"It's probably a good thing for President Obama that the time difference from Norway means the Nobel presentation will occur while most Americans are sleeping and might get less coverage in the United States," said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. "Two out of three Americans don't think he deserves it compared to the quarter who do. Even among Democrats, only 49 percent think he deserves it, compared to 8 percent of Republicans and 19 percent of independent voters. As is the case with many questions related to the President there are wide gender and racial gaps." Among women, 31 percent think Obama deserves the award, compared to only 19 percent of men. Seventy-three percent of blacks, 29 percent of Hispanics and 18 percent of whites think so. – Quinnipiac University Poll/December 8, 2009

Dominant Social Theme: Is he just misunderstood?

Free-Market Analysis: We want to return to our theme of yesterday that the power elite is trying to do too much at once. We offered up our own favorite analysis that it was the Internet, and the puncturing of one promotion after another, from peak oil, to global warming, to the war on terror, to swine flu, etc., etc., that was behind the unseemly haste. The dominant social themes that the power elite first floats and then promotes must become less effective, at least to a degree, in an electronic environment that allows detailed scrutiny.

Pre-Internet, the details of any single promotion were just not available. It was enough to organize a formidable array of prestigious think-tanks buttressed by a supine mainstream media and let ‘er rip. Since there were plenty of government types beholden to the power elite, it wasn't long before the promotion (usually fear-mongering of some sort) was translated into legislative action which allowed the individual government to accumulate more power and control.

Of course, this redounded to the favor of the mercantilist power elite that stood behind the given government. When the government gained additional power, it was the kind of power that inevitably further enriched and further empowered them, too. That is why, as we try to point out whenever we can, that trying to do more WITH government (nationalize banks, create people power etc.) is inevitably doomed to failure sooner or later.

Modern governments are inevitably controlled by the power elite, in our opinion — a group of intergenerationally active families and individuals of tremendous, world-spanning wealth and resources. They've been at it a long time, and they know just which levers to push and pull. It is where they have the MOST leverage, for it doesn't take much to control a modern democratic government but deep pockets. Almost anyone can be bought and those who go into politics are notorious for their willingness to barter.

Which brings us back to the Internet and the power elite's current timeline. We are AMAZED by what is taking place at the moment. The EU has been forced through without a single legitimate vote. And Copenhagen looks to us like a miserable and incendiary event. Even if something comes out of Copenhagen who is going to believe it? Even people who believe in global warming or climate change (whatever that is) have to be skeptical of the way the process is unfolding. It is the same rushed, botched process that has marked so many other promotions of late – from health care, to cap and trade, to the war on terror and even the regulatory proposals for the financial crisis.

Have the power elite's promotions ever been rushed this way? The Nobel Prize awarded to US President Barack Obama is a good example of this rushed-seeming process. If you look at the article excerpted above, you will see that only 25 percent of Americans believe the prize is justified. And we concur. We were flabbergasted at the temerity of awarding Obama a prize for peace before he had done anything peaceful. It wasn't that we were upset that he got prize (we could care less). No what caught our eye was the hasty way that the event occurred.

To understand how strange all this is, one has to go back a ways to figure out just how these promotions work. What the power elite has done, in our humble opinion, is to institutionalize a process that picks the best and brightest. There are feeder schools, such as Harvard and Yale in America and Oxford in England, and the smart kids that emerge from the universities may be given access to the power-elite structure and gradually matriculate to positions of further power if they have shown they are trustworthy.

There are other ways of becoming involved with the power elite. The founders of major enterprises such as Google or Microsoft may be either wooed or intimidated into working with the power elite if their companies show promise. And major artists and writers may end up working directly or indirectly on various power elite promotions. (We think Norman Mailer is a good example of a writer who ended up being very obviously enmeshed in power elite promotions, and his work dropped off considerably as a result.) The point is that the power elite (or its designates) cherry-pick the "best and the brightest" which is one reason why the system probably can't work in a totally socialist environment. There has to be enough competition to provide a selection process.

It is the same when it comes to awards and other kinds of social institutions. The power elite chooses which ones are the most successful and turns them inside out – takes them over. That is why such non-profits as the Ford Foundation and many major think tanks that one would think might be independent of any overt agenda are shockingly political and often radically leveling. This socialist (or right wing in some cases) sympathy doesn't just happen. It is cultivated after an elite takeover.

When it comes to the Nobel Prize, it is obvious (to us anyway) that those who run it and bestow it have a political agenda. (And no surprise the agenda seems to us to parallel any one of a number of power elite promotions.) But in the past the political agenda has been somewhat buried. In fact, what use is there in taking a bright individual or a prestigious institution or award and by clumsy handling reveal that he, she or it is actually part of a promotion?

And yet that is JUST what the power elite has done by giving the Nobel prize to Obama so suddenly, it seems to us. We noticed the same phenomenon when TIME – a mainstream American media entity that works entirely at the behest of the power elite in our opinion – put Obama's face on the cover of its flagship magazine about 100 times in a single month while he was campaigning. (Just kidding folks, but they really did put Obama on the cover a lot).

Also, the poses that TIME put Obama in and the rhetoric of the articles were reminiscent of FDR – but the effort was so clumsy and cack-handed that people noticed. Articles were written in the rightwing press about it. Drudge featured it. Watching that promotion was like watching a caricature. The motions were taking place but the subtly and smoothness that mark power elite promotions were absent.

We have presented the above article excerpt and analysis to once again bolster our position that the power elite is having a good deal of difficulty in the internet age and that their promotions are not working nearly as well as they once did. We have submitted evidence that giving Obama the Nobel prize out of the gate is evidence of the haste with which the power elite is working today. They seem to us to be acting as if they are racing against the clock. Why?

We are sure we will get some emails from people who don't often read the Daily Bell (or generally dislike it) reacting in wonderment to the idea that Barack Obama could somehow be affiliated with a power elite. Our response to that is that Obama is no more or less affiliated with this group than George Bush or other presidents that came before. The only one that was not directly affiliated in the past umpteen years was Ronald Reagan. And we believe he made his peace once in office anyway.

No Obama is part of the Hegelian dialectic that drives the power elite process. First a right-wing authoritarian statist (George Bush) and then a left wing one. The right wing is supposed to be militarily inclined while the left wing fellow plays the part of the peacenik (the reason for the Nobel prize in our opinion.) This is all probably no surprise to our readers at this point. But actually that is JUST our point. This whole manipulation is out of the closet. It's like those who are putting it on for us are weary of it. They don't care anymore. They have been exposed and now they are just rushing through the motions. It is both strange and disconcerting from our point of view. We wonder what it portends. We have an idea.