Pres. Obama and Nobel Peace Prize
 

Cause Ghandi never got a Nobel Prize.

You know there are plenty of reasons why but in all seriousness, that 'prize' is such a joke.

It's just like people cheering when the US didn't get the Olympics as an "in your face" to Obama without realizing that it was bad for America. That's how much some people hate him. So what you are going to hear is how the prize is a joke, meaningless, etc. to try and diminish its significance.

The correct response when someone wins something as prestigious as the Nobel Peace is "Congratulations." Anything else is sour grapes.

Well, it seems hard to see why Obama. There is the possibility he is might expand the war in Afghanistan and possibly attack Iran. Not very peaceful.

Plus, the date the prize is decided is early in the year; somewhere around the first of Feb. And the announcement is made quite a few months later.

He was in office only a couple weeks when it was decided he would win the prize. You can't accomplish much in two weeks as president.

You should get the prize if you did something.

I feel that it is a disgrace to the people who were given the Nobel and truly deserved it. It makes them look bad. Obama hasn't done anything worthy of the awar, other than being the first black president. If you take that away, his acheivments are pitiful and nonexistent.

I agree with you to the point of he doesn't truly deserve it. Obama has done a lot in my city (Chicago) and he's done a good job as a senator.

his achievements to a more macro level are not considered "great" but they aren't pityful.

I'm certain that if a recent pass President was to get the nomination a lot of a certain type of people would be pulling there hair out, and making threats. that said even the people who where awaiting to see who won grasped when they announced Obama had won.

Really? What makes you think we cannot criticize the end/beginning of the award process? I could sum up a good number of scenarios where someone who should not get it, would get it. It's pure puzzlement when someone who been in office for less then 2 weeks gets this when there been people who have been fighting for the same goals (a lot longer then) Obama. It's a question that does he deserve it when he was NOT on the national scene for less then 2 weeks. They say it is to "encourage his progression on issues". When does a award go to "in progress"?

I'm sorry, but only an Obama fanatic would say something like that... Him winning the prize is a joke because he hasn't actually achieved anything yet. Granted there is a lot of hope and he is working towards a lot of things, but so are other people in the world. A prize this prestigious should be held solely for people that have actually achieved some sort of world changing *can't think of the word*...

To be honest, I think the only thing he's achieved for the world right now is that he's helped change a lot of negative stereotypes abroad concerning Americans... You could call that an achievement I guess :cool:

EDIT: before you think I'm attacking you for being an Obama fan, I think you should know that I believe that the many of Nobel Peace Prize winners in the past were a joke as well!

Exactly, Let's go a bit and take Obama out of the picture and only look at the office and it's accomplishments so far (Obama's but without him). What I'm trying to say it's not about Obama and his character, but the fact that the office he holds hasn't done anything yet.

What this says about the process is if they like you, you have a huge chance to get the prize over someone else, i.e. charismatic wins the day over hard work.

I read (a headline) this last night on yahoo, and did not believe it, I thought it was more of a "what if" situation. I couldn't think if any accomplishments that warrant him to getting the award. I would even say Jimmy Carter was more deserving (having spent his post-President working on middle east peace). I don't agree with some of the things Carter has done, but I could see where the prize would be awarding to his actions. I don't see this with what Obama has done so far. You don't give a prize for future accomplishments, you give prize then.

It's like your favorite team not even playing and getting the win, when you don't know if they would've won or not.

Not the point, it was a response to this, "two sides of the same coin" would be the phrase here.

It's just like people cheering when the US didn't get the Olympics as an "in your face" to Obama without realizing that it was bad for America. That's how much some people hate him. So what you are going to hear is how the prize is a joke, meaningless, etc. to try and diminish its significance.

About my only reaction to the news was: "Huh? Did he even apply for it?"

What are you guys talking about?
Obama has changed the world for the better,
So many great achievements already! He definitely deserves to be among the great prize holders. Martin Luther King? Psh.. Are our troops not home? Is this 'war' in the middle east not over?

Ohh wait.. Nothing has changed.


:rolleyes:

Some of you speak in such absolutes without looking at the larger picture. The prize isn't given necessarily for achievements done, but for moving in a better direction.

I think Americans should be proud their president has earned this award, but maybe that is just me.

First of all, the prize is not chosen in February. Nominations for winners close in February, and after that there are many months of eliminating (there were 205 nominees this time) before a decision is made.

Also to say that Ghandi never got the Nobel Peace Prize, and therefore it is meaningless is silly. The year Ghandi was nominated he died, and the committee therefore decided there was no other worthy winner, and gave it to no one that year.

Although we may not see it domestically, Obama has very much changed the image of America in the world.

To those who say Obama has done "nothing" he has launched a plan to eliminate nuclear weapons in the world. He has reached out to Islam, making it clear that terrorists do not equal Muslims. He made a powerful stand with allies in the U.N. meeting recently against nuclear proliferation in Iran and N. Korea, and got the UN Security Council to pass a resolution to get nuclear states to eliminate weapons.

