Friday, October 9, 2009

How Nobel of You, Barack

Hope you enjoy my title, there.

Anyways - thoughts? In case you haven't heard, Barack was announced as the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. Many are shocked; he wasn't mentioned as a forerunner.

Deserved?
Too early?
"Meddling" in policy?
Appropriate statement of support and encouragement?

5 comments:

Greg said...

What a poor choice. He's done nothing to deserve it, and a lot of other people have...
Not to mention that for him to win the Nobel this year means he was nominated in early February. What had he done by early February to earn a Nobel prize?

Charlie said...

Their stated reasons (that I've seen) were (a) he's trying to do something about nuclear weapons and (b) they want to encourage his multi-lateral approach.

I'm very happy with Obama (no, he's not God, and yes, he makes some mistakes. Surprise. He's also an intelligent person who cares about other people and is trying to be President. HOORAY!!!) but neither (a) nor (b) seems terribly unique.

I think the nomination was fine - some people get nominated simply for existing, and it was possible that he might have done something worthy of a Nobel this summer. But he didn't.

I hope it's not too distracting politically. But since swatting a fly is distracting, I think my hope is bound to die a horrible death.

Becca Farnum said...

Zierler (my IR prof) called it "stupid," then revised it to "silly." Mentioned that it was dumping more politics on an already incredibly politicized situation. Not going to be good for Afghanistan, especially.

Charlie said...

By the way, "I'm happy with Obama" meant as a president, not as a Nobel winner. I would agree with "silly".

Anonymous said...

The Nobel Committee adheres to the old maxim "Words speak louder than actions" or am I as mixed up as they were. Who nominated him ? My guess is Donna Brazile who proclaimed in a March column that he was our greatest president. Or maybe it was Rahm Emanuel. Uncle Al