Barak Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize

Alfred Nobel would be turning over in his grave if he knew what the Prize had become.
 
Can't say I'm an expert on the Nobel Peace Prize (just like most here I'm assuming) -- however this goes to show ya how ****ty of a diplomatic job Bush and his administration achieved internationally more than anything.

Obama and his administration's tactic/campaigning of opening up closed doors definitely marches towards the idea of peace than not however I bet Obama is just as surprised as anyone else about this award...then again I very much doubt people regularly follow the candidates for this (I bet more people care and know about who wins an Oscar or Emmy for example) so a lot of the 'outrage' is pretty entertaining in itself. Can't wait to see some comedy sketches about all of this ****.
 
There have been much more disturbing awards in history. For example, Time Magazine Man of The Year for 1938...

(if you don't know who won, look it up...you'll be surprised ;))
 
"The Norwegian Labour Party Award for Being Someone Else Than George W. Bush":lol:

First of all, I think it's party true that giving Obama the prize is a signal that the comittee did not feel the Bush 'doctrine' did much in the way of promoting peace in the world, but I must arrest you on the Labour Party part. The comittee is comprised by members from four parties, Labour, Right (Conservatives), Progress Party (Populist conservatives) and Socialist Left Party, deputy members include one politician from the Progress Party, one Labour party politician, and the secretary is a historian. The President of the comittee is the president of the Parliament (Stortinget), Thorbj?rn Jagland from Labour.

:)
 
Wait? So what exactly did he do to get his?
 
I was very surprised when I woke up and saw this on yahoo. It's a very interesting choice, considering how long he has been on the international stage. While I personally think it is premature, maybe it would be better next year or at the end of his term, it is not a decision without merit.

So Obama gets the prize for continuing Bush's foreign policy?

This administration decided to keep Gitmo running, and expand the effort in Afghanistan. More proof that the Nobel Peace Prize is worthless.

I'm sorry, but that's bull. Bush and his administration didn't even seem to know what "foreign policy" meant. Since taking office, Obama has set a pull out timeline for troops in Iraq, already pulling them from major cities, and refocusing our efforts on a true cause in destroying the Taliban in Afghanistan, something Bush completely ignored after invading Iraq. He has reached his hand out to anyone willing to take it, as opposed to sending out ultimatums of "do what I want you to or I'll bomb you." Gitmo is staying open only because the states deemed our maximum security prisons, which hold mass murderers and domestic terrorists, not good enough to hold a few terror suspects.

The official announcement is pretty clear on why he got it, so it should probably be in this thread somewhere.

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.

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. Dialogue and negotiations are preferred as instruments for resolving even the most difficult international conflicts. The vision of a world free from nuclear arms has powerfully stimulated disarmament and arms control negotiations. Thanks to Obama's initiative, the USA is now playing a more constructive role in meeting the great climatic challenges the world is confronting. Democracy and human rights are to be strengthened.

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. 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.

For 108 years, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has sought to stimulate precisely that international policy and those attitudes for which Obama is now the world's leading spokesman. The Committee endorses Obama's appeal that "Now is the time for all of us to take our share of responsibility for a global response to global challenges."
http://nobelpeaceprize.org/en_GB/home/announce-2009/
 
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.

Eh? :think:
 
From the Wall Street Journal:

Obama Accepts Nobel Peace Prize as 'Call to Action'

By PAUL SONNE and NEIL KING JR.
[President Barack Obama speaks about winning the Nobel Peace Prize] Associated Press

President Obama speaks about winning the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday.

President Barack Obama said Friday that he is honored to win the Nobel Peace Prize and will accept it as a "call to action" to work with other nations to solve the world's most pressing problems.

Appearing in the Rose Garden, Mr. Obama acknowledged he was "both surprised and deeply humbled" to win the award. In an unexpected pick, the Norwegian Nobel Committee cited the president's creation of a "new climate in international politics" and his work on nuclear disarmament.

Mr. Obama said he doesn't view the award "as a recognition of my own accomplishments," but rather as a recognition of goals he has set for the U.S. and the world. Mr. Obama said, "I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many transformative figures that have been honored by this prize."

But, he said, "I will accept this award as a call to action, a call for all nations to confront the challenges of the 21st century.''

The Nobel decision makes Mr. Obama, 48 years old, the third U.S. president to win the prize while in office, after Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson. Mr. Obama's win comes 45 years after the prize was awarded to Martin Luther King Jr., the last African-American to win it.