The Prize committee said he was not awarded just for his achievements but his vision and inspiring hope. Maybe that doesn't seem substantive to you, but if you are a Obama hater nothing will.

The Nobel Peace Prize has basically became the Liberal of the Year award these past decades. Obama has not done anything significant to improve my country since he has taken office, except taking nearly half of my work check and giving it to people who don't want to work. He is also going to force me to buy health insurance and if I don't he and the IRS are going to tax me 3000 dollars at the end of the year.

Change my @ss

But if he won something, then congrats to my President.

lol, come on dude... Don't try to make people look like Obama haters just because they're against this Prize... The simple fact is; giving hope to Americans and a bunch of looney foreigners (and yes, the majority of foreign supporters are pretty crazy! My sister in-law and her family are a perfect example; they love him because he's the first Black President... CRAZY People!) isn't worthy of a Nobel Peace Prize in the eyes of most people... Especially neutral people!

I would like to hear about the new policies that Obama single-handedly enacted that takes more money from your paycheck.

Every other industrialized nation in the world has national healthcare. Do you want to stop paying for police and fire, too? How about interstate highways? All socialist acts that force people to pay.

Why are you against this prize?

He got the prize because he is inspirational, but if you are inspired by him, then you must be crazy? nice.

Please, MMM. Don't try to twist my words... First of all, I said the majority of people are pretty crazy... Not every foreign Obama supporter IS crazy! If you don't like it, then I'm sorry, that's how it is! You'll find that most of these people that are "inspired" by Obama don't have a clue about his policies... They love him for absolutely different reasons to what I assume an American citizen would!

I'm against this prize because I think there are more deserving people. Heck, I would have been happier to see Bill Gates and his wife get it! They've done a lot more for the world than Obama has so far!

The Nobel Peace Prize is a rather unusual award. Winners are not selected by the normal Nobel committee in Sweden, but by a politically appointed commitee in Norway. I've not taken the Peace Prize to be worth the metal it is made of since it was awarded to Jimmy Carter and Al Gore.

Even some Obama supporters (including my girlfriend) are wondering exactly why it was he won the prize. He's given countless eloquent speeches about how things should be, and the things that we should do. But he's be awful short on the actual "doing". Troops are still in Iraq, it looks like an additional 40,000 troops may be called up to fight in Afghanistan, and wartime spending is now at an all-time high. Guantanamo will not be closed by the promised deadline, and the deadlines for passing health care legislation have also not been met.

Obama's deal with Russia to reduce nuclear warheads sounds good on the surface, but it really amounts to less than a 10% reduction, and will still leave both countries with thousands of warheads. Instead of there being enough bombs to destroy the world 100 times over, we'll now only be able to destroy it 90 times.

Reaching out to Muslims was a good idea, but many Muslims feel his actions are hypocritical. Muslim terror attacks have not decreased, and Afghanistan continues to destabilize.

The only reason Obama won this prize is because the Norwegian Nobel committee agrees with his politics, just as they agreed with Gore's and Carter's.

Many people were nominated for this prize, people who were not famous politicians. People who did good for the world by helping others with their actions and not just with words. Giving Obama the prize was a snub to those who were much more deserving of it.

I think the Peace Prize should not be awarded by the Norwegian committee. It should be awarded by the Swedish committee, which awards prizes based on genuine merit.

I wish my English was good enough to have come up with this paragraph from the start. It's perfect :)

He pushed and passed the first stimulus plan that did absolutely nothing but raise my and fellow working Americans taxes. He is trying to get the democrats in congress to pass his health-care reform bill that is filled with pork, so much pork that none of the republicans are voting for it and many blue-dog democrats are apprehensive to even consider voting for it; because they know if they do the people in their district will vote for another representative, one who doesn't favor tax increase.

And why does everyone come to America for drastic operations and procedures? not national gov't paid healthcares like in Cuba and Denmark, or any other european socialist country for that matter.
Nope, they come to america cause we have the best doctors.

I hope you live in America MMM as in full citizenship where the Gov't is now taxing without representation because It seems you only know about Obama in a "person not living in America" way.

He pushed and passed the first stimulus plan that did absolutely nothing but raise my and fellow working Americans taxes. He is trying to get the democrats in congress to pass his health-care reform bill that is filled with pork, so much pork that none of the republicans are voting for it and many blue-dog democrats are apprehensive to even consider voting for it; because they know if they do the people in their district will vote for another representative, one who doesn't favor tax increase.

And why does everyone come to America for drastic operations and procedures? not national gov't paid healthcares like in Cuba and Denmark, or any other european socialist country for that matter.
Nope, they come to america cause we have the best doctors.

I hope you live in America MMM as in full citizenship where the Gov't is now taxing without representation because It seems you only know about Obama in a "person not living in America" way.

