What Exactly Did Barack Obama Do To Win A Nobel Peace Prize? « Blog Entry

What Exactly Did Barack Obama Do To Win A Nobel Peace Prize?

October 9, 2009 / 4:53 am • By John Hawkins

At about 5:15 AM this morning, I was still awake, paying my dues on all three of my blogs. Suddenly, the phone rang. It was my friend Cara Ellison, who knew I was up, phoning me so that she could alert me that Barack Obama had just won a Nobel Peace Prize.

It was puzzling news.

“He won a Nobel Peace Prize?” I asked Cara, “How? For what? What did he do?” She replied, “I don’t know.”

So immediately, I did a search and here’s the info from CNN,

President Obama was awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday.

Less than nine months into his presidency, Barack Obama has been awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.

The first African-American to win the White House, Obama was praised by the Norweigan Nobel Committee for “his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.”

“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. “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.”

The committee also said Obama has “created a new climate in international politics.”

Uh, what? After reading that, I’m still scratching my noggin trying to figure out what makes Barack Obama deserving of this honor. He won a Nobel Peace Prize for, “his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples”? Is what you call doing speeches across Europe talking about how wonderful you are while you put down your own country?

Even Jimmy Carter, who was a fairly pathetic recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, once played a big role in engineering a peace treaty between Egypt and Israel. In Obama’s case, his efforts on the international stage have amounted to zilch. There are simply no accomplishments whatsoever to point at.

Of course, after terrorists like Yasser Arafat and frauds like Al Gore have won the award, we should be happy that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad isn’t being given a Nobel Peace Prize for Holocaust Denial. Compared to that, even Barack Obama basically being given the award for existing isn’t so bad.

Posted in Political Animals

http://sidburgess.com Sid Burgess

Scratching my head right along there with ya.
http://vegasbaby8.blogspot.com Timaay

This proves that the International Olympic Committee has more sense than the Nobel Peace Prize Committee.
http://realchoice.blogspot.com Christina

What’s really scary is that this means his puppetmasters are operating on an international level — something I had not suspected up until this point.
http://twitter.com/lubkin lubkin

The world has jumped the shark. Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize. For covering his school books, apparently.
Sean

I am also scratching my head!

After agreeing to send more troops to Afghanistan…The Peace prize! Huh?? What about Morgan Tsvangirai having been beaten by police during his struggle to free Zimbabwe from the tyrannous Robert Mugabe regime? And still he urged his followers not to resort to violence!

There are more deserving people than Obama.
Bob Evertsen

It’s a shame because the prospect of winning the Nobel Peace Prize has no meaning to it. It looks like it’s more political that on merit.
Paul_In_Houston

He got born; THAT’S what.

Wasn’t the deadline for nominations February 1?
That means he earned his nomination IN TEN DAYS!

He really MUST be special.

-
fuster

Sometimes just going on stage following an animal act is enough.
john

This is astounding, I will be up for a peace prize soon for having my cat and dog sleep in separate rooms to avoid animosity.
Becky

The mistake we all have been making is in wondering what he has done. He got it for
who he is and that is not George Bush.

Oh well, easy come, easy go.
Dave Upham

As far as I can tell, Mr. Obama has been about rhetoric and not about deeds. If that is what it takes to make one worthy of a Nobel Peace Prize, than he certainly deserves it for the amount of rhetoric he spews forth as he travels the globe searching for more opportunities to present himself as the successful president of his own personal daydreams. If, however, the peace prize should have been awarded to accomplishments rather than wish lists, Mr. Mandella surely was short changed. I’m still shaking my head in a mixture of amazement, confusion, and disappointment in the decision of the Nobel Prize Committee. Nobel must be spinning in his grave!!!
Susan

I have no idea how he got the Nobel Pease Prize… But I do know that winning the Nobel Peace Prize no longer means anything.
Susan

I have no idea how he got the Nobel Peace Prize… But I do know that winning the Nobel Peace Prize no longer means anything.
fuster

I have no idea what Susan means…. but why she thinks it’s worth saying it twice is even murkier.
The Nobel Prize remains one of the world’s great honors.
mj

If nominations had to be in by February 1st, then it was surely a remarkable first 10 days in office which led to this honor. Perhaps this is the Nobel Prize of the Month Club.
Paul_In_Houston

Susan corrected a typo in her spelling; that’s why the second post.

