Video: New School Protesters Beaten, Arrested (Again)
B&H Photo Video Sued For Gender Bias
Person Fatally Struck By G Train At 7th Avenue Subway Station
16-Year-Old Confesses To Shooting That Caught Girl In Crossfire
Sexual Harassment On Subways An "Underreported Crime"
Photograph of President Obama (back to camera) in the White House Situation Room discussing Afghanistan yesterday by Pete Souza/White House
Well, one thing is for sure: The Nobel Prize Committee's decision to give President Obama the Nobel Peace Prize is at least giving people something to talk about this weekend! Even as the President himself admitted he didn't think he deserved the award—but said he'd accept it as a "call to action— a call for all nations to confront the common challenges of the 21st century"—the decision was met with some enthusiasm and a lot more criticism.
The head of the Republican National Committee Michael Steele said, "The real question Americans are asking is, ‘What has President Obama actually accomplished?'" However, some other members of the GOP actually gave (measured) praise—Obama's 2008 opponent Senator John McCain said, "I'm sure the president understands that he now has even more to live up to. But as Americans, we're proud when our president receives an award of that prestigious category," while apparent 2012 hopeful Tim Pawlenty said, "I would say regardless of the circumstances, congratulations to President Obama for winning the Nobel Prize. I know there will be some people who are saying 'Was it based on good intentions and thoughts or is it going to be based on good results?' But I think the appropriate response is when anybody wins a Nobel Prize that is a very noteworthy development and designation and I think the appropriate response is to say 'Congratulations.'"
On the side of the skeptical: The Taliban, whose spokesman said, "We have seen no change in his strategy for peace. He has done nothing for peace in Afghanistan. We condemn the award of the Nobel Peace Prize for Obama. When Obama was elected president, we were hopeful he would keep his promise to bring change. But he brought no change, he has continued the same old strategy as (President George W.) Bush." The Hamas was also meh, "Unless real and deep-rooted change is made in American policy toward recognizing the rights of the Palestinian people. I would think such a prize would be useless."
Thorbjorn Jagland, head of the Nobel Prize Committe, has emphasized that they are embracing's Obama's message and approach to diplomacy. The NY Times reports, "He likened this year’s award to the one in 1971, which recognized Willy Brandt, the chancellor of West Germany, and his 'Ostpolitik' policy of reconciliation with Communist Eastern Europe." Jagland said, "Brandt hadn’t achieved much when he got the prize, but a process had started that ended with the fall of the Berlin Wall. 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."
Of course, the whole matter is sort of a headache for Obama's administration, too, giving his opponents more to freak out about. His senior adviser David Axelrod said, "I’d like to believe that winning the Nobel Peace Prize is not a political liability. But this isn’t something I gave a moment of thought to until today. Hopefully people will receive it with some sense of pride. But I don’t know; it’s uncharted waters."
Well, the Washington Post thinks the Nobel committee should have award the prize to Neda Agha-Soltan—"The Nobel Committee could have spared Mr. Obama this dilemma if it had given Neda the award instead of him."
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
If only people spent this much time talking about healthcare.
That would be nice...
They spend plenty of time talking about health care (or medical care, as we used to call it, since that's what we're actually talking about). The problem is that our politicians and media have decided to suppress most of the discussion and dismiss the most popular possibilities in favor of keeping big corporations big and the rich people who own them rich. Barring some kind of populist uprising, it's going to be SSDD all the way.
As for Mr. O's Nobel Peace Prize, this says it all as far as I'm concerned: http://www.truthdig.com/cartoon/item/20091009_obamas_nobel_peace_prize/
Riiiight. Why don't you include Woodrow Wilson in that? He won the Nobel for helping to negotiate the Treaty of Versailles. But some argue that if the treaty hadn't been excessively hard on Germany, Germans wouldn't have resented their situation as much and would not have embraced Adolf Hitler less than 20 years later. So should they rescind Wilson's Nobel because he might have been in some indirect way responsible for World War II, the Holocaust, the deaths of tens of millions of civilians and soldiers, etc.?
Say, how's David Paterson doing, by the way? Him being your BFF and all.
I am curiously ambiguous about this most prestigious award given to my president for whom I eagerly voted. My first and most honest reaction was, "Why President Obama?" Might even have been his own initial reaction. I am convinced he did not expect it nor revel in it either.
Now I have come to better appreciate the reasoning for the Prize committees decision. Mr. President, you are a beacon of hope, an inspiration for change. Your heart is in the right place. Just a few of the cliches apropos to this situation. Peace is a most elusive prize, much more so than the actual award itself. Wouldn’t you agree?
When he in fact, in time, provide more than just the inspiration to attain peace, but serve as its instrument for the actual change which needs to come, this award will mean more to him and the people of the world than it does right now.
The fact that the Taliban and Hamas chide him for it is indication that they WANT change and they want it now! Like a child that jumps up and down in antsy anticipation of something great, so do these people and everyone. They want change equals peace now. Something to start with. Thousands of years of incompatible ideologies clashing cannot be undone in 10 months. Wait, the best is yet to come. Have patients and hope and actually try to attain peace within yourself first. That is where all peace will emanate.
If Obama had begun de-escalating the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and stood firm against Israel building more settlements while condemning their war of terror in Gaza and their use of illegal weapons, then I think he would deserve the prize. One of the interesting things about Obama; he doesn't appear to have a problem killing people of color.