Though Mr. Obama has been president for just 37 weeks, the Nobel committee praised him for giving the world hope for a better future and reinvigorating the role of multilateral diplomacy in the international community -- an apparent gibe at the Bush administration.

"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," the committee said. The group also said it gave "special importance to Obama's vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons."

Nobel Committee Chairman Thorbjorn Jagland compared Mr. Obama to former West German Chancellor Willy Brandt and former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, both of whom received the Nobel Peace Prize while in office. "If you look at the history of the Nobel Peace Prize, we have, on many occasions, tried to enhance what many personalities are trying to do," Mr. Jagland said.

Agot Valle, a Norwegian politician and member of the five-person Nobel committee, said in a phone interview that the choice of Mr. Obama was primarily related his stance on nuclear disarmament. Ms. Valle said the committee last met Monday, and that the decision to choose Mr. Obama was unanimous. She said his recent work at the United Nations in late September to pass a resolution calling for a strengthened Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty helped his candidacy.

The head of the committee that awards the annual Nobel Peace Prize explains why it was given to U.S.

"There is a criticism about the war in Afghanistan, and I understand that," said Ms. Valle. "But this was primarily an award on his work on, and commitment to, nuclear disarmament ? and his dialogue. Of course there will be criticism, because he hasn't achieved his goals yet. It will take time, but this is a support."

Mr. Obama's win includes a cash award of 10 million Swedish kronor (about $1.4 million). He will travel to Oslo, Norway, in December for the awards ceremony.
Choice Brings Criticism

The Nobel committee's surprise choice may bring criticism that the president's popular status internationally -- particularly relative to former President George W. Bush -- overshadowed his lack of accomplishments this early in his presidency.

Indeed, Mr. Obama's concrete record on peacemaking is still in its formative stages. He inherited two wars -- in Iraq and Afghanistan -- that have dragged on for years and seen sagging support from allies and U.S. voters.

Mr. Obama acknowledged Friday that, while accepting an award for peace, he was commander in chief of a country engaged in wars. "We have to confront the world as we know it," he said.

He said he was working to end the war in Iraq and "to confront a ruthless adversary that directly threatens the American people and our allies" in Afghanistan. "I'm also aware that we are dealing with the impact of a global economic crisis that has left millions of Americans looking for work," he said. The president also said that some of his goals, including that of a nuclear-weapons-free world, might not be accomplished in his lifetime.

While the Nobel judges said they hoped to enhance Mr. Obama's diplomatic efforts, the prize could come as an unwanted distraction for a White House already facing significant obstacles in advancing its ambitious policy agenda.

The honor is likely to provoke scorn from the right, where critics have long accused Mr. Obama, well before his years in the White House, of receiving undeserved accolades and attention. Coming as the president's public approval ratings have slipped to almost 50%, the award could also underscore the impression in some circles that Mr. Obama is more beloved in Europe than he is at home.

On the foreign-policy front -- the focus of the prize -- Mr. Obama's administration is still in its infancy. Obama aides are working to coax Iran away from its alleged nuclear-weapons program, but the effort remains tenuous at best. Similarly, his foreign-policy team is struggling with how to revamp its strategy in the eight-year-old Afghan war, where conditions on the ground have by many accounts worsened.

Overseas reaction Friday points to the numerous policy challenges Mr. Obama faces.

Gennady Zyuganov, Russian Communist Party leader, said: "It's a kind of advance, Europe's desire to support the U.S. president at a time when his domestic rating is starting to fall," reported Russia's Interfax news agency. "The Nobel Peace Prize is always given for concrete results, and I don't see any real results from the president's peaceful-in-words policies. There's no peace in Afghanistan or Iraq."

Top Israeli and Palestinian government officials both had words of praise for Mr. Obama. The well-wishers included Israeli President Shimon Peres, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, according to news agencies.

In a letter to Mr. Obama released by his spokesperson, Mr. Peres said, "Under your leadership, peace became a real and original agenda. And from Jerusalem, I am sure all the bells of engagement and understanding will ring again. You gave us a license to dream and act in a noble direction."

But some politicians and analysts were less impressed, saying Mr. Obama has yet to fulfill his promise as a Middle East peacemaker.

Danny Danon, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party, said the prize selection was "reckless" and potentially dangerous for Israel.

