comment #1

Eloi Manning says ...

Yes, it is deserved. Basically he has told the world that America under George Bush was not the way that countries should operate, and that was exactly what the world needed to hear at that point. For all the talk of America not being the force that it once was, it's still the trend-setter, and if Obama says something then Brown and Sarkozy and everyone else will jump to do what he says. So his commitment to basically correcting the fuck-ups of both Bush and the entire boomer generation is laudable.

Please don't panic about the fact that he hasn't single-handedly changed the world yet, less than a year into four, possible eight, years in office. Patience is a virtue.

comment #2

Eloi Manning says ...

Secondly, the whole purpose of any award is symbolic. This announcement will draw attention towards the Nobel prizes and reestablish their profile. It'll get people thinking about Obama's intentions and perhaps spur some people on to follow these through with action. It's a positive step, a good choice and is a nice tonic to the endless, rather tiresome, hand-wringing from panicky liberals.

comment #3

The Hoyk says ...

I can tell you exactly what the Republican retort will be: Until they revoke the prize given to Yassir Arafat, the Nobel Prize has no real-world significance.

And as a clotting-heart liberal, I say with absolute certainty that he doesn't deserve it.

comment #4

Josh Massey says ...

The Crash of Nobel Peace Prizes.

comment #5

SaveFarris says ...

If you even have to ask the question, you know the answer.

Obama has TOLD the world "America under George Bush is not the way countries should operate. But what has he actually DONE? Need we replay the SNL skit?

comment #6

DeeZee says ...

I'm guessing this is more of a middle finger to Bush than anything else. It's got to be. After all, what better way to stain his "legacy" in Iraq than to find out that the next guy will be remembered as the one who tried to save the world, while he'll just be remembered as the guy who bombed civilians over daddy issues? And yeah, in spite of Afghanistan, averting World War III by not starting nuclear war with Iran and Russia sounds a lot more peaceful than what McCain and Hillary had in mind.

comment #7

Glenn Kenny says ...

Is it deserved? No, but the exploding wingnut heads the announcement is yielding make it very much worth it.

comment #8

Noah Cross says ...

Now where is Dakota Fanning's Lifetime Achievement Award? (Snap to it AFI!)

comment #9

Michael says ...

+1 Massey

And DeeZee is dead right on this...God, they must hate Bush so very, very much. They now award the Nobel Peace Prize because of campaign posters...surreal.

comment #10

Joe M. says ...

Deserved or not, he should use the momentum this creates to get health care through, WITH the public option.

comment #11

austin111 says ...

Deserved??? Perhaps, perhaps not. He has reached out or tried to reach out more in the first few months of his presidency to would-be enemies of this country than almost any president in the last 45 years or so. But......this may help spur him into more positive action than he has yet taken. And it is still less than a year into his presidency. There is more on his platter, including a stubbornly polarized populace that can't make up it's mind about whether they should change or not (god knows, we need huge change), than most presidents before him. Will he figure it all out? Who knows, but it will be incredibly tough.

comment #12

GonePostal says ...

He got it for not being Bush. Also, the "Hope" thing. Not worse than Kissinger's or Arafat's, though they've really gutted the award now.

comment #13

Eloi Manning says ...

It's so funny to see everyone going apeshit over this. From both sides. Jesus Christ, people are miserable these days.

comment #14

le corbeau says ...

Jimmy Carter, who gave us ascendant Islamic terror states, Nobel.

Ronald Reagan, concluded the Soviet terror peacefully, none.

Bush 43, who overthrew a dictator in Iraq, none.

Obama, who coddled the dictators in Iran, Nobel.

"One must never underestimate Scandinavian wit." --Gore Vidal

comment #15

dinther says ...

Phrasing the question as, "What has Obama DONE?" misunderstands just what it is that Presidents DO. Diplomacy is almost wholly rhetorical. You can't, alone, enact international legislation, and any "progress" or "success" is evanescent, measured in years rather than months.

But there is no question that Obama has effected a sea change in US foreign policy. Since our media is more interested in obsessing about the latest white girl to get kidnapped, it misses the significant change in attitude and policy that Obama's policies have engendered overseas.

