Is this how far we've fallen? The Nobel Peace Prize is now given out on the basis of wishful thinking? And what looks like increasingly ridiculous wishful thinking at that?

There hasn't been a recipient this absurd since they gave it to Henry Kissinger.

No way.

I can't believe it.

This is an insult to everyone who won in the past for their actual actions.

Given that so far his actions in foreign policy, national security and civil liberties are just a continuation of Bush's - does that mean Bush should have gotten one?

I don't want to be, well, overly snarky, but what's he done? Here's the rationale:

The Nobel committee recognized Obama's efforts to solve complex global problems including working toward a world free of nuclear weapons.

"Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future," the committee said.

Jagland said the decision was "unanimous" and came with ease.

He rejected the notion that Obama had been recognized prematurely for his efforts and said the committee wanted to promote the president just it had Mikhail Gorbachev in 1990 in his efforts to open up the Soviet Union.

"His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world's population," it said.

So, I guess this is the first Nobel prize to be awarded for PONIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

NOTE I should probably write more on the nuclear stuff -- Who knows, Obama may be serious about it. Reagan certainly was, for all that Reagan was Reagan.

UPDATE It will be interesting to see if all this affects Afghanistan in any meaningful way. Last I checked, Biden was advocating predators for the country, and troops in the city. Yay.

UPDATE I'm with BTD: Obama should turn it down. In fact, I'd say nice things about modesty and dignity if he did.

UPDATE The race card. Bien sur.

UPDATE The chatter.

UPDATE The usual suspects seem a little slow off the mark getting their vitriol bottled for hurling this time round. Of course, they've got a poor hand to play, but I guess that means that the administration was genuinely surprised. So there's that.

UPDATE Fafblog awakes!

UPDATE And Anglachel.

Man, when I was a kid I gave a class speech praising peace and how someday I'd like to bring about world peace.

So where's my Nobel?

I'm planning to get to it eventually, I've just been busy. There's been stuff on TV I was watching...

until they showed me the news on the BBC website. It is an index of just how desperate western Europeans have been to see the United States repudiate Bush and Cheney and all their works. The trouble is, Europeans cannot be bothered to pay close attention to what is actually going on in Washington and they tend to view the rabid right-wing attacks on Obama as evidence that our intrepid crusading President is still embattled by the forces of racism -- thus they instinctively want to lend him support.

He is embattled, all right (although there's much more than simple racism at the heart of it -- the treatment a President Joe Biden would be getting wouldn't be much different), but folks over here really haven't caught up to the fact that Obama is neither intrepid nor crusading. When discussing some of Obama's actual policies, I usually get a reaction of stunned disbelief, often accompanied by arguments that I must be mistaken (there is an ironic implicit racism in that refusal to believe that our first African-American President could be continuing to support indefinite detentions without trial, unlimited wiretapping without warrants, cover-ups of torture and other war crimes, etc.). In the foreign policy realm, he has yet to do anything of which I am aware that is not rock-ribbed conventional by the normal standards of our Foreign Policy Establishment. It's only if you measure him by the Bizarro World standards of the neocons that he seems "different" (e.g., repeating in public the official United States policy since 1967 regarding the illegality of Israeli settlements in the occupied territories and not immediately caving in when a field commander leaked a request to Bob Woodward for more troops (that may not even be available for deployment anytime soon)).

Not much of a basis, you would think, for the Nobel Peace Prize, but at least it's not crazier than holding him personally responsible for the failure of Chicago to be selected as host for the 2016 Olympics.

But then, folks over here are largely unfamiliar with the wisdom of the great Darrell Royal when he noted that "potential means you ain't done it yet."

It is a stinging rebuke the the entire vast right wing conspiracy seeking to overthrow Obama.

kissenger. i guess it's a nice thing for our country to have another of our "liberal" leaders win one (i was quite happy for Gore, for example) but mostly i'm saying "meh. it's a prize. and the world didn't get to vote on it, just a bunch of white guys from a rich country." i've gotten prizes like that too, a lot of people have.

it would be nice to believe the "logic" of the committee, and hope that the administration would end our foreign wars. but i don't.

in quick succession they have given it to Jimmy Carter, Al Gore, and Barak Obama, get the feeling that they are trying to tell us something?

for doing so little?

