The manner in which Obama has continually snubbed our European allies, has only helped to create a new tension and coldness in international affairs. Obama has done NOTHING to promote peace in this world. It appears that the only requirement for winning this prize is to be anti-Semitic, ala Jimmy Carter.

The Norwegians just can't help but love a good Socialist/Marxist. I bet that they can tell you how many pimples Obama's got on his azz.

Oh can't you see he earned this.

The funny thing is...the NOMINATIIONS were due on February 12th. That is less than ONE MONTH in office.

And He was still able to win the most coveted prize on earth. Maybe He really is the embodiment of Jesus Christ. I can think of no other possible explanation for winning a prize without doing a goddamn thing.

All hail The One!

I like many of the things that Obama has accomplished in his 9 months in office. However, I fail to see TODAY what he has attempted, or done, to garner the nomination or award.

Perhaps this time next year would have been more appropriate?

I think you're right, Kari. In fact, they've probably done Obama a major disservice... giving the right wing another big rock to throw.

Big deal, I've got a Peace Prize too.

For the Nobel committee, this is just another chapter in the long term narrative of making their Peace Prize a complete joke.

Obama joins Yassir Arafat in the long list of ridiculous choices, which say far more about the Nobel committee's political leanings than anything else.

The Nobel Prize is no longer even coveted, so political it has become. To give it to Obama is actually funny. It exposes the Nobel committee in a way that no one else could have.

I could see giving him that award if he got us out of Iraq and Afghanistan in a couple of years, but the prize committee is going to look awfully stupid if Obama continues to escalate the conflict in Afghanistan.

"One of the few hard accomplishments made by President Obama in his first 12 days was putting an end to the practice of torturing people."

Hard as in solid or hard as in a hard decision? Yet we still are sending "detainees" to Bagram Air Base, AKA Torture central.

Apparently the committee didn’t see last week’s Saturday Night Live opening sketch.

Obama should be "Given" the INDY 500 championship next, followed by an Oscar. What a guy!

I think the Pope should kiss his ring finger.

What perfet timing to go along with his blue BS policies for cap and trade, universal health care, amnesty and fiscal insanity.

What a wonderful blue world you're building.

@Kari - Very interesting ideas about the motivations of the Nobel Committee. Agree with you that giving President Obama the award is premature.

Sal:

and in a certain sense, this award was not given to the President of the United States so much as to the people of this country who elected someone who pledged to reverse the policies of the previous administration.

I think you're on to something. This was one of my first thoughts when I heard the news.

I think it's a prank by the Yes Men to point out the huge gap between those Obama peace sign bumper stickers and reality. There's really no other way to explain it.

Jack:

1. Who authorized the invasion and occupation of Iraq?
2. Who authorized the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan?
3. Who authorized the capture and illegal rendition of thousands of innocent civilians and housed them at Gitmo?
4. Who authorized the use of torture during the above mentioned occupations?
5. In what world do you live in where this torture was stopped two years ago?

Oh, one last question - what vintage of champagne did you open to celebrate the awarding of the "Olmpics" to another country?

An interesting turn of events.

He has done a lot to promote world peace, rid the world of nuclear weapons and to combat global warming. I for one, am happy for news. Now if he would only end Bush's wars.

I forgot that they also gave this thing to Henry Kissinger and Yitzak Rabin, which proves that just like the folks that gave flute-wielding Jethro Tull the Grammy for Heavy Metal, the Nobel committee is on crack.

Woulda been better if it was the Yes Men...

Especially the viscerally hateful stuff coming out of the right-wing.

Why should that surprise you, they have nothing left but hate. The right is contributing nothing but hate.

One, this year's peace prize award may reflect, in part, the dearth of major peace accomplishments on the global stage. Two, this peace prize award might be viewed as a preemptive award given to a presumed major achiever of peace. The wisdom of the award should be better defined in a few years. Given how little genuine world peace progress there is, the Nobel committee had a tough job to do.

The award is a way of sending a message to the world by repudiating utterly the Bush era, and pointing the direction towards reconciliation and peace, especially between the Muslim world and the West. I think the speech in Cairo and the renewed initiative for negotiations with Iran, and Middle East peace are the reason for the award. More than anything the award is to the American people for electing President Barack Obama and the direction he is setting for the world.

As for the tea-bagger haters, and the Naderite cynics, go suck on eggs and stew in your own pot of self-created resentment!

I think Kari and others aren't giving Obama enough credit for the things he actually has done such as the Cairo speech, the reengagement with Iran, and his positions on nuclear disarmament. Those are major events, the lack of US press coverage notwithstanding. The things we get worked up about almost always involve domestic policy issues, whereas most of the world gets far more worked up about international issues. I love listening to the BBC broadcast on OPB at midnight; they talk about issues and conflicts that I hardly even know about since the US media doesn't cover them.

