[Sushi]

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/10/09/nobel.peace.prize/index.html

All I can say is

WHAT THE CRAP, NOBEL COMMITTEE?!?!

Mr. Nobel must be turning in his grave right now. Wait another decade, and give him time to ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING FIRST, THEN give him a peace prize, if he deserves one. What really incenses me is that the nominations had to be postmarked by Feb. 1. In other words, he effectively won the prize before he had time to warm up the seat in the Oval Office. So he basically got the award for running an inspiring campaign. What. A. Joke.

This whole thing, IMHO, really tarnishes the image of the Nobel Peace Prize. Was there really no other worthy candidate who has actually accomplished something? I kind of hope Obama turns it down, saying something like "Thanks, but I can't take this... I haven't accomplished all I set out to do yet."

[NGTM-1R]

Can the GOP butthurt, for chrissakes. The Republican party handed this to Obama, among many other things.

To be honest, while probably premature, there is sense to this.

As the only remaining superpower, a president who believes in international cooperation and offering hope to the world rather than a closed fist is basically everything the sane world would ever ask for out of the President of the United States. Obama's policies were already outlined well before he was in office. Just by defeating McCain, Obama did far more to restore the vision of a community of brother nations than some previous holders of the NPP have.

[General Battuta]

wait wat

I'm not really sure he deserves this quite yet...

[StarSlayer]

Yeah considering TR and Wilson actually accomplished something first I'm not to keen about his.  Sure NGTM-1R has a bit of a point but I tend to think not being a jackass to other nations isn't exactly the same as brokering a peace or accomplishing a major piece of diplomacy.  If he managed to extract us from Iraq or Afghanistan and leave stable governments in our wake that would be one thing but we're still knee deep in it in both countries.

[Sushi]

Can the GOP butthurt, for chrissakes.

I'm not GOP, but thanks for playing the partisan game.

A great slashdot comment sums up the situation better than I can:

Honestly, if I were him, I'd be pretty pissed about this. He really doesn't need this kind of controversy right now. They've essentially used him to make a political statement, and it's just going to cause problems at a time when he's got more than enough to deal with. It'll get the conservatives all bristly and the libs all full of themselves, and then it becomes even harder to get anything done. All for a prize that I'm sure he knows is bull****, and will be completely hollow for him.

[Janos]

Well now he just has to follow through with his more idealistic policies loool

[Blue Lion]

Who else gets it then?

[Solatar]

I like Obama, I really do.  If he can manage all that he's got planned, then maybe he'd deserve it in a few years time.  Right now, though, he's in the planning stages.  It's just too early to be giving out the prize. 

Although they were right; he's got a tall order to earn this now.

[Akalabeth Angel]

Why give the man a prize for doing his job? For TALKING about doing things?


If he solves the Palestinian/Israel issue in a manner that is fair to the Palestinians then sure give him the damn prize but not before. What a joke.



The thing is, nominations for the nobel peace prize closed 11 days after his official inaugration. So he had to have been nominated long ago and before he really did anything, not that he's done a whole lot since, at least in concrete terms.

[Janos]

There is someone quite much more influential than a random slashdot commentator that gives some more insight and a different POV into this:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/09/obama-nobel-peace-prize-r_n_314996.html

"In less than a year in office, he has transformed the way we look at ourselves and the world we live in and rekindled hope for a world at peace with itself," ElBaradei said. "He has shown an unshakable commitment to diplomacy, mutual respect and dialogue as the best means of resolving conflicts. He has reached out across divides and made clear that he sees the world as one human family, regardless of religion, race or ethnicity

[SpardaSon21]

Okay.  He still hasn't done anything tangible yet though.

[StarSlayer]

There is someone quite much more influential than a random slashdot commentator that gives some more insight and a different POV into this:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/09/obama-nobel-peace-prize-r_n_314996.html

"In less than a year in office, he has transformed the way we look at ourselves and the world we live in and rekindled hope for a world at peace with itself," ElBaradei said. "He has shown an unshakable commitment to diplomacy, mutual respect and dialogue as the best means of resolving conflicts. He has reached out across divides and made clear that he sees the world as one human family, regardless of religion, race or ethnicity

Still that falls under the purview of what he should be doing as a matter of course.  I figure the prize should be awarded to someone who goes above and beyond and accomplishes something tangible in the pursuit of peace.  Not "hey the US administration isn't acting like a bunch of jackasses like the previous eight years."   

