President Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize

[Jedi Master Carr]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/eu_nobel_peace
I have to say I am shocked, although he is a lot better choice than the Zimbabwe Prime minister who they considered. They obviously chose him because of what has changed since he became President.

[Droo]

While I am certainly in favour of Obama's efforts to make peace with the middle east, I can't help but think in light of this that they seem to give out Nobel Peace Prizes for anything these days. For God's sake, he's only nine months into his presidency!

[Jedi Master Carr]

Well he just spoke and he did say he didn't get this for his accomplishments but for what they hope he will accomplish. If you look at some of the ones who won in the past, you see they have gave the award to people who didn't really didn't accomplish anything either when they were awarded it.

[CMJ]

I'm excited for Obama. If Lech Walesa has taught us anything, it's that a Nobel Peace Prize can be a fantastic springboard into a lucrative career hosting a fishing show on Polish TV.

;)

[Jedi Master Carr]

I'm excited for Obama. If Lech Walesa has taught us anything, it's that a Nobel Peace Prize can be a fantastic springboard into a lucrative career hosting a fishing show on Polish TV.

;)

LOL well looking at some of the winners I am cannot remember what more than half of them did or in some cases who they were.

[Yog]

Guess I should say some words about this. :)

Here in Norway, almost everyone was either surprised or shocked by the decision. When his name was announced in the first part of the press conference (in Norwegian), there was a very loud gasp of disbelief among the journalists. I never heard such a reaction at any of these announcements. While he was actually among the more frequently speculated candidates in the media, and thought as a possible contender in the future, he was not viewed as a likely winner at this time.

The others viewed as more likely were Columbian Piedad Cordoba (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piedad_Cordoba), Afghan Sima Samar (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sima_Samar), Zimbabwe's Morgan Tsvangirai (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgan_Tsvangirai), Russian Lidia Yusupova (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lidia_Yusupova), and chinese dissidents such as Hu Jia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hu_Jia_(activist)) and Wei Jingsheng (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wei_Jingsheng).

What caught everyone by surprise was, that the Nobel committee would choose someone who who had only been in office for 9 months, and he is barely getting started on tackling many of the issues that many of us have high expectations on. A more traditional approach would be to wait a year or two at least, or even after service in office. The other two American presidents who won while in office, Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson were in their second term (viewed by some as a failed winners). Jimmy Carter won after several decades out of office. What the Nobel committee did this time is a risky and controversial move. It assumes a legacy of successful peace building efforts, but we have not seen the results yet.

That being said, to understand better the decision, one has to be reminded of the formulation in Alfred Nobel's will. Originally, the prize was to be given to those who, "during the preceding year (bolded for emphasis).. shall 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". If you think about it from this perspective, the decision makes a lot more sense. It's not necessarily about building a long legacy. Who did more than Obama this year to promote multilateral diplomacy and cooperation, fight nuclear proliferation, moving away from the Israeli bias in the middle east conflict, working toward fraternization with old enemies (Russia, Cuba, Venezuela) and changed the whole perception of US in the world? It is a paradigm shift in international foreign policy, and should not be understated. Historically, not all the winners had big results to show for when they won the price.

[Yog]

I also want to address one more thing, since I see this misconception all over the place, in both blogs and the media. And this happens every year.

They often say "how could he be nominated after only 2 weeks in office?", or they say "oh, look at some of these nominations! Those crazy Norwegians. What a joke this prize is". Well, the nominations are actually not done by the Nobel committee. They can be submitted any member of parliament or government, past winners, or professors in certain fields from ANY nation. There are not many requirements to the nomination itself, it just has to be a well formulated letter with reasons why. So the nominations can come from anywhere, really.

The nominations are also anonymous, so it is generally not known who submitted them, or even WHO the nominees are. The exceptions to this rule are usually certain clowns who think it is a good idea to break the silence and tell the media who they nominee, and some times, these are less than serious suggestions. Some of those announcements are even made by radicals or vandals to damage the reputation of the Nobel institute. For example previous "nominees" include Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, Benito Mussolini, Saddam Hussein, Castro, Ahmedinejad etc. Rest assured, that these kind of proposals end up quickly in a paper basket. Every year, there are more than 200 nominations. Only a handful or two of them are seriously considered.

When the Nobel committee announced Obama, it was obviously not based on the two weeks he was in office prior to the nomination. It was based on his actual time in office, the campaign he led before, and the ongoing efforts he is leading that may lead to peace in the future. Hope that clarifies. :)

[Darth Turbogeek]

Well, personally have a think about it. He's certainly reduced my tendancy to grab any American and yell WHAT THE FUCK WERE YOU THINKING VOTING THAT DICKHEAD IN TWICE?????? so I for one am much more peaceful.

(And in all seriousness, my first thought on reading about it was WTF? and my second is WTF??? Even if I like the guy, I dont think it's deserved)

[Bercilak de Hautdesert]

My first and pretty much only thought was this:

If President Obama can get the Nobel Peace Prize and they consider the things he has done to be "peaceful" and in a spirit of "change" then it truly is time to pack up and leave the planet because it is surely going down the drain.

To forestall any speculation, I did know before having this thought that he was not nominated for things he has done specifically in the office of the President.

I also believe that if they are going to award someone for something they haven't done yet but appear to be possibly thinking about doing, then they should go ahead and give the Nobel Peace Prize to the 3 month old child of my next door neighbor because technically speaking, he has a great deal more of potential to change the world for the better than anyone over the age of 35. For all we know, he could grow up to unite the world in peaceful coexistence.