As for the nominations due on Feb 12th, it seems clear from the committee's statement that they are taking into account things that happened after that. I have no idea if that's normal or not.

Jack Roberts "I think the use of "the One" started with Oprah Winfrey..."

Oprah Winfrey ought to br your heroine Jack- a real Horatio Alger- not some one who inherited their money- a real capitalist not a pencil pushing lawyer waiting for their PERS to kick in.

And don't you remember: "NIXON IS THE ONE"

John Kerry actually wouldn't be a bad candidate for a peace Prize for his work with Vietnam Veterans Against the War and for thre reconcilliation efforts in later years with Vietnam. But we forget you are stuck in Swiftboat mode...

What did Obama do?

He put America back in Number 1- Most admired nation in the world -to start with- standing tall- It's morning in America!

What many Americans fail to take account of is any international perspective- internationally his dialogue has turned public sentiment is our favor- his appointment of Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State puts diplomacy back in action- his refusal to place Bush's missle "shield" in Europe cause Russia to descalate the weapons build up- this is huge in Europe.

No America news media would rather report on when Levi Johnston is going to strip and who ghost wrote the Palin fairy tales...

Where is Kanye West when you actually want him to show up?

I love Jack, fyi. I disagree with you a whole lot, Mr. Roberts, but you are very effective at punching us in our soft underbelly. We need punching, too.

The silver lining here is that Obama now knows that his future actions will all be weighed against the hope expressed in this prize. If he is continuing flawed and immoral foreign and defense policy, the whole world will never let him forget that he is letting us down.

No pressure, Mr. President!

I thought the conservative response to the Olympic bid was overblown and ridiculous. They went out of their way to make a big deal out of it with headlines like, "The Ego Has Landed" on Drudge.

 So after just being in Olympic hype-overload, they have to throw themselves into hyper-downplay mode for this. Hilarious. Careful, your little spaceship might explode like a missile slamming into the Moon. Hey, we're still at peace with the Moon. Maybe that's it.

I happened to be up at 5 a.m. and saw the Drudge Headline this morning and they were so upset they were repeating words before citing some reaction from Pakistan calling it an "embarrassing joke." I tell you what's an embarrassing joke: The conservative movement.

Anybody who thinks the Nobel prize to Obama was premature, is a RACIST who don't like black people.

Any question that our president has improved our Country's standing in the court of world opinion? The dramatic change of rhetoric from it's my way or the highway, to let's find and promote common interests is effective diplomacy. All he is saying is give peaceful coexistence a chance. I am sure Obama was as surprised to win the peace prize as all his detractors. What do the haters think of his decision to donate every dime of the million plus to charity? How do you spin that act of generosity? This is just the beginning of disappointment for those of you praying for failure. Your next shock will come in the 2010 elections.

The right wing responds as always with hate and divisiveness. It's not all right for an American President to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, or to lobby for the Olympics. Those "international elites" are just undermining American resolve to wage war.

Hate and divisiveness seem to be the new permanent campaign mode. GOP candidates are now using cutout targets of their Democratic opponents to fire their weaponry. In Florida: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091009/ap_on_el_ho/us_republicans_shooting_range

Pretty amazing...considering Obama just bombed the moon!

I wonder if he will up the troop levels in Afganistan next?

@ Jack Roberts

At least your hero, John McCain, had the graciousness to say that .... "all Americans are proud when their president receives the Nobel Peace Prize." Why can't you be proud, Jack?

Count me in with the "huh?" reactions. I'd love to see this President -- or ANY president -- get a Nobel Peace Prize by EARNING it with some substantive contribution to peace or human rights. So far, we're still in Iraq, still in Afghanistan, still threatened by Al Qaida, still operating Guantanamo and who knows how many other secret prisons around the world, still leading the world in incarcerating our own people (mostly due to draconian punishments for drug offenses), still haven't stepped up to lead the world in cutting greenhouse gas emissions ...

What has Obama actually DONE to warrant this kind of recognition? "Discontinuing torture" shouldn't count ... you shouldn't get credit for doing what you're supposed to be doing anyway. Ditto for collaborative diplomacy: that's just the basics for ANY responsible leader.

And if the criteria for winning a Nobel prize is "not being George W. Bush," well, I think we should give one to Ted Kulongoski. And Sam Adams. And what the hell, I want one too.

I wish he had done something to earn it. So far, his timid approach to reform has been effectively Bush-lite. Hillary would have at least tried.

Could it be that the rest of the world is a little shocked and aghast at the treatment President Obama has gotten here and they're sending a message to counter it? Maybe the right wingers who compared the President to Hitler for trying to fix healthcare, actually caused this award to happen. In that case they just made the President 1.4 million dollars in prize money and that's not exactly a socialist style number.