As to what she meant, I thought it was crystal clear; awarding it to someone who has yet to actually accomplish anything (beyond getting elected), but merely talks about what he would like to do amounts to equivalency with giving it to every Miss America Beauty Pageant winner for saying that she wants World Peace.
fuster

Thank you, Paul. I guess that Susan, and perhaps others, are oblivious to the very clear intent of the prize committee.
As you speak for Susan, allow me to speak for the committee (and not necessarily for myself).
I understand them to be awarding the prize to Obama for having made clear that the US would end some of the horrible excesses of the Bush administration.
Ending the Cheney-inspired policy that the United States of America would torture prisoners and repudiating the war in Iraq were
things that the committee might easily see as more important than anything else that lately happened.
DaveR

Isn’t it amazing what hoops TEO’s worshi….I mean followers will go through to support their g….leader.

Saving tens of million from an evil dictator – nah that’s nothing.

Freeing a country from terrorist rulers that the CURRENT administration keep punting on making a decision – nah, nothing there either.

Gaining vital information to save American lives through INTERROGATION – isn’t torture.

So “because” they think TEO “ISN’T” Bush (even though he’s extended and NOT ENDED all the important policies that the previous administration put in place to fight terrorism), that’s “enough”? It’s almost worth it to see the hilarity that ensues when the sheep try and explain the un-explainable when even THEY can’t understand it.

The Nobel Committee proved themselves a joke when they gave it to Arafat – a KNOWN, LYING Terrorist who NEVER kept any “agreement”, let alone a Peace Agreement, he ever made.

I’m “trying” to invent the perfect cold fusion power generation for FREE energy for all – even though I’m not a physicist – because I typed RIGHT here that I want it, so I should get the Science one, right??

And lastly – can any of your worshipers (why hide the truth), bring up ANYTHING about TEO’s Administration without bringing up Bush?? Seriously, can you? Your absolute hatred runs that deep? Seek counseling.
fuster

DaveR when they die from what you’re doing while you’re trying to get information from them, it’s torture.
Not really any way around that.

As much as I’m happy the Ba’athists are out of power, the war in Iraq was bullshirt. We had no business starting it and no reason to have done so.
DaveR

So now it’s clear that you truly believe liberal bloggers, huh? Not that any of that surprises anyone here. Maybe you should quit believing things just because it’s on your favorite blogs, and your favorite bloggers “said so”.

And let’s do what TEO’s doing and IGNORE the evil dictators and thugs that SAY they want to destroy and kill people from other countries? Let’s see where that goes, shall we? I’m SURE they will back down because TEO got the “Please Prize” from the international Cracker Jack box.
fuster

Not know who you’re talking about, do you Dave?
I believe the Department of Defense autopsy reports that I’ve read, not ANY propaganda from left OR right.
DaveR

Ahhhh…so someone injured in COMBAT and then happens to die from his wounds after getting the best medical treatment in the world, in YOUR mind (well, and the bloggers), that means he was tortured to death? What country is it that takes care of it’s PRISONERS better that most every country out there takes care of it’s own citizens?

And they let DoD personnel comment on random political blogs out here in the real world. Someone is about to lose their security clearance it seems.
fuster

Not comments,Dave. I’ve read the official documents.
And no, they didn’t die from combat-related wounds.
These were people in custody who died after interrogation.
Fractured hyoid.

These are cases where the DoD opened criminal investigations against armed forces personnel, CIA agents and others.
DaveR

Then show us. Put up or shut up.
fuster

Here you go.

http://action.aclu.org/torturefoia/released/102405/3235.pdf
DaveR

I knew you’d go there.

Yes, Bush is at fault for everything. See the thing is…if ZERO charges were filed and NOBODY were going to jail, then you could actually “claim” that it’s what the policy was, but since someone is getting prosecuted – doesn’t that mean that WASN’T the policy and what happened what AGAINST THE RULES??

OMG!! Say it ain’t so!!!

Guess what fuster – PEOPLE do bad things all the time, some of them happen to be IN the military. So is Clinton also in trouble with you because bad people IN THE MILITARY broke the rules under his watch too? Reagan? Carter? What about ya’lls Hero – Kennedy – is HE responsible for the bad people that happen to do bad things while he was Pres.??
fuster

Dave, I put up. You should shut up.
Paul_In_Houston

DaveR:

Never argue with a True Believer,
(unless you’re into masochism).

-
DaveR

And I rebutted your put up with facts. If it was the POLICY, nobody would be getting prosecuted, would they?

