Posted on 10/09/2009 4:35:37 AM PDT by DB9
I admit it: I've been sceptical in the past about Barack Obama. I thought he was weak on terror and an incompetent diplomat who managed to alienate America's allies while making nice with dictators everywhere (and when I say everywhere, I mean places like North Korea, Birma, Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and Russia. Oh I'm sorry, I forgot: Vladimir Putin isn't a dictator, he's the duly elected deputy leader of his country. Just like Mahmoud Ahmedinejad).
That was then, this is now:
U.S. President Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for giving the world "hope for a better future" and striving for nuclear disarmament, in a surprise award that drew criticism as well as praise.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee praised Obama for "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples." The first African-American to hold his country's highest office, Obama has called for disarmament and worked to restart the stalled Middle East peace process since taking office in January. "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 in a citation. There were a few sceptical voices who claimed it was too early to award this prize to a man who hasn't really brought any peace anywhere yet. But I'm not one of them. I'm with the Palestinian peace negotiator Saeb Erekat who hoped that this award would encourage Obama "to achieve peace in the Middle East." Would be very nice indeed. And if he doesn't? Well, then we'll just have to give him the same Prize again next year. And the year after, and the year after, until peace has finally been achieved - or Obama's time in the White House is up.
In all seriousness: this is complete lunacy, of course. There was a whole host of worthier contenders for this prize, from Zimbabwe's Morgan Tsvangirai to the Green Revolutionaries in Iran. Even Bono would have been a more deserved winner than Obama, who has done precisely zip, zilch, nada, to deserve this award. In his nine short months in office, he has achieved nothing apart from giving a few speeches, befriending a few dictators and alienating a lot of allies. To award such a prestigious prize as a sort of encouragement to perhaps achieve things that would justify the decision after the fact is beyond a joke.
One thing the Committee is right about, though: Obama does give me hope. Hope that on January 20th 2013, we'll finally get some real Change We Can Believe In.
What an F’n JOKE!
The Peace prize has been a joke for years now. They gave one to Arafat, that should have told everyone what it was worth.
Luke 18:8 "I tell you that He will bring about justice for them speedily. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?"
Wow. What an f’n joke.
At least the IOC wasn’t blinded by the light of the radiant one. Not that i disagree with our efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, but how does one win a peace prize when his entire party ran on the slate that he would end the war. The One hasn’t pulled troops out of either country, so technically he is still waging war. I guess you can get a prize if you talk out both sides of your mouth. Maybe he will convert the Dish Room into his Nobel Prize holding room in the White House.
The Nobel Committee needs to turn itself into Snopes for impersonating relevance.
It is a joke.
So, in this decade the prize has gone to 2 democrat presidents and a runner up. Carter, Gore, and now Obama.
Yeah, there is nothing political about the prize!
Is this The Onion?
It’s just a consolation prize for losing the olympics.
I guess the Norwegians are lobbying against a surge in Afghanistan.
The nominations for the Nobel Prize were turned in 2 weeks after The One was sworn in. In reality, they just gave a Nobel Prize for campaign rhetoric.
All about the feelings you know. Results be damned.
This is sad an pathetic at the exact same time
The world elite says:
America you loser, no Olympics for you.
Obama you winner, we must give you Winning Prize!
Amerikkka bad, Obama good.
Whose next? Roman Polanski?
P**ce prize.
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