"Could it be that the rest of the world is a little shocked and aghast at the treatment President Obama has gotten here and they're sending a message to counter it?"

Precisely... and the treatment he has received not only from the right, but from the left as well. As noted in many commentators and bloggers on this site. Our political culture is a cesspool of ill will and malice towards everyone. At least the Nobel Committee has a little idealism and benevolence remaining.

Premature. Especially considering several blatant human rights black eyes like the ridiculous refusal to meet with the Dalai Lama and Guantanamo Bay still open.

The Nobel Prize has lost all credibility. Awarding it to a man who has expanded the War on Terror into Pakistan and Somalia, while defending Bush-era torturers and keeping their legal framework in place is an Orwellian farce.

You and the rest of team blue should be hanging your heads in shame. But as you guys at Blue Oregon and the "progressive" left show again and again the guilty have no pride.

Shame on the people who gave the award to this butcher and shame on you for not calling this what it is- cynical and disgusting.

Well, looks like Blue Oregon's very own wingnut troll brigade is keeping busy here.

Jesus K. Reist. Did you actually hear Mr. Obama's remarks this morning? Here's the opening:

<hr/>

Well, this is not how I expected to wake up this morning.

After I received the news, Malia walked in and said, "Daddy, you won the Nobel Peace Prize, and it is Bo's birthday."

And then Sasha added, "Plus, we have a three-day weekend coming up."

So it's -- it's good to have kids to keep things in perspective.

I am both surprised and deeply humbled by the decision of the Nobel Committee.

Let me be clear, I do not view it as a recognition of my own accomplishments, but rather as an affirmation of American leadership on behalf of aspirations held by people in all nations.

To be honest, I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many of the transformative figures who've been honored by this prize, men and women who've inspired me and inspired the entire world through their courageous pursuit of peace.

But I also know that this prize reflects the kind of world that those men and women and all Americans want to build, a world that gives life to the promise of our founding documents.

And I know that throughout history the Nobel Peace Prize has not just been used to honor specific achievement; it's also been used as a means to give momentum to a set of causes.

And that is why I will accept this award as a call to action, a call for all nations to confront the common challenges of the 21st century.

<hr/>

OK wingnuts and bitter Obama-haters both left and right, have at it. Just reading these remarks, you can see the man is an arrogant jerk.

I would actually think people like Jack would like Obama getting this. First day in office he bombs Pakistan, he's sending more troops to Afghanistan, he gave a shitload of money to the banks, he's leaving tons of mercenaries in Iraq, he seems all for keeping most of the Patriot Act and associated travesties against the Constitution, he talks well about Israel but does nothing to prevent their slaughter of Palestinians...shit, what's not to like for the right wing? I guess it's that Kennedy thing where in foreign affairs so-called conservatives love the iron fist and loathe the Democrats putting the silk glove over it.

I think the Nobel Prize is an honor for the President, he was very gracious about accepting it.

Oh this is too stupid.

I heard Thoom Hartman talk about Obama deserving it for "creating a climate of peace".

Yeah sure Thom. Climate.

Then on the way home from work I heard Al Gore declare Obama was "extremley deserving".

Ok that's good enough. Thanks Al.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6867711.ece

"Rarely has an award had such an obvious political and partisan intent. It was clearly seen by the Norwegian Nobel committee as a way of expressing European gratitude for an end to the Bush Administration, approval for the election of America’s first black president and hope that Washington will honour its promise to re-engage with the world.

Instead, the prize risks looking preposterous in its claims, patronising in its intentions and demeaning in its attempt to build up a man who has barely begun his period in office, let alone achieved any tangible outcome for peace. There is a further irony in offering a peace prize to a president whose principal preoccupation at the moment is when and how to expand the war in Afghanistan.

The spectacle of Mr Obama mounting the podium in Oslo to accept a prize that once went to Nelson Mandela, Aung San Suu Kyi and Mother Theresa would be all the more absurd if it follows a White House decision to send up to 40,000 more US troops to Afghanistan."

House Republicans have introduced a bill to defund the Nobel Institute.

I hear House Republicans have also introduced a bill to repeal the law of gravity. This is a minor distraction from their crusade to expose Nancy Pelosi as a "domestic enemy of the Constitution."

I love how any time folks go against the current around here, they are instantly labeled "wingnuts", "trolls", "Nadering nabobs" or whatever.

Y'all can theorize on the intentions of the Nobel committee and the Bush legacy all you want, it doesn't change the fact that Obama is the commander in chief, and that hundreds of people have been killed and/or tortured since he took over. It's nice that he is giving speeches about nukes and all, but awarding him the Nobel Peace Prize is a bit strange.

