Update: To Obama – Just Say ‘No’. There’s a growing hope Obama will have the sense to turn this down. Don’t hold your breath!
2nd Update: You can breath again. He disappointed … again.
Comment at end
9th October, 2009
UNBELIEVABLE!
ABOLUTELY CRAZILY INCREDIBLE
As I lifted my jaw, Gordon-Brown style, up an inch or two, the value of the Nobel Peace Prize dropped several miles in my estimation.
They’ve awarded it to WHOM?
BARACK (THE WORLD’S SAVIOUR) OBAMA!?
What?
THE NOTHING PRIZE
This has got to be the WORST EVER DECISION by that once-highly respected body. The worst EVER.
Not because Obama doesn’t mean well – the old woman next door means well – but because he was five minutes in the job and suddenly he’s the world’s peace-maker. I understate for emphasis – he was actually TWO WEEKS in the job before he was seen to deserve to be listed for this nomination. And nine months in the job before he got it.
WHY? What has happened since? World peace? Worldwide nuclear disarmament? A Middle East peace setlement? An unclenched fist from Iran?
I always understood that the Nobel Prize was not politically motivated and looked at all nominations’ track-records over a lengthy period.
Saying is NOT doing.
The Nobel Prize is suddenly the Nothing Prize.
Time to set up a new peace prize for those who have actually DONE something and not just said something.
“OSLO, Norway – President Barack Obama won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for “his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples,” the Norwegian Nobel Committee said, citing his outreach to the Muslim world and attempts to curb nuclear proliferation.
The stunning choice made Obama the third sitting U.S. president to win the Nobel Peace Prize and shocked Nobel observers because Obama took office less than two weeks before the Feb. 1 nomination deadline. Obama’s name had been mentioned in speculation before the award but many Nobel watchers believed it was too early to award the president.
“Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world’s attention and given its people hope for a better future,” the committee said. “His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world’s population.”
(More here if you must. I can’t stand reading it.)
Earlier report on possible candidates. These three might well have raised eyebrows too – but at least they’ve DONE something in politics!
“Former US President Bill Clinton, former British Premier Tony Blair and Sarkozy are among the frontrunners for Nobel Peace Prize 2009.”
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Tony Blair 
October 9, 2009 at 12:42 pm |
Stop complaining, President Obama, could vote for you or your party, give you a millions of £ or $ for free, buy you the most expensive car and house, and you would still complain. STOP COMPLAINING
October 9, 2009 at 1:27 pm |
Odd that you say that, Mr Kent – I have said the same thing about people’s reaction to Tony Blair. Blair, who actually had the guts to walk the walk – right or wrong – not just talk the talk.
I’ve never been impressed by Obama, I will admit that, but mainly because I think he was voted in for the WRONG reasons, which I have discussed here before. He certainly hadn’t DONE anything in his two years as a senator to deserve the Great Hope label, having been absent most time votes were required.
But you, presumably think he HAS done enough to get this prize?
I’d be pleased if you’d list them here for us.
I imagine most of my readers would be glad to be so enlightened.
October 9, 2009 at 2:45 pm |
I am surprised AND angry about this development. There are enough candidates in the world who have really worked all their lives for building peace and tolerance and Barak Obama waltzing in to claim the peace prize on the basis on some talks and expression of intent does not cut it.
What has been his impact on the world? This is a president who is sending more troops to Afghanistan, is talking about bombing Pakistan and is discussing serious embargo against Iran. I understand that he is different and wants to work differently. But it is too early into his presidency for him to take on the mantle of a peace builder or peace keeper.
The only way I can see it positively, if he accepts the prize (I strongly believe he should decline in favour of other, more deserving candidates), is that we will have USA talk a different language by force if not willingly. No more can an American president talk about military action against anyone in the world or attack/ interfere with any country on the pretext of democratization. Will that not be wonderful? The Nobel committee, in their ignorance, has actually created a situation for the United Stated where they are rendered powerless to be the leaders of democracy, whichever way it can be achieved.
May be there is a sense in this senseless award 🙂
October 9, 2009 at 2:57 pm |
Hi Beansncurry and thanks for the comment. I think!
Are you thinking out loud as you write? Your conclusion that the USA may welll be rendered powerless seems to be a prize worth achieving? Perhaps I am reading you wrongly, but if I read it correctly I disagree.
It seems many if not most are surprised at this. Thus I have tweeted that today the Nobel Peace Prize dies. It has clearly LOST its value if it is now there to “encourage” rather than “reward”. We do not need any more bodies or people posing as neutral determining political policy. We have politicians for that, right or wrong.
Today the Archbishop of Canterbury is another one:
A regular commenter here, Julie mentions at her blog the same point as you regarding those more deserving who have put in long-time service.