And I love tweaking the sheep, it helps show everyone how blindly their following is.

(And you notice that it’s STILL all about something Bush did?? They really can’t get over that.)
fuster

Dave, stupidly wrong seem to suit you.
Nobody was prosecuted for torturing. They were prosecuted only for torturing too much or for amusement.
The policy was torture and all your sheep-tweaking smirkiness won’t change that mostly you’re abusing yourself.
DaveR

If we’re so wrong, why do you keep coming here to read and comment? Is it to “set us straight”? To “prove” yourself correct? Cause it’s sure not to tell anyone the truth.

And, this is about TEO’s Please Prize – why do you keep going back to Bush? I mean really, is there any post in the last year you’ve made here that doesn’t show your absolute hatred of Bush. Did he personally wrong you or something? Piss in your cereal? You keep saying all us Conservatives are “haters” and “racist”, but the only hate I see comes from you and people just like you against those of us who want our government to go back to following the Constitution. You’re too busy hating Bush to see that TEO hasn’t done a thing to make the USofA stronger at home and in the world, and when there is a weak USofA – BAD things happen in the world. You’re too busy hating Bush to see the things that TEO has done to weaken us – giving FAILING business more taxpayer money instead of letting them fail. Spending TRILLIONS of taxpayer dollars that WE DON’T HAVE (but harping on Bush when he did it??? Bush does = bad, but TEO does MORE of it = good??!?!?!?). Printing money that will cause the value of the dollar to drop (you’ll notice that none of YOUR sides websites are reporting that the world doesn’t want to use the dollar anymore – which is a BAD thing for us – so they don’t say anything).

Like others, you can’t come up with anything TEO’s is actually DOING, but have to keep going back to Bush. Well…it’s not like that’s a surprise for those of us here that keep coming back to see what asinine things you are going to come up with next.
fuster

I’ve nothing against Bush personally.
His policies sucked hard, but many of them were foisted on him by events and an overreaching Veep. He tried to change some in his second term and since leaving office he’s maintained a dignified silence.

You’re going to have to look further back then the current administration for the source of our economic problems, Dave.
I kinda think that you know that.
I don’t find myself qualified to debate what Obama’s folks are doing with the economy.

Finally, Dave, try not to bust my buttons too hard about being a wild-eyed leftist. I’m nothing of the sort. I’m pretty much of a centrist. If it seems otherwise in my comments here, it’s mostly due to my seeking to dispute the distortions of fact and truth that the site too often features.
On leftist sites, I do the same type of annoying disputation and get labelled by their bullsht artists as a neo-con fascist.
You guys are actually a bit classier.
(but just as wrong)
DaveR

No wonder why you like TEO so much, you are as arrogant as he is. You are the “Centrist” who’s always right when everyone else is wrong. What an elitist attitude.

Added: There isn’t one comment or topic on this entire thread (and website) that doesn’t show you as the die hard, to the bone, through and through socialist liberal you really are. So please don’t try and NOW claim you’re some “centrist”.
fuster

dave, you must own your own personal definition of socialist, because that’s something that I understood to be untenable by the time that i left high school.
don’t stop misinterpreting though if it’s all that you’ve got.
DaveR

No, I call them like I see them. Since you can’t (or won’t) find anything wrong with the current administrations policies, you must support them (because you clearly scream loud when you don’t). Since they ARE socialist/marxist, that means you support socialist/marxist then – thus you are a socialist/marxist.

Try and weasel your way out all you want, everyone here but you can clearly see it, which tells me you don’t want to see it, or can’t.
fuster

Because I don’t complain about policies that you think to be socialist, then i must be a socialist?

Dave, that’s pure genius

You sure that you’re smart enough to interfere with the sheep?
O Bloody Hell

> “He won a Nobel Peace Prize?” I asked Cara, “How? For what? What did he do?”

The answer to what he did is really, really very simple:

Barack Obama, through great, unstinting effort and deep self-deprivation, has proven he’s NOT George W. Bush.

That appears to go a very long way towards winning a Peace Prize. After all, this is the second person in the last 5 years who has gotten an award for doing exactly that and nothing more.

And that other person’s international leadership abilities, effectiveness as PotUS, and competency in same is entirely in line with that of Barack Obama.

.
O Bloody Hell

> Finally, Dave, try not to bust my buttons too hard about being a wild-eyed leftist. I’m nothing of the sort. I’m pretty much of a centrist.

