Barack Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize

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ZenMonkey

ZenMonkey

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE5981JK20091009

OSLO (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for giving the world \"hope for a better future\" with his work for peace and calls to reduce the global stockpile of nuclear weapons.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee praised Obama for \"his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.\"
The first African-American to hold his country's highest office, Obama has called for disarmament and worked to restart the stalled Middle East peace process since taking office in January.

\"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 a citation.

It awarded the prize to Obama less than nine months into his presidency. Despite setting out an ambitious international agenda, he has yet to score any breakthrough on the Middle East or Iran's nuclear program, and faces difficult choices on the conduct of the war in Afghanistan.

Last month Obama chaired a historic meeting of the United Nations Security Council, which unanimously approved a U.S.-drafted resolution calling on nuclear weapons states to scrap their arsenals.

Obama is the third senior U.S. Democrat to win the prize this decade after former Vice President Al Gore won in 2007 along with the U.N. climate panel and Jimmy Carter in 2002.

The prize worth 10 million Swedish crowns ($1.4 million) will be handed over in Oslo on December 10.

(Reporting by Oslo newsroom, editing by Mark Trevelyan)
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I know, "Politics," but I figured this is kinda bigger news. If anyone disagrees, go ahead and move it.
 
Math242

Math242

i kinda like the guy but i don't think he's done anything yet to deserve this besides being elected and having a really good PR team
 
AshburnerX

AshburnerX

Wow... I don't think I've ever heard of a sitting head of state winning the Nobel Peace Prize, let alone one who's barely accomplished anything. At least Gore is a staunch Environmentalist and Jimmy Carter a great humanitarian, but what has Obama done other than not fuck up as bad as the guy before him?

Oh, and he'd better fucking donate that prize money to a fucking charity.
 
North_Ranger

North_Ranger

Staff member
Hee hee hee, Scandinavian geography fail.

Yah, this sounds a bit too soon... and the pundits are probably having multiple orgasms just waiting to rip this apart.
 
Covar

Covar

Hope he doesn't fly all the way there just to have them give it to some guy from Brazil.

Seriously though? He hasn't accomplished shit regarding anything they have said he's getting it for. The article even states that. Of course looking at some of the Previous Peace Prize winners I shouldn't be that surprised. Most worthless of all the Nobel Prizes.
 
AshburnerX

AshburnerX

It seems like the main reasons he was awarded the Peace Prize are:

A- Because he's actually LISTENING to the UN and Europe for a change, which is something a lot of American Presidents don't bother to do because they realize the UN can't act without US support. Europeans love it when Americans don't act like assholes.

B- Replaced the most unpopular US president in history (at least internationally, you can argue all you like about his impact in the US) and seems to have hopes and aspirations that are a polar opposite of the previous administration.

C- Is more open to negotiation instead of military force as a first option for diplomacy, which is AGAIN very different than normal American policy.

Still, it seems way too soon to give it to him.
 
North_Ranger

North_Ranger

Staff member
Covar said:
Hope he doesn't fly all the way there just to have them give it to some guy from Brazil.

Seriously though? He hasn't accomplished shit regarding anything they have said he's getting it for. The article even states that. Of course looking at some of the Previous Peace Prize winners I shouldn't be that surprised. Most worthless of all the Nobel Prizes.
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I advice you to either amend that or not specify to a certain someone.

/stare of death
 
J

JCM

AshburnerX said:
Wow... I don't think I've ever heard of a sitting head of state winning the Nobel Peace Prize, let alone one who's barely accomplished anything. At least Gore is a staunch Environmentalist and Jimmy Carter a great humanitarian, but what has Obama done other than not fuck up as bad as the guy before him?

Oh, and he'd better fucking donate that prize money to a fucking charity.
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Yasser Arafat and Rabin won one in the early 90s (Bill Clinton, who did the hard work of getting these two together, was ignored)
Covar said:
Hope he doesn't fly all the way there just to have them give it to some guy from Brazil.
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??
 