October 9, 2009 at 2:50 pm |
[…] More here […]
October 9, 2009 at 2:54 pm |
what’s so peaceful about “increasing troop size by 21,000 last Spring” and “planning to send an additional 40,000” combat troops to Afghanistan this year??????? What’s so peaceful about promising to NOT end the war in Iraq??????? What’s so peaceful about withdrawing from the International Conference on Racism?????? Please, if this monkey deserves, or has earned, the Nobel Peace Prize, then so has George Bush! Has anyone noticed that Guantanamo Bay is still open for business? Just a wolf in “peaceful” sheep’s clothing!
October 10, 2009 at 2:28 am |
Ahhhh, tribeseeker – the complexities of war. Peace-making can be difficult.
But worry not. Obama has it all in the bag. Or say we are being led (by the nose ) to believe.
October 9, 2009 at 2:54 pm |
Just another example of racism. The darling first black prez. The only difference between him and bush IS his color. Same shit, different piles
October 9, 2009 at 6:34 pm |
Funny you said that. I was thinking “there’s got to be a ‘racist’ here”. Why it’s the Republicans, of course! /sarc
DNC: “The Republican Party has thrown in its lot with the terrorists – the Taliban and Hamas this morning – in criticizing the President for receiving the Nobel Peace prize.”
October 9, 2009 at 7:17 pm |
Er…. pardon? Who said that? Link, Caela?
Are these people as insane as they sound?
October 10, 2009 at 2:26 am |
Er … pardon, rick?
Sorry we are used to a higher level of debate here. In which way is it racism? We don’t get racism at this site. Or rather, racism doesn’t get us.
October 9, 2009 at 2:57 pm |
the noble peace prize has always been a joke they even gave to it that terrorist olmert from israhell. if anything obama has made the world more dangerous look what hes done to pakistan. he hasnt helped the palestinians he is just a uncle tom.
October 10, 2009 at 2:24 am |
Name calling, MOHAMED? Tch… tch…
And politically incorrect too! Oh, Obama WILL be insulted. He’ll be pursuing you in the courts soon if you’re not careful. Or perhaps at the UN. They know all about that there, after Obama’s recent help..
Would anything or anyone ever satisfy you and your like?
Don’t answer that. I know the answer. A big NO. It’s the only thing giving me any empathy for Obama’s position right now as leader of the supposedly “free world”..
October 9, 2009 at 3:03 pm |
WAR = PEACE
October 9, 2009 at 3:39 pm |
“the value of the Nobel Peace Prize dropped several miles in my estimation.”
Exactly what kind of value did the nobel retain for you after it was awarded to henry “let’s bomb the shit out of them” kissinger some 25+ years ago?
October 9, 2009 at 3:52 pm |
To Sept –
Its value was in looking at what people had DONE not what they had SAID. We can all disagree on various politicians and their decisions, and probably always will. But just awarding awards on a DREAM is nightmarish.
For peace sometimes war is, unfortunately, the least worst option in the long run – viz Hiroshima.
October 9, 2009 at 3:45 pm |
So they have awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to our dear president, the Obaminator. How wonderful. Now he can travel across the pond, in his big jet, on our tax money, to accept another gift from the clueless masses. Well, if they can give it it Al Gore for doing nothing why not give it to a president that hasn’t done anything, except plunge the US into a monumental black hole of debt, stand on the edge of nuclear destruction and think he can speechify his way to a nuclear free world. Those of you who feel this award was justified probably believe in the tooth fairy.
October 9, 2009 at 3:59 pm |
Grundoon – Interesting how so many disapprove of this, but for opposite reasons.
Adds weight to my argument that the Nobel Peace Committee has now become inextricably bound up in world of politics.
What happens when/if they got it wrong and despite the open-handed approach of Big O others still decide to attack the west or Israel?
Will the Nobel people grovel and apologise and put themselves up before some court or other to explain themselves, as we seem to expect democratically politicians to do?
And pigs might fly.
They need to stay out of trying to influence politics. This, to me, is no more than a blatant attempt to influence Obama’s Afghanistan strategy, even as Pink Code has realised that the Afghanis WANT the west there.
And possibly, just possibly to counter any stiffening of the Obama sinews if Mr Blair becomes EU president and encourages more EU help in the way of troops to that SELF-blighted area.
The Nobel Peace Prize Committee needs to crawl under a stone and die. Most of us won’t notice or care.
R.I.P.
October 9, 2009 at 4:49 pm |
Hi keeptonyblairforpm,
Thank you for your response to my message. Personally, I would not wish that any nation be made to feel powerless but living in Asia and feeling the ‘interference’ in the name of Democracy from the United States has left me a bit disillusioned. And hence, my comment was more in keeping with ‘allowing/ forcing a nation to take on a different/ more constructive role in world affairs’ from the one it has been very conveniently adopting till now.
October 9, 2009 at 5:24 pm |
Thanks for this clarification, Beanscurry.
I DO support the influence of the USA in the world. It is invariably the first nation to come to the aid of others in difficulty or trouble.
Their legacy has been a good one. Wish I could say the same for many other countries whose emphasis and interests are often only internal.