LOL, if I had a quarter for each time every wild-eyed leftist I encountered claimed they were merely centrists, I’d be richer than Bill Gates.

You’re not even close to the middle of the road. That path you’re on? It’s not only not the road, it’s a cow trail off in left field so far away you can’t even see the road from it.

If Fox News isn’t “mostly just a little bit Right of Center” (a few demagogues like Beck and O’Reilly excluded, mind you — they can certainly be well right of center), then that is a serious indicator of where you are.

There’s a reason people are flocking to Fox News while all the other media are hemorrhaging customers/viewers — it’s not because Fox tells them what they want to hear — it’s because people grasp that Fox fits far better than the other outlets to what they are themselves able to observe. And because Fox also consistently holds sense better over time.

So if you don’t agree that Fox is “better than average”, and far better than the classic media — if you think they’re way right of center — it’s because you don’t have any grasp of where the center lies….

.
O Bloody Hell

Fuster, assuming you actually want to match your worldview to reality (unlikely, but I always give even lefties the benefit of the doubt, though they rarely earn it afterwards) I recommend you read Bill Whittle’s excellent essay:

Rafts

It’s long, but well worth the read. It highlights one of the major problems with the leftist view of America-the-Awful: If we’re really that bad, why are all the rafts headed here, not away from here?

I also recommend it to anyone else who has not read Bill Whittle (regardless of political persuasion) along with Web of Trust, and many of his other essays. Tribes and Sanctuary are also highly recommended (see the sidebar), along with Seeing the Unseen
fuster

Why do you assume that I don’t see this country as the world’s best?
What’s your problem?
DaveR

That’s funny fuster, because you seem to be the only one coming here complaining when we, from Melissa’s wonderful pose, point out the facts that the US is diminishing when the Dems are in charge and the world gets MORE dangerous, and the fallacy that you (along with other leftists) think that “because” the US is failing, that’s a good thing. (Hint: which is the entire POINT of this Nobel Please Prize story)

You whine and moan and beotch up a storm every single time a constitutional conservative principle is enacted (yeah, they ARE few and far between: lowering taxes works, dead terrorists are good for the world) and they actually WORK (not that you’ll ever admit that, you always claim it’s something else). You praise policies and practices that have been proved throughout human history to FAIL time and time again, and you (again, like other leftists) think that they will work “this time” because the “correct” people are now in charge.

OBH is so very correct. As an example on this text post: TEO and the extreme far left, on a scale of 1-10, are 1′s, Constitutional Conservatives like myself are a 10. Because you are about at 9.75, you seem to “think” the “Center” is at 8, and because Fox News is around 6.5-7, you think that’s “to the right of center”. You will never admit it, but the rest of us here can see it plain as day. (Actually we find it amusing that most all of your liberals can’t see it, it makes this debates so much more fun that you think you are being all “middle of the road” and that we can’t see exactly where you are coming from.)
fuster

Dave, you really need to learn some beginnings of logical thought (or maybe get a helper animal for intellectual support).
That I disagree with ideas that you and others here might advance and argue with you doesn’t mark me as someone who doesn’t love the country.
It just as likely marks me as someone who cares enough about the place to try to defend it from people who think that they know things but are sometimes wrong.
I doubt very much that you have much of a grasp of the Constitution, Dave, or of our system of Constitutional governance.
It’s a little complicated for a sheepboy.
DaveR

Now that’s funny. I have more of a grasp of the Constitution and the Federalist Papers in my little toe that you’ll every have a grasp of the facts. Please enlighten us, Mr. “Centrists” what part of the Constitution the Nobel Please Prize winner is currently following and adhering to? And I’ll even make it easy for you – you only have to name one! But: you have to back it up with FACTS, not yours or some other bloggers opinion.

We all anxiously await your Constitutional Knowledge.
fuster

get a grip, Dave. You’ve already given me one put up or shut up in this thread and you should have shut up then.
Go play with your toes.
DaveR

No, you linked to an incident that someone is going to go to JAIL for. Which means that it was AGAINST the laws in place.

And we’re still waiting.
http://twitter.com/toe_thumbs toe_thumbs

“Of course, after terrorists like Yasser Arafat and frauds like Al Gore have won the award, we should be happy that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad isn’t being given a Nobel Peace Prize for Holocaust Denial.”

^^ Haha I love it.
Bill

Obama for Heisman!