I always saw the Bush administration as the darkest farce ever. You know: The familiar tale of the screw-up son but with more power than any screw-up son in history. I always felt there would be a time - perhaps centuries from now - when all the slaughter and mayhem and pain would fade away and it would just seem funny. I could see historians having a spectacular time reviewing how much damage this one clown managed to pull off.

    The best part for me was watching these conservatives try and defend this guy for 8 years, knowing in their hearts that he was an abysmal loser who could barely talk. I mean entire industries grew up around the crazy shit this guy said. It was farcical comedy on a level the world has never seen before. My absolute favorite part was when George would say something funny and the serious looking weasels behind him would hear it and have to keep a straight face. God, I miss that.

  Look, maybe this award has nothing to do with Bush at all, but you have to admit, it's a spectacularly funny twist if it does. Imagine getting one of the most important awards on earth just because you aren't the last guy. Your biggest accomplishment is that you're here and the last guy is gone. That's beyond hilarious. Thank you, Republicans. As a comedy writer you've given me much to admire.

Uh, Chris#12, this is the way it works:

If Barack Obama drinks his coffee black, some wingnut will say he's an enemy of the dairy industry.

If Barack Obama wears briefs, some wingnut will attack him for not wearing boxers.

If Barack Obama has a ham sandwich, some wingnut will attack him for his cruelty to animals, but if Obama decides to become a vegetarian, the same wingnut will attack him as a limp-wristed member of the cultural elite.

Getting the picture yet?

I'd love to have intelligent discourse about Mr. Obama's foreign policy, but it's a bit tough when the right-wing noise machines NEVERS SHUTS THE FUCK UP.

Not sure it matters, especially to the wingnuts, but here's a fairly detailed description of how Nobel laureates are chosen. Hint: the claim that Obama was picked 12 days after taking office is pure bullshit.

According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize should be awarded "to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.

Shall have done...not shall have proposed, not shall have appealed, not shall have encouraged.

Hey Joel,

Aren't just a bit off? You ever read what you post?

And so far Obama's foreign policy is barely distinguishable from Bush's. Is that what has you potty mouth rabid?

my first thought was that maybe they're making up for Chicago not getting the Olympics

Douglas K. said, "What has Obama actually DONE to warrant this kind of recognition? "Discontinuing torture" shouldn't count.."

While I agree whole-heartedly with your conclusion, you're wrong about Obama "discontinuing torture". He has returned to the Clinton brand of torture by proxy:

Google (I can't get a list of links published here, so you need to find these titles):

Dennis Kucinich, U.S. Playing a New Rendition of an Old Song-Torture

Jeremy Scahill, Little Known Military Thug Squad Still Brutalizing Prisoners at Gitmo Under Obama

Tomgram: Alfred McCoy, Back to the Future in Torture Policy ("...a turn away from a dark, do-it-yourself ethos and a return to the outsourcing of torture that went on, with the support of both Democrats and Republicans, in the Cold War years.")

NYT, Rendition of Terror Suspects Will Continue Under Obama ("...human rights advocates condemned the decision, saying it would permit the transfer of prisoners to countries with a history of torture and that promises of humane treatment, called 'diplomatic assurances,' were no protection against abuse.")

Obama Brings Guantánamo And Rendition To Bagram (And Not The Geneva Conventions)

Obama, American Ideals, and Torture as ‘a useful tool’

Obama may not be as egregious a war criminal as Bush, or as Mussolini, but he is a war criminal, and to say that the Nobel Prize is ill-deserved is an understatement.

Nick P said, "You and the rest of team blue should be hanging your heads in shame."

Team Blue, like Team Red, has no shame.

Mr. Obama said that he didn't consider himself deserving of the award in comparison to previous recipients. This outrageous remark has of course sent Richard into paroxysms of rage about The One's arrogance and prompted comments about how "Team Blue...has no shame."

The Nobel committee seems to have some misplaced infatuation with the U.S.A.

Remember, the 1973 peace prize was awarded to mass-murderer Henry Kissinger (jointly with Le Duc Tho, who had the class to refuse to accept in unison with the mass-murderer).

It was Kissinger who dreamed up the bombing of Cambodia and who oversaw "free-fire zone" deployments from 1969-73.

When Kissinger was awarded the prize, noted satirist Tom Lehrer said, "As of now all political satire is obsolete".

Obama is not in Kissinger's league, but still it's a sick joke that a commander-in-chief who's in the process of escalating a war has been awarded this prize.

Its rather interesting that in order to get a Nobel prize for physics or chemistry you have to show results.Same goes for any other category,except for piece where you can get the prize for nothing.