Bruce Bawer om Torbjørn Jagland

.... Jagland had been thinking of Jagland. What a wonderful way to curry favor with the most powerful man in the world! What heights might Obama help Jagland to reach? How could he ever, in the future, turn down a phone call from the man who’d given him the Peace Prize? If, during Obama’s tenure, the job of, say, UN Secretary-General should happen to fall vacant, and Jagland needed support in high places – just think of it! The mind reeled.....

....But some people aren’t laughing. For the EU’s top brass, this award is a shot in the arm, a vote of confidence in tough times – and a reason to be profoundly grateful to Thorbjørn Jagland. Let’s face it: this fellow is crazy like a fox. He knows exactly what he’s doing. The euro may or may not be on its last legs, but the EU itself isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. He’s already bought off the President of the United States (for whose re-election, one imagines, he’s fervently praying); now the boys in Brussels are in his debt, too. How interesting it will be to see where Thorbjørn Jagland’s career takes him next! With friends like these, after all, the sky’s the limit.

Read all: The Man Behind the Nobel Prize