"It's worrisome," he said. "Now Obama will have to justify the award and will try to force an agreement even though there is no real partner for peace among the Palestinians."

Also unresolved in the still-new administration are issues such as the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. Mr. Obama won international plaudits when he promised to close the center during last year's campaign, but turning that pledge into reality has proved difficult. The administration has also come under fire from human-rights groups for standing by some of the detention policies of Mr. Bush and for its lukewarm efforts to pressure the Sudanese government over the long conflict in Darfur.

White House senior adviser David Axelrod said Friday morning he knew nothing of the president's candidacy, much less his pending Nobel prize.

In past years, the names of finalists for the Peace Prize have generally leaked during the deliberations. Campaigns were mounted on behalf of former President Jimmy Carter, who was awarded the prize in 2002, more than two decades after he left office, and former Vice President Al Gore, who won in 2007.

"I personally never knew," Mr. Axelrod said in an email of Mr. Obama's nomination.

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said Mr. Obama had nothing to fear from raised expectations or possible attacks from critics that the prize outstrips his accomplishments. The prize, he said "is associated with the content of his work," not his celebrity or promises.

Nobel awards to active government officials have often stirred controversy, as when Henry Kissinger won in 1973 for his efforts to strike a peace deal with North Vietnam. Awards to more embattled activists, such as the Polish labor leader Lech Walesa in 1983, have often given those winners a prominence that has aided their work.

"I see two reasons for the prize," Mr. Walesa said Friday of Mr. Obama's win. "It's awarded for the things one has done and also to encourage someone to do things. The latter is at play here. We'll see if he delivers and does what he proposes. Let's give him a chance to deliver."
?Jonathan Weisman contributed to this article.

Write to Paul Sonne at paul.sonne@wsj.com and Neil King at neil.king@wsj.com

So, basically, if this doesn't prove he's an egomaniacal jackass to everyone, I don't know what will.

Also, I don't take the Peace Prize seriously. Once they'd awarded it to Yassir Arafat, who encouraged others to commit mass murder, I knew it had become a joke.
 
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I'm sorry, but that's bull. Bush and his administration didn't even seem to know what "foreign policy" meant. Since taking office, Obama has set a pull out timeline for troops in Iraq, already pulling them from major cities, and refocusing our efforts on a true cause in destroying the Taliban in Afghanistan, something Bush completely ignored after invading Iraq. He has reached his hand out to anyone willing to take it, as opposed to sending out ultimatums of "do what I want you to or I'll bomb you." Gitmo is staying open only because the states deemed our maximum security prisons, which hold mass murderers and domestic terrorists, not good enough to hold a few terror suspects.

So we agree he is keeping Gitmo open.

He has moved some troops from Iraq to Afghanistan. That isn't pulling out.

He has a much better demeanor, but that's about it.
 
I wish I would have been a fly on several walls when they announced this. Glenn Beck, Bill O'Really and Rush Limbaugh must have shat themselves in anger. A huge fountain of shit, propelled out of fat, voluminous arses by the sheer force of fear and hate.
 
So we agree he is keeping Gitmo open.

He has moved some troops from Iraq to Afghanistan. That isn't pulling out.

He has a much better demeanor, but that's about it.

He's also made our international relations worse with long term allies and NATO partners alike - he's pissed off the Brits (between the iPod and the DVD incident) and the French (just ask Sarkozy) are even more annoyed with him than they were with Bush.

So with the exception of a couple of Middle East countries, under Obama our foreign relations have gotten worse. How is that an improvement??
 
He's also made our international relations worse with long term allies and NATO partners alike - he's pissed off the Brits (between the iPod and the DVD incident)

Has he bollocks.

We found it quite funny, especially as our opinion of Gordon Brown is clearly lower than his.
 
I wish I would have been a fly on several walls when they announced this. Glenn Beck, Bill O'Really and Rush Limbaugh must have shat themselves in anger. A huge fountain of shit, propelled out of fat, voluminous arses by the sheer force of fear and hate.

Beck et co are probably over joyed. Shock jocks love this stuff.
 
"solve the world's most pressing problems"

How about solving the problems of a single country first (the United States) and then worry about the entire world? Optimistic much?
 
who wants to make some commemorative plates
 
"solve the world's most pressing problems"

How about solving the problems of a single country first (the United States) and then worry about the entire world? Optimistic much?

That, and perhaps the rest of the world doesn't want the "almighty" US of A to even attempt to solve their problems..
 
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