The Nobel committee was only the first institution to recognize the extraordinary trajectory of the president’s influence — how historic hatreds across the planet had subsided during his first few months in office and even notorious despots had taken to humming snatches of Kumbaya.
In early November, just weeks after the committee awarded the Peace Prize to the president, the Vatican likewise cast aside tradition and canonized Obama in a brief but moving ceremony. It was true, Pope Benedict admitted, that sainthood historically had applied only to the deceased — and then only to those who led exemplary lives of heroic virtue and sanctity, followed by several miracles through the saint’s heavenly intercession. For that matter, it was also generally expected that the person embrace the fundamental tenets of the Catholic Church.
But the pope waved aside all such hurdles in Obama’s case, explaining that the president’s “entire life has been a miraculous journey” and that the pope himself had experienced the president’s holiness during their meeting in July.
“Our critics say we’re too hidebound,” Benedict exulted, “but not after this.”
By Thanksgiving, Obama had picked up a 2010 MacArthur “genius” award several months before their scheduled release in recognition of his “exceptional creativity and promise.” This was followed by an Oscar for Obama’s starring role in “My Best Intentions,” an autobiographical film expected in theaters in 2017.
No less satisfying was a Grammy the president pocketed for an Album of the Year that he was expected to record in 2020, in which he would recount in epic verse the settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that he’d engineered while president.
To be sure, not every institution fulfilled its duty to honor the president’s potential. One of the few setbacks occurred when the National Basketball Association canceled plans to crown Obama next year’s Slam Dunk champion after “Krypto-Nate” Robinson objected, insisting that he be allowed to defend his title.
Fortunately, such signs of ingratitude toward the president were rare. Indeed, the most heart-warming proof of the soaring esteem in which people of every continent held Obama occurred in December, when a Mexican brewery announced that it was replacing actor Jonathan Goldsmith with Obama in its popular Dos Equis advertising campaign, “The Most Interesting Man in the World.”
“Without Obama in the role as ‘most interesting man,’ our campaign was simply a lie, and the whole world knew it,” a spokeswoman said. “Now when we say ‘his reputation is expanding faster than the universe,’ we’re not even kidding.”
The White House’s agreement with the brewery did have to be delayed for several days while Rahm Emanuel was dispatched to deal with executives at Anheuser-Busch, who protested that the president had effectively endorsed Bud Light at last summer’s Beer Summit. But matters were smoothed over just in time for the president’s holiday address, which he concluded with the rakish Dos Equis slogan, “Stay Thirsty, My Friends.”
By New Year’s, some political experts — even those who counted themselves among the president’s most ardent allies — were wondering whether expectations for Obama had been raised too high and suggested the White House discourage future celebrations of his accomplishments until they actually happened. The president himself was said to express sympathy for this view, but most aides remained unpersuaded.
After all, they insisted, surely the president’s achievement of global disarmament in 2013 was worthy of at least some early token of appreciation.
E-mail Vincent Carroll at vcarroll@denverpost.com.
