President Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize
OSLO – The Nobel Committee stunned the world today by awarding US President, Barack Obama, the Nobel Peace Prize.
Committee chair, Thorbjoern Jagland, said it was kind of a consolation prize since Chicago didn’t win the 2016 Olympic games.
“We just all felt sorry for Obama,” Jagland said. “He was all sad and stuff, you know, over the Olympic thing, so we thought it would be a nice pick-me-up.”
Hearing the news, Nobel Laureate, Al Gore said, “What the…? What has he done? At least I invented the Internet.”
The White House had no comment.
(The second part is lame parody; the first part, strangely, is not.)
UPDATE: Comedians give the event two thumbs up!
October 09, 2009 10:09 AM
Courtesy of conservative activist Keith Appell:
Barack Obama’s Teleprompter: Big Guy says Bill Clinton called and was gracious in defeat; offered to fly Kanye West over 4 the Nobel awards ceremony.
Erick Erickson: Obama is becoming Jimmy Carter faster than Jimmy Carter became Jimmy Carter.
Ana Marie Cox: Apparently Nobel prizes now being awarded to anyone who is not George Bush.
Headline over AP analysis by White House correspondent Jennifer Loven: He Won, But For What?
Kathryn Jean Lopez, National Review: I want to buy the world a coke.
Ezra Klein: Obama also awarded Nobel prize in chemistry. “He’s just got great chemistry,” says Nobel Committee.
Adam Bromberg, CRC: Nobel Prize Committee must be staffed by out of work comedy writers.
Kristina Hernandez, CRC: It was the Beer Summit that put Obama over the edge.
– George Stephanopoulos
Various Blog Additions:
Cecil: Miss America was robbed. She was for world peace way before Obama was for it.
Tony Ramirez: The Cook County Democratic machine ain’t what it used to be. They were supposed to bribe the Olympics Committee.
Mesquito: Was he, like, the tenth caller or something?
Ron: I thought I should have won, I haven’t fought with my wife in more than a year.
US Veteran: Obama Wins Heisman Trophy After Watching Football Game
Add Your Own!
It just keeps getting better!
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-10-09/obama-wins-heisman-trophy/full/
Money Quote:
“Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.” The wizard of Oz.
Too Orwellian for me.
Me too Carol.
I read that the nominations were collected 11 days after Obama took office.
I do think even he is embarrassed although his trip to Germany after his nomination but much before his election was an attempt to court world and European favor, something I don’t believe a candidate should do. I hope that never happens again. Too Orwellian for me.
Wouldn’t it be great to see someone simply refuse the prize indignantly? Of course, that is not likely to happen, since they only give it to (fill in the blank with the moniker of choice). It’s an exercise in narcissism.
Ahhhhh,
If only Lewis Carroll or George Orwell or Kurt Vonnegut were around to write about this topsy turvey world that just gets more non-sensical every day.
The only way I can fashion any sense of this is to think that the committee wished to influence the President’s decision on troop numbers and strategy in the Afghan/Pakistan theatre.
However, looking back at their previous recent selections in this, their laughable Nobel category, I guess there is no reason to think they use any sense in making their choice. After all…Carter? Arafat? Gore? Kissinger? But not Ghandi? Hey, Hitler was a nominee.
I think they should drop the category altogether. They and the award are becoming a laughingstock. (Even the literary category has yielded silly choices in the past two decades. )
More Fun:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31nqvyBTWis
President Obama won the Nobel Prize…
I think this is like encouraging a poor speller by telling him he is creative!
(Painfully common, a study found that poor spellers who were treated with self-esteem enhancing interventions, believed inflated views of their abilities).
Hello again, American friends,
I made a comment on the CNN website on this choice, saying that they should have given Obama the Nobel prize for oratory talent. But since there’s no such prize, I proposed them to exchange the prize with Herta Muller’s prize for literature, who won the prize for writing about living under the oppression of a communist regime. She is much more qualified to receive the Nobel prize for peace and Obama really deserves the Nobel for literature, for his talent with words. Too bad CNN moderators did not validate the comment, because it’s a good solution.
Here;s one argument against this decision:
Some have mentioned as part of his accomplishments that after the meeting with Putin and Medvedev in Moskow this year, there could be a detente in the relations between US and Russia (the Reset button..). However, even if Obama gave up on plans to install the anti-missile shield in Eastern Europe after that meeting, as we speak Russia is changing its military doctrine to include pre-emptive nuclear attacks (according to media from Russia – you can google translate it). This is a sign that Obama has been played by Russians.
In a way ,motivating Obama to keep the ‘good guy’ approach to international relations could be seen as a sign of encouraging US weakness on the international stage, a situation in which other states are interested, politically and militarily. But Obama’s career will be going well.
Well – I try again next time. But this gives me hope – maybe I’ll be recognized for keeping the peace with my neighbors. Big feat.
Above quotes from the link. It appears he’s been given the prize not for what he’s accomplished but to encourage his ideas. (Italics above are mine and go to the parts that seem to directly address the ‘why’ question.) Weird.
Stunning. Still trying to wrap my brain around it. It’s Friday, so we’ll let you get away with the parody. 🙂
I’m really not sure why this decision was made. I’m not anti-Obama, but I have not seen anything that makes him deserving of this prize. Am I missing something? I guess maybe this is the wrong place to ask. Maybe I should go investigate on a liberal blog to see what ideas they have. I’m seriously befuddled.