2009 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to President Barack Obama

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

From ITN World:

The Nobel Committee announced Friday that the annual peace prize was awarded to Barack Obama, just nine months into his presidency, “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.” In Surprise, Nobel Peace Prize to Obama for Diplomacy:

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 stunned people from Norway to the White House. “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 that he had not yet spoken directly to the president. A senior administration official said in an e-mail message that the press secretary, Robert 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.

A statement from Mr. Obama was expected at 10:30 a.m. in Washington.

* * *

“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.”

* * *

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.”

As you might expect the right-wing attack dogs are already out in force. Michael Steele, Chairman of the Republican National Commitee, issued this statement:

“The real question Americans are asking is, ‘What has President Obama actually accomplished?’ It is unfortunate that the president’s star power has outshined tireless advocates who have made real achievements working towards peace and human rights,” Mr. Steele said in a statement. “One thing is certain — President Obama won’t be receiving any awards from Americans for job creation, fiscal responsibility, or backing up rhetoric with concrete action.”

I am sure the Beltway bloviators and the gas bags of right-wing talk radio are frothing at the mouth like rabid dogs with their hatred for Obama.

Actually, Mr. Steele, the real question Americans are asking is, "Why do Republicans hate America?" Or as the Democratic National Committee put it:

The Republican Party has thrown in its lot with the terrorists — the Taliban and Hamas this morning — in criticizing the President for receiving the Nobel Peace prize. Republicans cheered when America failed to land the Olympics and now they are criticizing the President of the United States for receiving the Nobel Peace prize — an award he did not seek but that is nonetheless an honor in which every American can take great pride — unless of course you are the Republican Party. The 2009 version of the Republican Party has no boundaries, has no shame and has proved that they will put politics above patriotism at every turn. It’s no wonder only 20 percent of Americans admit to being Republicans anymore – it’s an embarrassing label to claim.

In its announcement of the prize, the Nobel Committee directly rejected the unilateralism (and imperialism) of the Neoconservatives, led by Vice President Dick Cheney in the previous Bush administration.

“Obama has as president created a new climate in international politics,” the committee wrote. “Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play.”

Interviewed later in the Nobel Committee’s wood-paneled meeting room, surrounded by photographs of past winners, Mr. Jagland brushed aside concerns expressed by some critics that Mr. Obama remains untested.

“The question we have to ask is who has done the most in the previous year to enhance peace in the world,” Mr. Jagland said. “And who has done more than Barack Obama?”

He compared the selection of Mr. Obama with the award in 1971 to the then West German Chancellor Willy Brandt for his “Ostpolitik” policy of reconciliation with communist eastern Europe.

“Brandt hadn’t achieved much when he got the prize, but a process had started that ended with the fall of the Berlin Wall,” said Mr. Jagland. “The same thing is true of the prize to Mikhail Gorbachev in 1990, for launching perestroika. One can say that Barack Obama is trying to change the world, just as those two personalities changed Europe.”

“We have to get the world on the right track again,” he said. Without referring specifically to the Bush era, he continued: “Look at the level of confrontation we had just a few years ago. Now we get a man who is not only willing but probably able to open dialogue and strengthen international institutions.”

President Obama is the third leading American Democrat to win the prize this decade, following former Vice President Al Gore in 2007 along with the United Nations climate panel and former President Jimmy Carter in 2002.

The last sitting American president to win the prize was Woodrow Wilson in 1919. Theodore Roosevelt was selected in 1906 while in the White House and Mr. Carter more than 20 years after he left office.

The full Nobel Prize citation reads:

“The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 is to be awarded to President Barack Obama for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples. The Committee has attached special importance to Obama’s vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons.

Obama has as President created a new climate in international politics. Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play. Dialogue and negotiations are preferred as instruments for resolving even the most difficult international conflicts. The vision of a world free from nuclear arms has powerfully stimulated disarmament and arms control negotiations. Thanks to Obama’s initiative, the United States is now playing a more constructive role in meeting the great climatic challenges the world is confronting. Democracy and human rights are to be strengthened.”

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11 thoughts on “2009 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to President Barack Obama”

  4. Thane,
    I appreciate the fact-checking, but that was sarcasm. Obama never road with Cynthia McKinney in the boat attempting to provide aid to Gaza. In fact, none of what I was stating is true. I was just emphasizing the absurdity of granting Obama the Nobel Peace Prize. Everybody’s sort of lost their way in the “sea of business as usual” in what seems to be the guise of “smart politics” involving compromises that are unacceptable. The unfortunate thing is, there has been no significant change and that’s killed and injured a lot of people. Our current state of affairs are totally unacceptable and definitely not about peace.
    Obama’s winning the Noble Peace Prize has as much irony as Kissinger’s winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973. Check out the Time’s Archive:

    http://archive.timesonline.co.uk/tol/viewArticle.arc?articleId=ARCHIVE-The_Times-1973-10-18-06-006&pageId=ARCHIVE-The_Times-1973-10-18-06

  5. I’ve mentioned this elsewhere but your claims that it is all racism should have been left behind when Barack Obama was elected in 2008.

