Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize - Discuss

[King James]

This just in: Obama awarded Nobel Prize in Chemistry for mixing himself a whiskey with Red Bull onboard Air Force One.

LOL!

Back on point. I do find it odd that he was President for less than 2 weeks when he was nominated. And just find it so insulting to the people he beat out (if you look @ the link above)

Maybe it does pan out and he does improve relations, but hold off on the Nobel Prize until then.....don't give it now just because he is thinking about fixing relations, or has sorta started to try and fix relations

[mithrilG60]

Originally Posted by King James

Back on point. I do find it odd that he was President for less than 2 weeks when he was nominated. And just find it so insulting to the people he beat out (if you look @ the link above)

I don't think the issue is really how long he was or wasn't President prior to being nominated, after all the vast majority of past winners have never been President/Prime Minister/etc of their respective country. I think the real question is has he actually done anything to warrant such an honour? At this point I think the answer has to be no. He made a lot of great noise during the presidential race but so far has yet to achieve anything from his foreign policy list which would likely be the most applicable to the Nobel Peace Prize.

There's no doubt he's had a positive effect on the US' global image and personally I have great hopes that he will achieve really significant things both for the US and the rest of the world, I don't really think this is warranted yet. There should be more to winning the Nobel Peace Prize than just being perceived as better than your predecessor (especially considering the exceptionally foul odour which, deservedly or not, which most of the world saw GWB in).

[King James]

Originally Posted by mithrilG60

I don't think the issue is really how long he was or wasn't President prior to being nominated, after all the vast majority of past winners have never been President/Prime Minister/etc of their respective country. I think the real question is has he actually done anything to warrant such an honour? At this point I think the answer has to be no. He made a lot of great noise during the presidential race but so far has yet to achieve anything from his foreign policy list which would likely be the most applicable to the Nobel Peace Prize.

In this case, I think time in office is worth noting, based on the reasons that they gave for given him the award. Although I would agree time in political office does not matter, in general.

And regardless of time in office, the point you raised about doing nothing to deserve it (at least yet) is an even better reason it is not his time to win.

The Nobel prize isn't going anywhere, let the guy actually accomplish something before you start throwing awards out at him. I mean there is nothing peaceful about sending 20,000+ troops to Afghanistan....so it is my opinion that there were more deserving people, at least for now.

[mithrilG60]

Originally Posted by King James

In this case, I think time in office is worth noting, based on the reasons that they gave for given him the award. Although I would agree time in political office does not matter, in general.

And regardless of time in office, the point you raised about doing nothing to deserve it (at least yet) is an even better reason it is not his time to win.

And that's the real key to it. My point was simply that everyone seems to be referring to the amount of time he spent as President prior to the nomination as if being a head of state or not is somehow a primary consideration. Obviously it's not however as a complete outsider I really don't know much of Obama's history prior to his arrival on the world stage in the presidential campaign. It's entirely possible that he has done things in the time leading up to his current position that would warrant this award. That's why I mentioned that the length of time in his position as US President is irrelevant to the discussion.

That said, I agree with you that this is a very premature honour. I certainly hope that he does enough good over the course of his tenure as President and in his life post-Presidency to deserve the Nobel Prize. He's already off to a very good start just in the way he's attempting to restore the US' battered international reputation and diplomatic efforts (again, just stating the general world perception and not commenting on how deserved or not that perception actually is). Let's just hope he continues on this path and earns this award that's been bestowed.

[hotreds]

[Bigwaved]

The funny thing is that it took about one minute to bring to the world into a more peaceful existence. That moment was when the war mongers were relegated to be the opposition party. The message was clear during the run up to the election that the two candidates were on opposite sides of how to handle diplomacy. That is not a political opinion. Rather, the words out of their mouths. It strikes me as funny that some of the previous posters are applauding the lack politics in this thread. Veiled references must not count.

Please, someone explain to me why he deserves this award? What has happened, has everyone been bent over by this guy?

[King James]

Originally Posted by mithrilG60

I really don't know much of Obama's history prior to his arrival on the world stage in the presidential campaign. It's entirely possible that he has done things in the time leading up to his current position that would warrant this award.

Nope, not really. Was a state senator in Illinois. Then he was a US Senator for about 100 days or so before he decided he was ready to be president, and started campaigning after that.

Originally Posted by King James

Nope, not really. Was a state senator in Illinois. Then he was a US Senator for about 100 days or so before he decided he was ready to be president, and started campaigning after that.

I wonder how many bills he actually contributed to and voted on while he was there for 100 days Such great qualifications for the Nobel Peace Prize, let alone president

[pnoon]

We've been teetering on the edge here for some time. In order to prevent the eventual turn from a discussion about the Nobel prize to a discussion about the president and politics, I'm closing this down.

You all can thank me now or thank me later. It doesn't matter to me.