Obama raising taxes:
Obama's Budget: Almost $1 Trillion in New Taxes Over Next 10 yrs, Starting 2011 - Political Punch
http://blogs.reuters.com/james-petho...o-raise-taxes/

I'm no expert on how the Healthcare system works in the US, but dismissing Europe as whole isn't such a wise thing to do... Repeatedly, over and over, the French Healthcare system has proven to be the best in the developed world! The US is great in many ways, but I'm sure they could learn something from the French Healthcare system :D

It doesn't really matter how much proof you have to why Obama shouldn't get the prize, or why he isn't helping the country. MMM will defend him anyway. It's an impossible argument. Yet we all know what the majority thinks about this whole deal, that's all that really matters.

Along with pretty much every argument that goes on in these forums. Speaking of which, where's mercedesjin?

Political arguments are the worst in general.

Who?

Name the nominees that were "snubbed".

President Bush's administration and the Repulican congress passed the "first stimulus plan" not President Obama. You have not yet been affected by Obama's tax changes, so just know thy enemy.

And many Americans leave America to get medical procedures, too. People often come to America because they cannot be denied care by law. I know lots of Japanese that go to Japan for all medical procedures because 1) it is cheaper to buy a plane ticket and use Japan's national health care coverage rather than American's insurance that is paid to deny coverage, so it works both ways.

But I think I am getting a little off topic...

No one has put up any "proof" why the president shouldn't get the prize, or how he isn't helping the international community (which is what the prize is about).

And I know exactly what the naysayers think, too. I wish it were more based in reality than just pure hatred, like so many of the right-wing talk show hosts.

This I can wholly agree with.

I wouldn't call it pure hatred. There are a lot of naysayers that supported Obama in the beginning only to start disliking him after the decisions he has come to make. It seems as the main reason why some are so defensive of Obama in particular is because of his ethnicity. As if everyone that doesn't agree with Obama or his followers is a in-the-closet racist.

its just funny cos this says more about the Nobel committee than it does about whoever wins the award.

I'm not sure how to look at it right now, cos its either a "yes we are a bunch of starry eyed fans and we believe that he is the messiah" type deal,...

or its a " well done lil' america for finally waking up and being so stupid the past eight years, here's a little treat".

i cant believe that the committee is naive enough to think that this will help him, being a nobel peace prize winner.

i think whichever side of the fence you are on on Obama's achievements thus far, it would be interesting to see if this thing jinx's him or not.

Bush gave plenty of tax cuts, especially to the middle class; Obama - 0, and has not even thought about giving one. Yet he's on the television every day.

MMM if you got a job in America you would see the increase in federal taxes that has happen these past few months in your paycheck.

I have been affected by Obamas tax increase; They take a penny here and there every single month and after awhile it builds up.

I rather much be receiving the check I use to earn a year or two ago.
Obama has not even been in office that long and taxes have already increased. I'm scared of how high the taxes will go in the future knowing Obamas socialist and liberal leanings.

No one has put up any "proof" of anything. It might have something to do with the fact that there's nothing to prove. Whether he deserved the prize or not is a matter of opinion, and it was the judge's (correct me if I'm wrong) opinion that said he deserved it.

For some it is pure hatred. I can't see how, for some, it can be described any other way. Believe it or not i have not been happy with all the decisions he has made, either. I don't think most supporters are defensive of him because of his ethnicity, but surely there are some, and I don't think most of his nay-sayers are racist, but surely there are some.

The award certainly wasn't expected, by anyone, I bet. I was surprised, for sure. I am not saying no one deserves the prize more than him, but I do think a lot of positive can come from it, and who know? Maybe it was a message to Pres. Obama to light a fire to inspire him to keep going in the right direction for the world. Will this affect decisions in Afghanistan? I doubt it, but it may affect how people react, so again, who knows?


I have been paying taxes in the US for a long time, and any tax cuts for the middle class that Bush signed didn't make it to my employer's memo box.

Of course if I had been making over 250,000 a year I probably would have noticed a positive difference.

Smartest post you ever made, Dark.

205 people were nominated for this year's prize. Congress nominated Greg Mortenson, who at his own time, expense, and personal danger, has built 130 schools for girls in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

This prize is not as illustrious as many might believe. Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin were also nominees.

If, as was said before, there were 205 nominees in all, I can pretty confidently say there were 204 more deserving possible recipients that were snubbed.

True, the prize itself has been utterly worthless since Carter, Arafat, and Gore won it. But the $1.4 million that goes with it could have helped a lot more people if it had gone to someone truly worthy, that would use it to help people. And that's a shame.

Unless you know the names of all the individuals and organizations nominated, I doubt you really think this statement is true.

Just because you don't respect the award winners doesn't mean the prize is "totally worthless".

MMM, I have to agree with you about the other nominees, but I'm surprised that you are still arguing if you agreed with my earlier post. I would be saying the same to the others, but I'm pretty sure people here just want to argue.