[Intrepid Homoludens]

Barack Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize | New York Times

OSLO — In a stunning surprise, the Nobel Committee announced Friday that it had awarded its annual peace prize to President Obama “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.”

“He has created a new international climate,” the committee said in its announcement. President Obama’s name had not figured in speculation about the likely winner until minutes before the prize was announced here.

Likely candidates had been seen here as including human rights activists in China and Afghanistan and political figures in Africa.

The committee said it wanted to enhance Mr. Obama’s diplomatic efforts. “We are awarding Obama for what he has done,” the committee said. “Many other people and leaders and nations have to respond in a positive way” to President Obama’s diplomacy.

The announcement noted the special importance the committee attached to President Obama’s vision of a world without nuclear weapons. “Obama has as president created a new climate in international politics. Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play,” the committee said.

Yeah, I too said "WTF?!!!"

Would this be categorized as...."preemptive"?

[UPtimist]

Right, well, it's not like I'm against it, what the commitee says is all true... But maybe it's a bit early? Maybe wait until more concrete results?

But, congratulations to him, here's hoping this'll really boost his efforts now!

[AFGNCAAP]

The most preemptive, ass-kissing and ridiculously politically loaded Comittee's decision since Arafat and Rabin got theirs in 1994. It almost certainly won't look just as stupid 15 years down the line as that one but still, to quote myself:

W T F?

[booB]

A travesty of the highest order.

[After a brisk nap]

The 1994 prize was at least given to leaders negotiating to resolve one of the touchiest and most difficult conflicts in the world. It was aspirational: given to encourage their peace-making, and even if they ultimately failed, that doesn't mean it wasn't worth trying. (And it did have some major accomplishments: The PLO recognizing Israel and vice versa, leading to the setting up of the Palestinian Authority.)

There was surely also some Norwegian pride in the Oslo peace process at work there. If that seems optimistic and perhaps a little naive in retrospect, well, the Nobel Prize Committee is supposed to be idealistic and to represent hope.

This year's award, on the other hand, is just ridiculous. Might as well give it to Jon Stewart.

[Henke]

Many people are against this. I think it's great and I'm actually hoping this will help in making him decide not to send troop reinforcements to Afghanistan.

[Lucien21]

Far too early.

The nominations had to be put forward in January so he was in power for about 10 days before he was nominated.

Must have been some fortnight.

Even Reagan didn't win one and he brokered the end of the cold war.

[SoccerDude28]

Yeah that is BS. I haven't been a big fan of Nobama since he became president because like everyone who voted for him, I'm still waiting for the change to come. So far, it's like he took everything he said in his campaign and did the opposite. To give him a nobel peace prize for doing absolutely nothing so far is mind boggling.

[Giligan]

I'm not entirely opposed to this. Does Obama have major accomplishments under his belt as President? Mayne not, but has he already united the liberal majority of the United States and the world, opened up new political avenues, and initiated dialogue with opposing countries. I don't think there's anyone, politically, who has had more of an affect on the world in current times than Obama. Say what you will about tangible, real-world accomplishments; he may be lacking in those so far, but there's no denying that he's a polarizing figure who's influenced the world for decades to come. Clearly that's enough for the Nobel Committee.

[MoriartyL]

There are plenty of polarizing, influential people in history whose effect on the world was entirely negative. (I know of one who got a Nobel Peace Prize, so I guess this shouldn't be too surprising.) I don't know if Obama's going to save the world, destroy it, or do nothing, and realistically neither do any of you. Talk is meaningless. Until he starts acting, none of us can possibly know what his effect on the world is going to be.

[Erwin_Br]

Talk is not meaningless. Look at how the world reacts to Obama, even though he still hasn't done anything concrete.

Of course all this talking has to lead somewhere, I'm not opposing that. But it's good to have someone who doesn't "act, then think".

As for the Nobel prize: Yes, it's too early.

[rlpw]

I always have been under the assumption that the Nobel Prize was for doing something, not having potential to do something. They should review the board and make sure someone didn't get payed.

[booB]

Originally Posted by Erwin_Br

Talk is not meaningless. Look at how the world reacts to Obama, even though he still hasn't done anything concrete.