As someone who has spent a lot of time in Africa and Arab countries over the last two years, it is night and day. In early 2008, I witnessed near-universal hatred of the United States and its policies in north Africa. Yet a few months ago, in the most remote villages - the ones that are breeding grounds for anti-American sentiment and al-Qaeda recruitment - Obama is revered. I saw huge posters of Obama and his family placed prominently in the markets and homes of people in sub-Saharan Africa and in remote Saharan villages. I even saw a women dressed in a skirt decorated with Obama's face as the pattern. This is anecdotal, of course, but it was everywhere.

Obama's efforts to reach out to Arab countries, his refusal to engage in bellicose posturing, his engagement of Iran -- these people get it. And the news coverage of the United States in these countries has changed dramatically as well.

So, as far as what he has "done," - on the international front, it is significant. Now if only he would get something "done" on health care.

comment #16

BurmaShave says ...

Josh Massey Author Profile Page says ...

The Crash of Nobel Peace Prizes.

Ouch.

comment #17

Gogocrank says ...

I've voted for Barack Obama at least four different times, in various elections, and would happily vote for him again. But this award is pretty silly. He now has 3-7 years to justify such a premature celebration, and while I hope he pulls it off, odds are, sadly, not in his favor. The Peace Prize may have been devalued over the years, and it may be unclear what it ever meant to begin with, but I do know one should actuallyl achieve something to receive it. If awards were given out based on what presidents propose or promise to do, then every U.S. president - from the best to the worst - would deserve the Nobel Peace Prize.

comment #18

Movie Watcher says ...

This will drive Fox News/Rush/Hannity and the rest of them crazy. I'm not sure if Obama deserves it, at least not yet, but the right will be screaming about this for days. SNL is getting something together about this, you can bet on that.
Ron, the Reagan thing? Don't think so. He wasn't president when the Berlin wall fell, or when Russia collapsed. I know repubs like to say he won the cold war, but every president since Eisenhower has been trying to do that.

comment #19

The Hoyk says ...

And in a related story, AMPAS has announced Carey Mulligan will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2010 Oscar ceremonies.

comment #20

Bob Violence says ...

Here, I've just written the Onion headline for this so they don't have to:

"Nobel Prize Committee Totally Just Trolling Now"

I'll be by to pick up my check next week

comment #21

BurmaShave says ...

Presented in the form of a golden slipper by Jeffrey Wells.

comment #22

BurmaShave says ...

Ah damn to Hoyk.

comment #23

Todd says ...

To me it's official the Nobel Peace prize is a prize awarded for the best bull shitter with the publics attention. He's continueing to wage a war started by Bush. No end in sight for wasting my tax dollars your tax dollars on worthless violence spread aeound the world. nuff said

comment #24

Alexander says ...

To quote the San Francisco Giants announcers, Massey "hits it OUTTA HERE!"

comment #25

Lehigh says ...

All due respect to Josh Massey, but I think it's more of the Marisa Tomei of Nobel prizes.

I voted for Obama and root for him. But this is just ridiculous.

comment #26

lbeale says ...

McFirbank, Reagan supported every death squad that ever existed in Latin America. Not exactly Nobel Prize material.
And Bush? Are you serious? Dragged us into a war for no reason at all?
I don't think Obama really deserves this, but to suggest Reagan and Bush do is sheeer lunacy.

comment #27

le corbeau says ...

Whether people want to think I'm serious or not, it's a pleasure to have set you to sputtering impotently.

And, of course, Reagan didn't support EVERY death squad in Latin America. Many of them were on the side he defeated...

comment #28

lbeale says ...

You mean the ones in Argentina, Chile, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Mexico, Brazil, etc., etc.? All right-wing, my friend, and all supported by US money and military training.
If you can name one left-wing government that killed more civilians than the dictatorships in Chile or Argentina....you can't. Even Castro at his worst, right after the revolution, never executed, dropped out of planes, or 'disappeared' as many as these folks did.

comment #29

MovieBob says ...

So... NOBODY else thinks that this is partially or even mostly some friendly damage-control from the Euros to help a leader they (and I) would prefer stay viable after the Olympics debacle (Which was spun by The Right as a sign of Europe "rebuking" Obama)? Just me?

comment #30

Todd says ...

MovieBob
I think you might be right.

comment #31

The Hoyk says ...

Yes, MovieBob, just you.

comment #32

le corbeau says ...

