President Obama wins the Nobel Peace Prize

[TotallyOz]

— President Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday.

In a stunning surprise, the Nobel Committee announced in Oslo that it has awarded the annual prize to the president “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.” The award cited in particular Mr. Obama’s effort to reduce the world’s nuclear arsenal.

“He has created a new international climate,” the committee said.

The announcement, coming extraordinarily early in Mr. Obama’s presidency — less than nine months after he took office as the first African American president — shocked people from Norway to Washington.

The White House had no idea it was coming.

“There has been no discussion, nothing at all,” said Rahm Emanuel, the president’s chief of staff, in a brief telephone interview.

Mr. Emanuel said he had not yet spoken directly to the president, but that he believed Mr. Obama may have been informed of the award by his press secretary, Robert Gibbs. There was no official comment from the White House. However, a senior administration official said in an e-mail message that Mr. Gibbs called the White House shortly before 6 a.m. and woke the president with the news.

“The president was humbled to be selected by the committee,” the official said, without adding anything further.

Mr. Obama made repairing the fractured relations between the United States and the rest of the world a major theme of his campaign for the presidency and since taking office as president, he has pursued a range of policies intended to fulfill that goal. He has vowed to pursue a world without nuclear arms, as he did in a speech in Prague earlier this year, reached out to the Muslim world, delivering a major speech in Cairo in June, and sought to restart peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians.

“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 committee said in its citation. “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.”

But while Mr. Obama has generated considerable good will overseas — his foreign counterparts are eager to meet with him, and polls show he is hugely popular around the world — many of his policy efforts have yet to bear fruit, or are only just beginning to. North Korea has defied him with missile tests; Iran, however, recently agreed to restart nuclear talks, which Mr. Obama has called “a constructive beginning.”

In that sense, Mr. Obama is unlike past recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize such as former President Jimmy Carter, who won in 2002 for what presenters cited as decades of “untiring efforts” to seek peaceful end to international conflicts. (Mr. Carter failed to win in 1978, as some had expected, after he brokered a historic peace deal between Israel and Egypt.)

Thorbjorn Jagland, the chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee and a former prime minister of Norway, said the president had already contributed enough to world diplomacy and international understanding to earn the award.

“We are not awarding the prize for what may happen in the future, but for what he has done in the previous year,” Mr. Jagland said. “We would hope this will enhance what he is trying to do.”

The prize comes as Mr. Obama faces considerable challenges at home. On the domestic front, he is trying to press Congress to pass major legislation overhauling the nation’s health care system. On the foreign policy front, he is wrestling with declining support in his own party for the war in Afghanistan. The White House is engaged in an internal debate over whether to send more troops there, as Mr. Obama’s commanding general has requested.

Mr. Obama also suffered a rejection on the world stage when he traveled to Copenhagen only last Friday to press the United States’ unsuccessful bid to host the Olympics in Chicago. Mr. Emanuel, who heard the news at 5 a.m. when he was heading out for his morning swim, said he joked to his wife, “Oslo beats Copenhagen.”

But rebuffs have been rare for Mr. Obama as he has traveled the world these past nine months — from Africa to Europe, Latin America and the Middle East, with a trip to Asia planned for November.

In April, just hours after North Korea tested a ballistic missile in defiance of international sanctions, he told a huge crowd in Prague that he is committed to “a world without nuclear weapons.”

For the rest of the article, click here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/10/world/10nobel.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

[BiBottomBoy]

I love Obama but this is craziness. Do you know when the Nobel Panel voted - 14 days after Obama was in office.

This is the "We are giving you the Nobel Peace Prize because your name isn't George W. Bush" award.

Also, I can't wait for Fox to run this. Their headline should be "Kenyan Man Wins Nobel Peace Prize."

You know who should have won the peace prize? That Iranian girl who got beaten to death on camera after their elections.

[RA1]

BBB-

Are you available for a consultation? Your post is spot on. JK about the consultation.

Best regards,

RA1

[Guest StuCotts]

In his press conference this morning, Obama stated his opinion that he had been awarded the prize more for the vision he articulates than for any actual progress to date in implementing it. He does have class.

As for how it all will be treated by Fox, who in his right mind gives a fast fuck?

[BiBottomBoy]

BBB-

Are you available for a consultation? Your post is spot on. JK about the consultation.

Best regards,

RA1

I'm available for the peace prize.

[TampaYankee]

I love Obama but this is craziness. Do you know when the Nobel Panel voted - 14 days after Obama was in office.

It is my understanding that was the cut-off date for nominations, not the award selection. If that is correct then I assume someone put him at that time 'on spec' with a wait and see attitude for final selection. Whether selection was ultimately warranted can be argued. The fact that it is suprising cannot, IMO.

You know who should have won the peace prize? That Iranian girl who got beaten to death on camera after their elections.

Shot to death. That would have been an important message selection though I doubt it would have had much impact on Iran or the World.

[BiBottomBoy]

You are right. She was shot to death. My bad.

To err is human...

[MsGuy]

Here is a different more Euro-centric slant on Obama's Nobel.

From the European bureau chief of the Toronto Globe & Mail

The author points out that the Nobel is a European prize and explains why, from their POV, the award makes sense. (link cribbed from DuchessIvana)

[JKane]

Here's some other good points on the granting of the award to Obama.

[BiBottomBoy]

I'm in Europe and the reaction to the Peace Prize is mixed. Some are way for it, some, particularly The London Times, think it's a crock of shit.

[caeron]

I liked Thomas Friedman of the NY Times' take on it.

I think it is worth a look.

[MsGuy]

I liked Thomas Friedman of the NY Times' take on it.

I think it is worth a look.

Link, maybe? I'm so very very lazy.