Although to be fair to Obama, he has left Bagram and Gitmo open. Clearly, he is a man of peace.

who spent the last three months in Yurp. he said (and he's very political and a blogger) that most euros he talked to are still in "post election bliss mode." further, he said he surprised a lot of folks by telling them of things they hadn't heard about; the administrations failures wrt things like health care and gitmo and all the rest.

i barely follow euro politics (don't have the time) so i can completely understand. i doubt the Nobel comm will have much more egg on its face as obama continues to disappoint and that becomes more widely known there, given the face that the prize is forever egg-splattered since they awarded it to Hank the Bomber.

From the BBC 'Have Your Say':

I intend in the next 5 years to invent clean nuclear power and a device to suck CO2 out of the atmosphere. Can I have my Nobel Physics prize now please.

Kit, Basingstoke, UK

Sorry, DCB, Obama is part of the VRWC: TARP, health care, FISA, extended war, etc. The most dangerous thing about Obama is that all the work to discredit conservativism is being made moot. Sure, the birthers are crazy, but they are a deliberate sideshow to hide what's going on. More ink has probably been spilled on birthers than Obama almost single-handedly getting TARP passed.

So, nope, I don't think this is a repudiation of the right wing so much as a solidification of their grasp on policy decisions.

here (warning: photos of hideously burned infant bombing victims included):

When I saw this morning's top New York Times headline -- "Barack Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize" -- I had the same immediate reaction which I'm certain many others had: this was some kind of bizarre Onion gag that got accidentally transposed onto the wrong website, that it was just some sort of strange joke someone was playing. Upon further reflection, that isn't all that far from the reaction I still have. And I say that despite my belief that -- as critical as I've been of the Obama presidency regarding civil liberties and Terrorism -- foreign affairs is actually one area where he's shown genuine potential for some constructive "change" and has, on occasion, merited real praise for taking steps in the general "peace" direction which this Prize is meant to honor.

My only quibble with Glenn is that he failed to wonder how the committee could have awarded the prize to an advocate of legalizing preventive detention without trial.

The pattern continues...how we will EVER get Obama to do actual hard work now is beyond me.

I would have been much more impressed had the Nobel Committee handed out its first ever Are You Fucking Kidding Us? Award to Obama and whoever nominated him.

That's a letter I'd love to read.

At Talkleft:

You know what would be genius?

If the Onion just posts:
"Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize!" as their headline.

Thank you Faust!

One step closer to awarding a Nobel for attempted chemistry...

.

Best line yet: over at Lawyers, Guns & Money they’re predicting that Obama will win the Cy Young Award.

this morning when he said he'd read in the Sydney Morning Herald that Obama had won the Nobel Prize. Really, I thought he must be joking.
But apparently not.

I thought about it, wondered if he should turn it down, or whether turning it down would make things worse, or better.

Now I think they gave him the Nobel Prize for Peace for Not Being George Bush.

BREAKING NEWS: President Barak Obama also to be awarded the Cy Young, Hiesman, The Congressional Medal of Honor and some unclaimed Olympic track & field medals at a joint ceremony in Stockholm.

When reached for comment the Swedish King, Carl Gustav said he planned on attending the event stating that "Well, this should really add some real pizzazz to the show...things have been a bit dull since Henry and Le Duc kicked it late into the night". Somewhat cryptically Queen Silvia agreed, stating, "Yes Gustav, it's been really dull around here lately......we do need to shake things up a bit....and Oprah says Barak has the moves." Also attending will be Season 8 American Idol winner Kris Alen with Runner up Adam Lambert backing him on vocals, Pearl Jam decline due to excessive entrance fees, Sylvester Stallone will be plugging his latest movie and picking an Nobel Prize in Medicine for having kicked steroids. Asked to comment on Obama getting the Peace Prize, Sly stated that " Obama has earned this great honor as I have, myself for solving a critical medical problem that afflicts vain men worldwide and Obama for raising hope for change through out the world."

but somehow I wasn't even thinking of recent history.

