Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize...

[Crazedclerkthe2nd]

...for stuff he hasn't even done yet.

Now while I do agree that Obama has his heart in the right place with most of his peace related initiatives, the bottom line is he hasn't gotten any results yet. A great idea is one thing, actually making it happen is another entirely.

I mean, you don't get a Super Bowl trophy simply for putting together a great team in the off season.

[Rapscallion]

I have to agree. I like the cut of his jib, and I think he has great intentions, but a Nobel prize already?

Someone in the committee - probably several someones - is a sycophant.

Rapscallion

[BroomJockey]

What? Seriously? Please tell me this is a joke. Nobel prizes are supposed to be for accomplishments, not for intentions. Come back in 4 or 5 years, take a look, see if he's done okay or not.

[IDrinkaRum]

What the frak is the Nobel Peace Prize people smoking? Must be some good stuff!

The man was nominated 12 days after he became President.

And why?

Because he's sending us into debt? That way we'll be too poor to "interfere" with the other governments within the world?

He befriends Chavez, Castro, and Mahmoud Akmadinijad (a Holocaust denier).

Ghandi was nominated in 1936, 1937, 1938. Never won it.

Churchill never won it.

And yet, Obama won it?

For what?

What has that man done for the world in terms of peace?

Obama has sent troops to Afghanistan, and our people are dying. And what does he do? He waffles about sending support to them. And yet he doesn't recall them neither.

W.
T.
F.
??????

[AdminAssistant]

Because he's encouraging diplomacy instead bursting into countries with guns a'blazing?

Because he's trying to end a decades long embargo against Cuba that had done nothing but hurt our own exports and keep the majority of Cubans in severe poverty - near starvation?

Because he's trying to pass measures that might help out the Americans who most desperately need it? Even if it's at the minor expense of the top 2%?

Yeah, how dare he. I mean, Obama's done nothing but sit on his ass since January. It's not as if he's not trying to juggle two wars, a recession, a clusterfuck of a healthcare system, AND actually start acting like a member of the international community. All with bitter right-wing neocons shouting, "NAZI SOCIALIST COMMIE MUSLIM BASTARD!!!!" and banging their fists and throwing toddler-like tantrums. And he still focuses on bi-partisanism. He recognizes that President of Iran is a psychopathic dickwad. But that measures against Iran have to be taken internationally, and that innocent Iranian civilians should not be punished for the acts of their dictator. And we're actually opening dialogues - which is good. When nuclear weapons get involved, you have to use diplomacy. You can't one-up an atom bomb. (Well, you could, but do you want to live in that kind of world? I don't.)

As Fareed Zakaria (my favorite US correspondent) said, "The award is to America for rejoining the international community." Personally, I think the award is premature, but I am happy and proud that he was the recepient.

[IDrinkaRum]

The only thing the President has done since January is give lots and lots of speeches on TV.

He has done nothing.

He hasn't supported the military (which is needed to help the people in Afghanistan).

Next he'll be given a prize because our unemployment is 9.8% (after the stimulus package that was supposed to bring it down).

This has made the Nobel Peace Prize into a laughing stock of a prize.

I'm not asking the prize to be stripped from him.

But it absolutely should never have been given to him.

The man has done nothing but to apologize for Americans. Making himself lovable to the people/governments of the world, but distancing himself from those he's supposed to be the leader of.

Sorry, but in my eyes, he doesn't get a prize. Even a booby one.

[BlaqueKatt]

Yeah, how dare he. I mean, Obama's done nothing but sit on his ass since January. It's not as if he's not trying to juggle two wars, a recession, a clusterfuck of a healthcare system, AND actually start acting like a member of the international community.

you obviously missed the part where the nominations had to be in after he had only been in office FOR 12 DAYS!-wow he accomplished a lot in that not-even two weeks span.......(remember Yassir Arafat-remeber leader of the PLO*-group that hijacked planes, terrorists...... also got one for pretty much the same reasons-Stan "tookie" Williams-death row inmate/murderer/ was nominated)

Sorry I lost my respect for the Nobel committee back in 2007-when Al Gore won over Irena Sendler-because hey writing "an inconvenient truth" was so much more worthy than oh say-smuggling 2500 Jewish children out of the Warsaw Ghetto during WWII during Nazi occupation-and getting your arms and legs broken when you get caught......silly me


*
The PLO was considered by the USA and Israel to be a terrorist organization until the Madrid Conference in 1991. Most of the rest of the world recognized the PLO as the legitimate representatives of the Palestinian people from the mid-1970s onwards (after the PLO's admission to the UN as an observer.)[23]

