The award for Barack Obama may be the most stunningly undeserved use of the Nobel Peace Prize. When you add it up, the Nobel Prize Committee is giving Obama an “A” for effort, and even that’s not deserved when the President of France is calling you naive and making fun of you.
The Nobel Committee has made a spate of unjustified decisions in recent years, though. Consider the Nobel Prizes for Jimmy Carter, which was mainly an attempt to thumb its nose at George W. Bush for being a “big evil warmonger”. Or think about the Nobel Prize for Al Gore for jetting around the world in large private jets to scare us to death about global warming.
There used to be a time when Nobel Peace Prize winners earned their awards through a lifetime of work for peace. Not today. Today, we give it to a guy for accomplishing nothing, as a slap on the back and an atta boy to the world’s favorite pats. Congratulations, Mr. President, Nelson Mandela had to spend 20 years in jail to get the award that you “earned” by being elected on a promise of hope and change. Mother Teresa had to spend decades in the slums of calcutta for the sick and dying to earn her award.
As bad as the Nobel Prize Committee’s decisions this decade have been, they have made dumb decisions before, like handing an award to terrorist Yasser Arafat become the committee was snowed into believing that the Palestinians would change their way. Or the decision to award Woodrow Wilson the Nobel Peace Prize for coming up with the idea for the League of Nations (which ended up failing) and composing the Fourteen Points (which was totally ignored at the Versailles treaty.)
However, beginning with the Jimmy Carter prize in 2002, the Noble Prize Committee began issuing awards to people who had no business even being considered for one. This however takes the cake. It devalues the award. With apologies to Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, and Martin Luther King, being a Nobel Peace Prize winner means far less than it did seven years.
October 9th, 2009 at 10:20 am
i dare the nobel people to find one nuclear weapon that has been dismantled because of obama…just one
October 9th, 2009 at 10:53 am
[...] I don’t think it’s had any real credibility for a long time. Adam Graham at Race 4 2012 sums it up nicely. What bothers me is how weird it is putting a man who has only talked about peace next to [...]
October 9th, 2009 at 10:55 am
The exact timing of it aside, one could probably argue that Carter deserved his, and even Gore’s was based on legitimate action.
Obama…….perhaps there are a lack of candidates this year?
October 9th, 2009 at 11:00 am
Great article Adam Graham. This goes to show that the Nobel committee has no more credability.
October 9th, 2009 at 11:04 am
Consider in 1997 ultra-left winger and TRUE COMMUNIST ( and former fascist in the forties ) comedian Dario Fo ( a sort of italian version of senator AI Franken ) won nobel prize for literature…so if you are a radical leftist ( better if communist ) you are well placed to win a nobel prize…
October 9th, 2009 at 11:08 am
excuse me for very bad english…your blog is great! i read it everyday…
October 9th, 2009 at 11:50 am
As an American and a patriot, you have to be proud to have our President so highly thought of around the world. I can understand why some GOP members would rather want America to fail, given their predilection for torture and all…
October 9th, 2009 at 11:55 am
AI, you never fail to entertain us.
October 9th, 2009 at 12:04 pm
Adam I think the decline actually started at least by 1994 when Yasir Arafat won it.
October 9th, 2009 at 12:25 pm
Doesn’t American Ideals have a point? You all said that Obama’s failure to secure the 2016 Olympics was a slap, a defeat, proof that the world is coming off of its Obamamania highs… by that logic, shouldn’t this be seen as a victory for the President?
October 9th, 2009 at 1:07 pm
“shouldn’t this be seen as a victory for the President?” Yeah, it might be a victory if the world was laughing with us and not at us. Travel the world wide web and visit some non-American liberal sites and blogs. Perhaps you would figure out that while the world may like America, it no longer respects it.
October 9th, 2009 at 1:33 pm
Reporters gasp at Obama’s Nobel surprise
President Obama was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize less than two weeks after taking office earlier this year. David Gregory, host of NBC’s Meet the Press, talks with TODAY co-host Matt Lauer about the award.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/33238192#33238192
October 9th, 2009 at 1:39 pm
Russia Today: ‘Peace Prize to Obama – big mistake by Nobel committee’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpheXxu9vM0&feature=player_embedded#
Palin, Vaughn, Rabinowitz Win Awards
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2009/10/palin_vaughn_rabinowitz_win_aw.html
October 9th, 2009 at 1:49 pm
The Nobel Peace Prize has become like American Idol. Whoever looks best gets it. It doesn’t matter if they haven’t done a single thing to deserve what used to be such a prestegious award.
What’s even better is that Obama was in office for 2 weeks when the deadline (Feb 1st) for nominations were submitted.
It’s a total crock and it’s such a sad thing for those who did deserve this award and didn’t get it because they weren’t “popular” enough.
October 9th, 2009 at 2:14 pm
Why all the schadenfreude? Why should we slam the NPP committee for awarding the prize for nothing more than hope after 55% of the American people elected him president on the same basis. As far as I can see, he is equally qualified for both.
October 9th, 2009 at 2:18 pm
“As an American and a patriot, you have to be proud to have our President so highly thought of around the world. I can understand why some GOP members would rather want America to fail, given their predilection for torture and all…”
I think some people are wondering why Obama is more liked by foreigners than by Americans. Perhaps his Presidency is good for Europe and not so good for America.
October 9th, 2009 at 2:21 pm
Haha, you give him too much credit Doug, this clown is not even good for Europe.
October 9th, 2009 at 2:36 pm
Bad manager of economics, false support of Israel, aiding and supporting enemies of the U.S. …
…and now the Nobel Peace Prize.
Just another thing in the list of things in common between Carter and Obama.
Now let’s wrap up the list with “One-termer”.
October 9th, 2009 at 3:37 pm
[...] race42008.com » Blog Archive » The Nobel Committee Jumped the … [...]
October 9th, 2009 at 5:02 pm
What year did Neville Chamberlain win the Nobel peace prize–1938 or 1939?
October 9th, 2009 at 10:18 pm
Breaking News! Obama wins the Cy Young award.
October 10th, 2009 at 3:02 pm
What the hell are you thinking..not only is this guy an Idiot..He’s a Socialist…NOT an American…Even Iran hates the guy…Every where this guy travels the laugh at him…and What the hell do YOU think he’s done in the name of Peace..He’s never even held a real job…I Do not Understand your thoughts on this matter..Ok I think we just found out who the REAL STUPID is…