[Herra Tohtori]

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/10/09/nobel.peace.prize/index.html

All I can say is

WHAT THE CRAP, NOBEL COMMITTEE?!?!

Mr. Nobel must be turning in his grave right now. Wait another decade, and give him time to ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING FIRST, THEN give him a peace prize, if he deserves one. What really incenses me is that the nominations had to be postmarked by Feb. 1. In other words, he effectively won the prize before he had time to warm up the seat in the Oval Office. So he basically got the award for running an inspiring campaign. What. A. Joke.

This whole thing, IMHO, really tarnishes the image of the Nobel Peace Prize. Was there really no other worthy candidate who has actually accomplished something? I kind of hope Obama turns it down, saying something like "Thanks, but I can't take this... I haven't accomplished all I set out to do yet."

I can't say I disagree.

And for the record in case someone has not been able to figure out my political opinions, I'm not a GOP supporter either.

There's just no real basis for this kind of recognition yet in my opinion. "Not being Bush" shouldn't be enough for a Nobel peace prize.

Why not, you know, let the man handle his first four years in office and then see what he actually got done, rather than award him for some obscure psychological boost he supposedly gave to the world?

[Bobboau]

ok, so we are still in Iraq and Afghanistan, it looks like we might possibly be going into Iran before his term is up, the US is even more divided now that it was under Bush to the point I could see it spiraling into a civil war and so far the only thing he has managed to do is give a few hundred billion to some banker CEOs that deserved to go to the poor house.

is the Nobel committee saying that destablizeing America is a step towards world peace?

[MR_T3D]

ok, so we are still in Iraq and Afghanistan, it looks like we might possibly be going into Iran before his term is up, the US is even more divided now that it was under Bush to the point I could see it spiraling into a civil war and so far the only thing he has managed to do is give a few hundred billion to some banker CEOs that deserved to go to the poor house.

is the Nobel committee saying that destablizeing America is a step towards world peace?

we must break you down to make you better?
yeah, Obama really hasn't done much, and the US seems like its only going to further polarize, and while civil war seems unlikely, i wouldn't rule it out, which makes everyone nervous.
It seems like a publicity stunt... i think...
I mean, he's a hell of a lot better than McCain/P- -Palin , but a nobel peace prize? that's a bit much.
this year, at least.

[blackhole]

Maybe the nobel peace prize guys were bored and decided they wanted to cause global controversy. I don't think Obama is particularly fond of them right now.

[General Battuta]

ok, so we are still in Iraq and Afghanistan, it looks like we might possibly be going into Iran before his term is up, the US is even more divided now that it was under Bush

Cite please?

The culture war is a myth.

[Bobboau]

maybe I overstated things slightly, but my point was he has not done anything to... no, he just flat out hasn't done anything.

what do you want me to cite on? I don't think there is a lot of dispute that we are still in those countries, the Iran thing was my opinion, and are you suggesting that we are as a nation unified right now?
the only thing I said that wasn't stupidly obvious was the civil war thing, and all I said was 'I think' there is a remote possibility.

[General Battuta]

We are actually pretty unified as a country. Voters don't go to the polls with 'family values' or anything like that in mind, the electorate hasn't cared about gay marriage or social issues for many election cycles, and there aren't any 'red states' or 'blue states': it's mostly a big wash of purple with some gradients.

[StarSlayer]

What exactly do you expect out of the Iraq/Afghanistan situation?  We dropped the ball in Afghanistan in 2003 when we decided to go along with Bush's grand Iraq folly.  Instead of concentrating on hunting down the Taliban and building a nation that could stand on its 2 feet we pretty much remained status quo for 8 years while we engaged in Iraq.  Time enough for the Taliban to get its ass back together and woop di do its the 1980s war all over again.  Iraq is well Iraq, congratulations on busting open the Middleast's version of the Balkans.  There is no magic solution, to the problem.  Neither of these situations were of the current administration's own making.