Ahira's Hangar

POTUS Obama wins Nobel Peace prize, announced today.

You guys know I voted for Obama, and support him. But what on Earth did he do to get this award? I really do not understand this.

I'll certainly applaud Pres. Obama for his more conciliatory attitude compared to his predecessor. I wouldn't want to be churlish over who deserves to be recognized for promoting peace. That said, I'm a bit surprised myself about this news. I thought - perhaps wrongly - that you needed something more concrete, say the signing of a treaty, to be awarded the Nobel peace prize. Maybe the criteria for the peace prize isn't quite as stringent as for, say, the chemistry or physics prize. Oh well, their prize, their rules. Not to mention it's their own money they're handing out, so they can do whatever they want with it.

So, I anticipated a question or comment like this. Well, in the history of the Peace prize it's been awarded to Charles Dawes, Elihu Root, and Jane Addams; it seems, Dawes most awesome lifetime achievement was being Collidge's VP, Root's was being secretary of State for T. Roosevelt and Addams, even as great American as she was really a force for international peace (which is what the decsion giving the award to her said). Consider this, Woodrow Wilson won for work at the Versailles Peace conference and the founding of the League of Nations (awesome achievements as those are), BUT could not make good on any promises to deliver U.S. membership in the League. Consider to in the 1970s the award was given to Kissinger and Le Duc Thoh for negoitiations ending the Vietnam conflict. Well, Duc Thoh was the foreign minister of a repressive dictatorship and Kissinger, really!

Please don't misunderstand, I'm not saying the award is empty nor honorary nor a vapid statement, but sometimes the Norwegian group making the decisions are swayed by less overtly obvious situations.

I was over at the Tank at KW, where I saw President Obama's acceptance speech posted. It was elegantly worded, which is what you'd expect from Obama. I've heard it argued that it would have been best if he had politely declined the prize and moved on. Ah, well, I think it's a case of damned if you do, damned if you don't. It's kind of a sad irony to see such intense arguments over a peace prize.

Me, I'm just going to have a good laugh over this.

To be clear, I'm not laughing at Mr. Obama. If anything, I'm laughing at myself - at my own delusions about the Nobel prize.

Since I've held forth at length on this topic in the 'Tank, I'll confine myself to repeatng that, while I have nothing against Obama, I think that this was way too soon. I hope he comes to deserve such a recognition, but I don't think he has done anything yet to earn it.

--A

That was my reaction, too. In a sense, Obama won the award because he's not Dubya. He *is* ratcheting back some of the worst cowboy tendencies the US developed over the past eight years; maybe that's enough to justify his getting the award. I'm sure many in the international community would think so.

I *am* disappointed in some Republicans, tho, who couldn't be gracious enough to just say "congratulations." I mean, come on!

I think it's disappointing that he got it so early - perhaps after all the good intentions bear some fruit . But from an outsider's perspective, he has had a positive impact on attitudes towards the US in general. At least from where I sit - it's just a pity the Nobel came before he's had a chance to really act, and time will tell how he goes in that regard.

Yeah. Apparently, some of the judges were dubious about his ability to keep his promises. (Which seem to largely be the basis on which it was awarded.) (Article in the 'Tank.)

--A