we even have schooling left by the time we rid the evil that has taken over our country.
5
Still no regret, Maureen?
2
If the Noble prize deciders consider delegitimizing the honor of receiving it, crooked lying Trump is their man. Trump is, by far, the most miserable thug in the Oval Office, ignorant and vindictive, independent from scoring with North Korea's criminal Kim Jong-un (who takes pleasure in torturing and killing his own folks at will) to consider denuclearizing the Peninsula. Trump is a dangerous clown, feeding emotional nonsense to his adoring fans, while a constant menace in taunting a war with Iran under false pretenses (as did Bush/Cheney/Wolfowitz with Irak). Incidentally, Lindsey Graham is an idiot, and a hypocrite; he should know better than suggesting irresponsible and far off prizes for a most unscrupulous beast.
Maureen,
Many thanks for yet another Trump article. NY Times sure is milking that cow for all it is worth. Which, must be a lot since the editorial staff only has one topic now. Trump.
Ms. Dowd is a provocateur— she relishes taunting the Democratic voters, Hillary Clinton and President Obama as much as Trump does. She’s loose with the facts and plays with our psyches for a couple of minutes ( to read the column) so I’m going to take a break from her column for another year. As with Trump, I find Ms. Dowd depresses me, or throws me into a rage. I KNOW she likes Trump compared to Obama and Hillary- so WHY would I invest time and energy for a closeted Trump admirerer. Basically this column is continuing the mainstreaming and acceptance of Trump’s psychosis. It’s tragic. ——-GOTV.
1
Please, there isn't a sane person that believes the moron could pull off anything lasting with North Korea that is lasting. You wasted space with your article, again.
2