In a surprising development, it was announced that President Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize this morning. Though Mr. Obama has yet to do anything groundbreaking during his presidency (his ascent as the first Black President is impressive), the panel awarded him the Peace Prize because of what he is trying to do. Reducing nuclear arms, easing tensions with the Muslim world, and working towards a cooperative and diplomatic America were mentioned as reasons that he won. The award will help to “promote what he [Obama] stands for and the positive processes that have started now”.
President Obama had not been considered a front runner, was not mentioned by most experts, and didn’t even feel that it was a remote possibility. He was not yet even elected President when the nominations were due, and he had only been President for a few weeks before voting was completed. It was so far out of the realm of expectation that he had to be woken up to learn that he had won.
Obama becomes the fourth President of the United States to win this award. Theodore Roosevelt won it in 1906 and Woodrow Wilson won it in 1919. In 2002, Jimmy Carter also won the Nobel Peace Prize. Carter is the only President to win the award while out of office, while Obama becomes the third to win it in office.
Article comments
1 - Ruvy
The guys at Desicritics beat you to the punch, Robert - and they also scooped the New York Times.
I've commented elsewhere on the Arabfart Prize.
2 - Robert M. Barga
mine is news, theirs is opinion
3 - Ruvy
Look again, Robert. The article at Desicritics is characterized as NEWS. The author couldn't keep his POV out of the article. Had he done so, he would have scooped the NYT by more than seven minutes.
4 - Robert M. Barga
i dont consider things with bias obvious a news thing, even if they are classified as such
basically, it is oped
5 - Ruvy
No matter how much you complain and qualify, wiggling around like a pup trying to get out of someone's arms, they still beat you to the punch, Robert. Man up and admit it.
6 - Dr Dreadful
I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw this on the BBC just now.
I mean, I like the guy and congratulations to him, but come on. This does look a bit frivolous.
Carter had to work for decades to get his. I dare say there's a case for Obama getting one on the basis of him being the first black president, but not really for his diplomatic efforts, which have yet to bear tangible fruit (please hand me my Nobel Mangled Metaphor Prize).
Frankly, though, it hasn't been that great a year for peace, what with the resurgent Taliban, the continuing love-fest in Israel and Gaza, piracy off the Horn of Africa, the North Koreans grabbing their national crotch at anyone they catch looking in their direction, the usual assortment of minor wars, regime changes and election riots in Africa, and discontented rumblings over what Iran may or may not be doing at that little country place of theirs out near Qom.
The Nobel committee wasn't exactly spoiled for choice, IMO.
7 - Robert M. Barga
yes, they beat me to it
cause i, like Obama, was asleep
8 - Christine
Maybe they felt sorry for him because he lost the Olympic medal??
9 - Robert M. Barga
so true
10 - Mark Saleski
i dont consider things with bias obvious a news thing, even if they are classified as such
and yet you write:
Though Mr. Obama has yet to do anything groundbreaking during his presidency...
sounds like an opinion to me.
11 - Robert M. Barga
I worded that incorrectly, it was meant to counter the sentence directly behind (he was awarded for this, but has yet to do so)
12 - Baritone
As was pointed out in a comment on Dave's article, the nomination was made 11 days after Obama took office. The voting did not culminate until earlier this week. Oft times the rush to press makes for poor reporting.
The award may be premature, but as I believe Glen aptly points out over at Dave's Rants & Rages, Obama has accomplished more than most have given him credit for. He has managed to tone down much of the rhetoric in hot spots around the world. He has brought both the Russians and Chinese into the discussion among other things.
Again, I agree that it is a bit early, but Obama's winning the Peace Prize is not as "out there" as many seem to believe.
B
13 - Jet Gardner
I will echo be by re-pointing out: The nomination deadline was when Obama had been in office 11 days. The vote on the prize was this week
Odd you you didn't research that part Robert? You know all about the nominations part but not that?????
Biased????
14 - Jeanne Browne
I can't help but be pleased for the President; winning the Peace Prize is still an honor, even though the Nobel committee lowered the bar considerably by bestowing it on people like De Klerk and Arafat. I appreciate that Mr. Obama said he saw the win as a call to action, a prod to further success in peacemaking, rather than a reward for a peace job well done. I'm proud of him for taking bold, original and effective steps towards improving America's standing abroad and for advocating diplomacy and the peaceful resolution of age-old conflicts around the world. But unless Obama truly uses the Peace Prize as a power tool to speed up our exit from Iraq, get us completely out of the futile bog that is Afghanistan and totally depart from the Bush-era approach to handling prisoners of war and terror suspects, my feelings will continue to be mixed. I am certainly allowing for the fact that he's only been in office for less than a year. But he has not yet delivered on the change he asked us to believe in, nor has he been forceful enough in advancing a truly progressive agenda here at home. At the end of each New Day, he cannot be a Peace Prize winner and a wartime president simultaneously. He still has a lot of work to do to finish earning this award.
15 - Robert M. Barga
Sorry, I was trusting my sources, including the AP and CNN. In the future, I will not trust obviously deceitful stories