Terrik

Terrik

My Copenhagen remark was referencing the cost for Obama to fly to Copenhagen to push for the Olympics. He can use to his Peace Prize money to foot the bill. I know where Oslo is :p
 
Zappit

Zappit

Staff member
AshburnerX said:
It seems like the main reasons he was awarded the Peace Prize are:

A- Because he's actually LISTENING to the UN and Europe for a change, which is something a lot of American Presidents don't bother to do because they realize the UN can't act without US support. Europeans love it when Americans don't act like assholes.

B- Replaced the most unpopular US president in history (at least internationally, you can argue all you like about his impact in the US) and seems to have hopes and aspirations that are a polar opposite of the previous administration.

C- Is more open to negotiation instead of military force as a first option for diplomacy, which is AGAIN very different than normal American policy.

Still, it seems way too soon to give it to him.
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D - He's not George W. Bush. That plays more a role in the decision than anything else, I think.
 
DarkAudit

DarkAudit

Better to give it to someone who "hasn't done anything" than to give it to someone for what he has *cough*Kissinger*cough*.
 
J

JCM

DarkAudit said:
Better to give it to someone who "hasn't done anything" than to give it to someone for what he has *cough*Kissinger*cough*.
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Kissinger actually deserved it, paranoid or no, damn that guy was on the dot with realpolitik and probably caused the collapse of communism (or the corruption of it thorugh capitalism) by insisting that US trade with China and Russia. Heck, he even got Egypt to abandon the whole Arab "death to Israel" and made them a US ally up to today.

Pity watergate came along, and took his name down with it, he was the best strategist US had ever had, and USA's foreign affairs has suffered from it ever since.
 
sixpackshaker

sixpackshaker

JCM;272084][quote=DarkAudit said:
Better to give it to someone who "hasn't done anything" than to give it to someone for what he has *cough*Kissinger*cough*.
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Kissinger actually deserved it, paranoid or no, damn that guy was on the dot with realpolitik and probably caused the collapse of communism (or the corruption of it thorugh capitalism) by insisting that US trade with China and Russia. Heck, he even got Egypt to abandon the whole Arab "death to Israel" and made them a US ally up to today.

Pity watergate came along, and took his name down with it, he was the best strategist US had ever had, and USA's foreign affairs has suffered from it ever since.[/QUOTE]

The irony of the award was that he was neck deep in setting Vietnam policy.

And yes, he was a master of Realpolitik.
 
MindDetective

MindDetective

Biardo;272107][quote=MindDetective said:
Who was he up against? I didn't read the link, just the OP.
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Nobody knows...


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobelprize#Nomination_and_selection

...The names of the nominees are never publicly announced, and neither are they told that they have been considered for the Prize...

I know wikipedia but didn't feel like searching for an more reliable source[/QUOTE]

That was kind of what I thought, actually. The point remains that they are choosing people from a list of options. Was Obama the best choice? Probably not but I wonder who else they were considering. Maybe they just didn't have any good choices this year. Commence eye rolling.
 
SpecialKO

SpecialKO

:facepalm:

Look, I like Obama as much as any lefty, but this is just ridiculous. He hasn't done anything yet.

He may yet do a great many, many things. He's made what I would consider to be a steady, if slow, start.

But it hasn't happened yet. And it's only going to make his job harder.

/Anticipating onset of "nobel fail" lolcat-style meme
 
Covar

Covar

Look, I like Obama as much as any lefty, but this is just ridiculous. He hasn't done anything yet.
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but...but...CNN fact checked that SNL Skit.

---------- Post added at 10:51 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:50 AM ----------
Allen said:
It mentions Morgan Tsvangirai, Zimbabwan PM, as a favorite, but no others.
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Has Obama been tortured by the goons of an insane dictator? Didn't think so.[/QUOTE]

he did live in america the past 8 years:coffee:[/QUOTE]

hops on the train to Politics R Us. :popcorn:
good play sir.
 
Hylian

Hylian

This is retarded.

Politics aside the man hasn't done anything to deserve winning the Nobel Peace prize!
 
sixpackshaker

sixpackshaker

hylian said:
This is retarded.

Politics aside the man hasn't done anything to deserve winning the Nobel Peace prize!
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Besides decreasing tensions with Russia over the missile shield, holding the first direct talks with Iran since '79, sent Clinton to return the two journalists from North Korea, and just generally putting out feelers that the US is willing to talk first.
 
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