Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize

Last Friday, Obama didn't manage to get the International Olympic Committee to award Chicago the 2016 Summer Games.

This Friday, he did score a prize.

From the New York Times:

U.S. President Barack Obama felt humbled to have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, a senior administration official said.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs called before dawn and woke Obama with the news that he had won the prestigious honor which was announced in Oslo at 5 a.m. EDT (0900 GMT). "The president was humbled to be selected by the committee," the official said.

When told in an e-mail from Reuters that many people around the world were stunned by the announcement, Obama's senior adviser, David Axelrod, responded, "As are we."

Why were people around the world "stunned by the announcement"?

"Stunned"?

Stunned as in feeling as if they were hit with a stun gun? "Don't Tase Me, Bro"?

OSLO, Oct. 9 (AP) -- U.S. President Barack Obama has been named the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between people," the Nobel Foundation said Friday.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has "attached special importance to Obama's vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons," the foundation said on its official website.

It is the first Nobel Peace Prize awarded to a sitting head of state since 2000, when then South Korean President Kim Dae Jung received it mainly for his efforts to promote peace and national reconciliation with North Korea.

As a former U.S. president, Jimmy Carter won the honor in 2002.

In a landmark speech in Prague in April, Obama laid out an ambitious vision of a world without nuclear weapons, saying the United States will take the lead on the issue as the only country that has used them.

The vision, a turnaround from the stance of the previous U.S. administration of George W. Bush on nuclear disarmament, "has powerfully stimulated disarmament and arms control negotiations," the foundation said.

Hosting an unprecedented U.N. Security Council summit in September, Obama, the first U.S. president to chair a UNSC meeting, led the 15- nation council to unanimously adopt a resolution to "seek a safer world for all and to create the conditions for a world without nuclear weapons."

"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," the foundation said.

"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," it said.

Citing a revival of emphasis on multilateral diplomacy and dialogue, and negotiations for resolving international conflicts, the foundation praised Obama for having "created a new climate in international politics."

Here's the Nobel Peace Prize 2009 press release:

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."

Oslo, October 9, 2009

Congratulations to Obama.

He joins an interesting list of past winners of the prize.

There have been some rather odd recipients.

For example, Al Gore won in 2007.

Anti-Semite Jimmy Carter won in 2002.

In 1994, terrorist Yasser Arafat was awarded the prize.

In 1976, Betty Williams won. This Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, a peace activist, repeatedly declared her wish that President George W. Bush was dead. In 2007, she told a group of school children, "Right now, I would love to kill George Bush."

Needless to say, the Norwegian Nobel Committee is a very political group pushing a very specific agenda.

Sometimes, the Norwegian Nobel Committee gets it right -- Lech Walesa (1983), Mother Teresa (1979), Martin Luther King Jr. (1964). But how could Pope John Paul II have been overlooked?

Sometimes, the Committee gets it very wrong.

Rather than recognizing Obama for his real accomplishments to foster peace, which amount to nothing more than a couple of speeches at this point, this really seems to be a slap at President Bush more than anything else.

What has Obama actually achieved?

Words are cheap, but apparently the Nobel Committee found Obama's words so impressive that it determined he deserved to be singled out for recognition.

Maybe it was the Beer Summit that won over the Committee.

To award Obama with the Peace Prize at this stage in his presidency cheapens the honor.

Frankly, I think this is a mistake. Mistakes happen.

I equate Obama's Nobel Peace Prize 2009 win as similar to Milli Vanilli winning the Grammy for Best New Artist.