The Chief woke up this morning to Mrs. Chief saying “Guess who won the Nobel Peace Prize?”
The way the question was asked signalled (after 30+ years of questioning experiences) that there was something extraordinary about the answer.
Being thus alerted, the immediate thought came…”It must his Imperial Divine Eminance B.O. hisself! This was immediately followed by the thought “Naw – not even the Norwegians could be THAT stupid…after all, he hasn’t accomplished anything significant yet.”
Sadly enough, the first impression was right. So much for any more credibility to the Nobel Peace Prize.
This makes Ole, of “Ole and Lena” fame seem be a genius by comparison.
Obama Wakes Early To News Of Nobel Win
The White House says President Barack Obama was woken up a little before 6 a.m. with the news that he had won the Nobel Peace Prize.
Press secretary Robert Gibbs learned from reporters that Obama had won the 2009 prize, and telephoned the White House early Friday to pass along the news to his boss. The president plans to talk about his award at 10:30 a.m. Friday in the Rose Garden.
One awaits with bated breath!
President Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize
President Barack Obama won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for “his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples,” the Norwegian Nobel Committee said, citing his outreach to the Muslim world and attempts to curb nuclear proliferation….
During the press conference to announce the winner, there were gasps in the room when Obama’s name was mentioned in Norwegian. Moments later, the announcement was made again but in English.
Gasps…no kidding. They were lucky there wasn’t gagging…no, it WAS the international press…most of them can swallow anything with the proper seasoning of political correctness!
Analysis: He won, but for what?
The awarding of the Nobel Peace Price to President Barack Obama landed with a shock on darkened, still-asleep Washington. He won! For what?
For one of America’s youngest presidents, in office less than nine months — and only for 12 days before the Nobel nomination deadline last February — it was an enormous honor.[emphasis added]
A richly UNdeserved honor.
The prize seems to be more for Obama’s promise than for his performance. Work on the president’s ambitious agenda, both at home and abroad, is barely underway, much less finished. He has no standout moment of victory that would seem to warrant a verdict as sweeping as that issued by the Nobel committee.
And what about peace? Obama is running two wars in the Muslim world — in Iraq and Afghanistan — and can’t get a climate change bill through his own Congress.
Without commenting on the demerits of the climate change bill…the stunning lack of achievement is obvious.
Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize to mixed reviews
This report is mostly more of the same, except for this little tidbit:
Critics — some in parts of the Arab and Muslim world — called the committee decision premature.
Not even the Arabs all agree on the merit of this one.
Premature? D’ya think? Maybe just a bit?
Nobel Committee’s Decision Courts Controversy
The award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Barack Obama, so early in his presidency, is bound to reignite criticism of the workings of the Nobel committee.
The deadline for nominations for the prize was Feb. 1 — two weeks after Mr. Obama was inaugurated.
“So soon? Too early. He has no contribution so far,” former Polish President Lech Walesa, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983, said Friday.
So, how do they make these selections? Read on:
When all the nominations are in, the committee draws up a short list of between five and 20 candidates which are then considered by the Nobel Institute’s director and research director and a group of Norwegian university professors. Their reports on the candidates are then discussed by the five-member prize committee.
Members, all of whom are former or serving deputies of the Storting, the Norwegian parliament, seek to reach a unanimous decision — normally by mid-September — but this has sometimes proved impossible and the choice is then made by a simple majority vote.
Some have criticized the selection procedure as untransparent. The committee never announces the names of nominees and information about candidacies is only made public 50 years after the decision. “It is all done in secret, you don’t know what is happening and whoever sits on that panel is very susceptible to the tides of the moment,” said Philip Towle, an academic from the department of politics and international studies at the University of Cambridge.
Even in Norway, where Mr. Obama enjoys huge popularity, the decision raised eyebrows among some. “It is just too soon,” said Siv Jensen, leader of Norway’s main opposition party, the Progress Party. “It is wrong to give him the peace prize for his ambition. You should receive it for results.”
She said that the decision to bestow the award on the president was the most controversial she could remember and was one of a number that had moved the prize further away from the ideals of Alfred Nobel.
Ah! Enlightenment!
Norskie University professors and Eurosocialist politicians do the heavy lifting.
’nuff said.