The most notable of what were considered terrorist acts committed by member organizations of the PLO were:

* The 1970 Avivim school bus massacre by the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), killed nine children, three adults and crippled 19.
* In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the second-largest PLO faction after al-Fatah, carried out a number of attacks and plane hijackings mostly directed at Israel, most infamously the Dawson's Field hijackings, which precipitated the Black September in Jordan crisis.
* In 1972 the Black September Organization carried out the Munich massacre of Israeli Olympic athletes.
* In 1974 members of the DFLP seized a school in Israel and killed a total of 26 students and adults and wounded over 70 in the Ma'alot massacre.
* The 1975 Savoy Hotel hostage situation killing 8 civilians and 3 soldiers, carried out by Fatah.
* The 1978 Coastal Road massacre killing 37 Israeli civilians and wounding 76, also carried out by Fatah.

In 2004 the United States Congress declared the PLO to be a terrorist organisation under the Anti-Terrorism Act 1987, citing among others the Achille Lauro attack.[24][25]

[Fashion Lad!]

Obama hasn't done anything to deserve this award. He's been a failure so far at dealing with any of the issues our country has been facing. He's also been a failure at really creating any peace. 40,000 more troops in Afghanistan and let's see what comes of Iran.

[IDrinkaRum]

How about this Fashion Lad -

President Obama is still waffling about what to do about the troops in Afghanistan. He's given the Nobel Peace Prize. Now because he's been given this prize for peace, how can he send more troops into Afghanistan in what would be viewed as an agressive "war-like" move when he's the "Peace President"?

Do you think the world is trying to bully him into keeping us out of Afghanistan?

Just a thought, not a happy one, but not really "out there" either.

Also, who else thinks he should return the prize and ask that it be given to someone else who is more deserving of it?

[suchislife2]

You've got to be kidding!

I'm sorry but no. Just no. There are so many more people out there that deserve this award for actually implementing what they spoke about.

All Obama has done so far is talk. Yeah, the intentions are there, but so far I've not heard of any of this "talk" turned into action.

Hell when the guy was elected all the newspapers were going on about how "he was going to save the world" and now this? Honestly this poor guy has already been put on a dangerously high pedestal. If he slips up he's got a long way to fall.

Good luck to him really. I do hope that he actually manages to implement some of what he's spoken about and he does do a lot of good. But give the guy a break!

[SG15Z]

Yeah I got a ext about this this morning and just about fell over. I mean WTF?!?! The Nobel peace prize is for accomplishments, what has Obama accomplished so far? Um, nothing really. Conservatives still hate him, unemployment has yet to improve, we're still in Afghan. Yeah sure he has some good intentions and unemployment may go down next year. But none of that has happened yet!!

Sure maybe something will happend in the next 3-7 years, but the point is you win the prize AFTER you do something not before. What happens if all his ideas backfire and things actually get worse? Are they gonna take the award back and go, "whoops, our bad!"

[gremcint]

Myth: The prize is awarded to recognize efforts for peace, human rights and democracy only after they have proven successful.

More often, the prize is awarded to encourage those who receive it to see the effort through, sometimes at critical moments.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...bA-1gD9B7HDR80

[Boozy]

Good link, gremcint.

Now, are there any valid objections to Obama winning the Nobel?

[BlaqueKatt]

yup from the actual nobel peace prize website:

According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize is to go to whoever "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".

you're telling me that as of febuary first of this year Obama had done any of this?

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has received 205 nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009, of which 33 are organisations.

He was the best canidate out of 205? Really?

The list of laureates includes the likes of:

The International Committee of the Red Cross(2 times)
Albert Schweitzer
Martin Luther King Jr.
UNICEF
Henry A. Kissinger
Amnesty International
Mother Theresa
Desmond Mpilo Tutu
Nelson Mandela
The United Nations
Doctors Without Borders
The 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso


He does not deserves to be listed among any of these people or groups as of yet

"The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 is to be awarded to President Barack Obama for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples. The Committee has attached special importance to Obama's vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons."

Exraordinary efforts? Really? 12 days into his presidency-that's really a stretch.

[Fashion Lad!]

Well, I don't think Kissenger was deserving either. I'm not Bush too, why didn't I get it?

Obama will more than likely be sending up to 40,000 more troops to Afghanistan. He will continue to hold detainees without trial. Let's see how Iran plays out.

Yeah, he didn't do anything of any real value during the nomination process for the Nobel Peace Prize. He did talk a lot, but he's been less than stellar at getting things done.