    Republicans and Libertarians can give you plenty of reasons why they don’t want government health care (and the rest of the government solutions Obama offers).

    I encourage you to go forth and argue issues not motivations. Only g-d can know for certain what motivates a person.

    Find a good book that embodies your ideals and tell a friend about it.

    http://citizenspeacemanual.org/

  6. Come now, you don’t _really_ expect McCain to publicly jump on the praise Obama bandwagon do you?

    McCain straddles the fence, he isn’t ready to jump the fence a la Arlen Specter.

    I have to say (it only hurts a little) that I completely agree with John McCain’s statement. Barack Obama has taken some steps but those steps are tentative and if a honest measure of concrete accomplishments were to be made, any unbiased bystander would say that the signs look favorable but that the war train is still at 99% (98% if I am feeling charitable) of the speed it was at prior to election day 2008.

    As a post on the Peace Action West blog mentions “Much is possible”. Possibles and what is delivered are two different things.

    http://blog.peaceactionwest.org/2009/10/09/obama-accepts-nobel-peace-prize-as-call-to-action/#comment-824

    So far we have hopes. I’m still waiting for my peace dividend to be DELIVERED.

  7. Have I missed some news? Can you provide a URL where Obama is demanding that Israel admit to owning nuclear weapons?

    Has Obama ended rendition? The news articles I came across say:
    “Barack Obama to allow anti-terror rendition to continue – Telegraph”
    “U.S. Says Rendition to Continue, but With More Oversight – NYTimes.com”

    I can’t say as for Obama as guardian angel of Cynthia McKinney but I will presume to scoff on McKinney’s behalf.

    I’ll give credit that Guantanamo does “seem” to be on the road to being shut down, but “seem” and is actually happening is two distinct steps.

    The year 2009 is not the time to claim victory for peace, there might, just might, have been some steps in that direction but the US government is spending just as much money on bombs and bullets as it did nine month ago.

    Let’s not kid ourselves about how much progress had been made.

    http://votersforpeace.us/press/index.php?itemid=3169

  8. McNasty, Sen. John McCain, damns with faint praise http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/10/09/mccain-says-nobel-award-based-on-expectations/

    (CNN) — Arizona Sen. John McCain said Friday the Nobel Committee’s decision to award President Obama the Peace Prize was likely based on expectations, not accomplishments.

    “I can’t divine all their intentions, but I think part of their decision-making was expectations,” McCain told CNN’s John King. “And I’m sure the president understands that he now has even more to live up to.”

    But Obama’s former rival for the White House said he was happy with the decision.

    “I think all of us were surprised at the decision,” he said. “But I think Americans are always pleased when their president is recognized by something on this order.”

  9. Oh yes, and it must certainly be Republicans uttering in disbelieve “wtf!”. We must look at the great strides this man has taken toward world peace. Wingnut Ron Paul types are refusing to acknowledge that Barack Obama was riding shotgun with Cynthia McKinney as their boat was being rammed in international waters. Look at Obama’s strong stance against Israel for their recent slaughter in Gaza. Though his cues were subtle and perceived by only those “in the know” or party worshipers, squint hard and look at Obama’s unflinching demands that Israel once and for all allow inspections of their nuclear weapons. With peaceful repose, let us recall the ceremonious elimination of torture and rendition and the removal of troops from where war crimes have been committed. It’s only those Republican teabaggers who are spreading rumors of 9 GI’s dying last week due to the retaliation of a people bombed to smithereens. This prize will do well to counter the right-wing dominated radio shows that refuse to acknowledge that justice for war crimes and torture was finally reached with this administration. In cleverly ambiguous, subtle ways, we can see how Obama is working feverishly behind the scenes to lance the boil of 9/11 with an authentic investigation. Yes, indeed. He has truly healed a nation and, for being such a team player, Kissinger’s boy wins the peace prize.

  10. Engaging diplomatically means bringing people together to solve problems with talk, not bombs. Who in their right minds can oppose that effort? Well, whoever said that the Republicans who are so angry about Obama’s Nobel award are in their right minds? Frankly, they remind me of small children, lying on the floor and having tantrums. It is terribly sad that so many people (Republicans) have opted to substitute childish temper tantrums for genuine engagement in solving this countries problems – many of which were caused by 8 years when they had control of the White House and the Congress. Their legacy? A miserable, ill-conceived war in Iraq, an unconscionable increase in the national debt – I could go on and on and on – but I’ll spare you.

    Barack Obama – You go!!!!! I am proud to be an American in a country that elected a Black man president so few years after being nominated by the same Democratic party which refused to seat Fanny Lou Hammer and the Black Mississippi delegation at the Democratic Convention! We Democrats are the party of life and human growth!!! And that’s what makes me proud!!!!

  11. I love it. This turn of events highlights the extremist nature of the GOP Neanderthals and their baseless animosity (outside of rampant racism) towards a world class leader. It also demonstrates the stupidity of the “World Rejects Obama!” spin of the Olympic choice of Rio.

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