The ONLY reason why the world reacts the way it does to Obama is because he followed Bush.

[Erwin_Br]

Originally Posted by booB

The ONLY reason why the world reacts the way it does to Obama is because he followed Bush.

...Eh? I don't quite follow... Please elaborate.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Originally Posted by Erwin_Br

...Eh? I don't quite follow... Please elaborate.

Yeah. booB's sentiment doesn't make sense. I thought the world (i.e. anyone NOT in the U.S.) largely agrees with the Nobel committee precisely because Obama did NOT follow Bush.

[Squinky]

I think by "follow", he meant "came after", not "supported". Correct me if I'm wrong.

[booB]

Originally Posted by Squinky

I think by "follow", he meant "came after", not "supported". Correct me if I'm wrong.

Correct. After the clusterf#@& that was the Bush regime, ANYTHING looks much better by comparison. The fact is that, globally speaking, Obama has not done much stuff differently from Bush -- he has not tried to pull us out of Iraq or Afghanistan, he has sent military missions into Pakistan, and he has alluded to potential conflicts with Iran in the future. Sure, he may have the best of INTENTIONS, but the execution of those ideas is what matters. ...Well, apparently not to the Nobel Prize committee, that is.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Originally Posted by booB

...Well, apparently not to the Nobel Prize committee, that is.

Apparently not. However, the speculation - from news sources, pundits, and Mr. Obama himself - is that the prize committee decided to give the U.S. president the award preemptively, an incentive to keep forging forward to ignite and sustain the climate of openness to calming down nuclear proliferation that was in good part Bush's fault, to inspire conflicting world leaders to start listening to each other and try to work at an understanding without resorting to petty accusations and finger pointing, to maintain peaceful negotiations, to try to respect each other in terms of what each involved party needs.

The reality is that yes, anything after the Bush "regime" DOES look good, and this is as good as it gets with such a reality. Do you ever remember Bush actually going into the Middle East and expressing apology and regret on behalf of his country to the Muslims for the atrocious attitude and behaviour of the U.S. in the past decade or so? Or any other leader of any country for that matter?

I'll tell you one thing. Bush NEVER, NEVER, NEVER in all the 8 years he was in office made any effort that would even match 1/10 of what Obama has been doing in the past 8 months of being in office, he's trying his best undo the huge f#ck ups that Bush and Cheney and their gang inflicted on the world. And more startlingly, Obama is just warming up.

The fact is that, globally speaking, Obama has not done much stuff differently from Bush -- he has not tried to pull us out of Iraq or Afghanistan, he has sent military missions into Pakistan, and he has alluded to potential conflicts with Iran in the future. Sure, he may have the best of INTENTIONS, but the execution of those ideas is what matters. ...Well, apparently not to the Nobel Prize committee, that is.

Well, maybe Obama knows something you don't. After all, he is the one in the White House, not you. All you know is what you've been reading and watching in the news, and not every piece of information in the White House or the Pentagon is available to the media, to you, or to any other world citizen.

Now this doesn't necessarily mean that I think Obama absolutely deserves the Nobel prize, but it does tell you something about how those who are members of the committee think in terms of what this prize can do to influence certain world events. The Nobel Peace Prize is arguably THE MOST PRESTIGIOUS HONOUR of its kind. And those in the committee are the most elite in the world to determine who gets it, they don't f#%k around. They obviously know something most of us don't.

If Obama arguably doesn't deserve it now, it's probably because he'll most likely deserve it in the future.

My guess is that they gave it to him to inspire him (some may instead say "pressure him") to keep doing what he has been doing. And one of those things he has been doing, as pretty compelling example, I think, is to ignite the sense of hope around the world that things can and should be better, down to the most humble details.

No other world leader in recent memory, on a scale this massive, has actually fired up kids and grown ups in many countries (not just the U.S.) to say to themselves and each other, "If President Obama can be awesome, then I know I can be awesome too."

[UPtimist]

Originally Posted by booB

he has not tried to pull us out of Iraq or Afghanistan

I thought he always said that he'd add more troops to Afghanistan?