"Even Castro at his worst, right after the revolution, never executed, dropped out of planes, or 'disappeared' as many as these folks did."

There's still time.

In any case, your eagerness to excuse every leftist dictator as not that bad says all that needs to be said. Death tolls don't matter, you just disagree about the right cause.

comment #33

joefilm1 says ...

I'd say the guy won for being brave enough to run a come from nowhere, brainy campaign for President of the most powerful democracy in the world-- and win-- thereby ensuring that the totalitarian-tinged regime of Cheney-Bush was utterly destroyed and shamed, without reservation. He is only beginning to enact his policies. He slayed Hillary, a total Bush apologizer on War, and he has rebooted the entire notion of diplomacy as a positive force throughout the World. He has pushed for less nukes, has stopped the Star Wars pipe dream in Poland, and has narrowed the gap between America and the Muslim world with very important symbolic gestures, or soft power. So yes, it seems earned as a sign of support and encouragement for Americans to keep him to his word.

comment #34

le corbeau says ...

Wow, brave enough to come from the nowhere of the most powerful Democratic machine in the country?

If it's merely one more honor he enjoys without having done much of anything to merit it, that will be okay.

I fear it will be what every historian begins his account of the Iran-Israeli nuclear exchange with-- the mordantly ironic spectacle of Obama returning from Oslo with peace in our time.

comment #35

DeeZee says ...

Ronald: Um, Carter made peace with Egypt and was the first Prez to speak out against countries which liked to use U.S.-backed thugs to torture and murder their people. Plus, he tried to stop the oil crisis by starting an alternative fuel program. Reagan enabled Saddam, the Taliban, Osama and the Crips and the Bloods. Hell, that failed invasion of Lebanon alone set us back in the Middle East peace process long before Iraq. Plus, we have an over-sized nuclear stock-pile which we still haven't reduced because of him.

And don't give me this bullshit that mutually assured destruction, Star Wars, or sending the commies to their own Vietnam through Afghanistan was "peaceful". Hell, he had nothing to do with ending the Cold War, either. The reds got so full of themselves over their system that they didn't do shit to update with the times; and so Chernobyl ended up being their Katrina. It's like saying Osama won, because our bankers just sent us into another
Depression.

"Bush 43, who overthrew a dictator in Iraq, none."

He overthrew a dictator his father did business with, and lied about the reason for it. But then he also killed a million defenseless civilians in the process while using our troops as a cork in the inevitable civil war he did not foresee. Plus, he convinced the Iranians to elect a guy even the rest of the Arab countries with fundy leaders are scared shitless over.

"Obama, who coddled the dictators in Iran, Nobel."

He should be like Bush, who decided to re-open trade with Gadaffi and looked the other way on the Saudis and Nigerians stoning women for being raped. Not to mention sitting on the sidelines on Darfur, even though he said in his campaign speech that he didn't want another Rwanda to happen.

Gogo: "but I do know one should actuallyl achieve something to receive it."

Yeah, well, tell that to Michael Steele and Sarah Palin. Being the first black President who won the majority vote because of the last guy is a hell of an achievement, considering that the Repugs like to blame every guy or gal of color who gets somewhere on affirmative action, when they do it more than us on an ideological level. [*cough* Mike Brown *cough*]

Todd: Yeah, I know. Unfortunately, he's being forced to clean up Bush's mess. Hopefully, he'll come up with a more reliable solution soon.

comment #36

DeeZee says ...

Ronald: "In any case, your eagerness to excuse every leftist dictator as not that bad says all that needs to be said."

So what does it say that Bush excused Gadaffi and helped Hamas to come to power?

comment #37

le corbeau says ...

My Darlin' I can't get enough of your love
Babe
Girl
I don't know
I don't know why
Can't get enough of your love
Babe.

comment #38

DeeZee says ...

And while we're at it, last time I checked, Carter boycotted the 1980 Olympics over the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, while Reagan was willing to trade arms with the Ayatollah and Bush was willing to go to last year's Olympics, even though they were hosted in Beijing. Oh, and Bush's dad had a drug deal going on with Noriega when he was running the CIA. So what was that about coddling leftist dictators again?

comment #39

JapAdapters says ...

Deserve's got nothing to do with it.

comment #40

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