The Nobel Committee lauded the change in global mood wrought by Obama’s calls for peace and cooperation but recognized initiatives that have yet to bear fruit: reducing the world stock of nuclear arms, easing American conflicts with Muslim nations and strengthening the U.S. role in combating climate change.

Who's the person whose initiatives and reorg of State made it possible for the Nobel Committee to even hope that international relations could be turned around? It took the gang at Violet's to point this out.

I think that even she would be puzzled as to why her team would receive praise in advance for goals that had defined, broken or condemned other Secretaries of State. I only hope she takes her part of this encouragement and accomplish those hoped-for goals, for the good of the world.

It seems to have surprised him as much as the rest of us.

But seriously, what was the Committee thinking? He hasn't even accomplished anything yet. I don't understand their rationale at all.

point of view or an achievement that doesn't fit the preselected pigeonhole, doesn't it?

You know what?

I think Barack Hussein Obama, who is President of the United States of America, deserves this recognition. I think he deserves this award.

Of course there are other points of view, and for your edification I present a hunk of them here.

LECH WALESA

“Who, Obama? So fast? Too fast — he hasn’t had the time to do anything yet,” Lech Walesa told reporters in Warsaw, according to Agence France-Presse. Mr. Walesa, 65, received the prize in 1983 for his efforts to promote workers’ rights in Poland while it was under Communist rule.

“For the time being Obama’s just making proposals. But sometimes the Nobel committee awards the prize to encourage responsible action,” he said. “Let’s give Obama a chance.”

NILS BUTENSCHON

Nils Butenschon, director of the Norwegian Center for Human Rights at the University of Oslo and a well-known human rights champion in Norway, said the committee has risked the authority of the peace prize by awarding it to Mr. Obama before he has accomplished much of substance.

“It seems premature to me,” Mr. Butenschon said. “I think the committee should be very careful with the integrity of the prize, and in this case I don’t think we are in a position to really evaluate the full impact of what this candidate has achieved. Sometimes of course the prize is awarded to people who are in the process of making history, so to speak, but in this case I think it is too early to know that.”

KHALED AL-BATSH

A leader of the militant Islamic Jihad in Gaza, Mr. Al-Batsh condemned the award, saying it “shows these prizes are political, not governed by the principles of credibility, values and morals,” Reuters reported.

“Why should Obama be given a peace prize while his country owns the largest nuclear arsenal on earth and his soldiers continue to shed innocent blood in Iraq and Afghanistan?”

Yes, those are quotes from the NYT article I cited on world reaction. Feel better now that all the voices aren't praising the President?

One of the sources quoted there claims the Prize went to Obama just for not being w. Damn if that's not almost enough, from where I stand, to earn the prize in nine months' time, by itself. But then I'm a hateful sort of misogynistic "progressive", so ... I think what I think, and I think he deserves a chance to show us that Festung Amerika isn't going forward.

What are my proofs?

Here's one. He appointed Ken Salazar to be Secretary of the Interior. Ken Salazar's not exactly a flaming liberal, nor is he apt to be the most pro-environment Interior Secretary in history, coming as he does from Colorado and leaning as he does. But he's not completely nihilist, either, and he sees that the Bush administration's oil-and-gas grab in its final days was flawed.
He's accepting recommendations to roll that back. This is to his credit, and the President's, I think.

Here's one. After eight years of the White House as a bunkered hideout, it's great to see not just kids invited in, but kids invited in to participate in stargazing. Of course, this is all of a piece with that September "indoctrination" speech urging America's student population to (horrors!) work hard, stay in school, and do their best -- because it would give them a better future.

He was joined by key science advisor and physicist John Holdren, as well as astronauts Buzz Aldrin, Sally Ride and Mae Jemison, "Hubble Repairman" John Grunsfeld and NASA administrators. Obama also introduced Caroline Moore, who discovered a new kind of supernova when she was 14 years old, and Lucas Bolyard, who discovered a pulsar (a rare star) as a high school sophomore.

"Now, if they can discover something great, so can any of you other students who are here tonight," Obama said. "All you need is a passion for science."

Imagine how awful it is to have a President in the White House who recognizes teenagers' achievements and encourages kids to think of science as cool, instead of appointing and funding preachers to deride science as eeeeeeeeeeeeeevil and ungodly!

First of all, Caroline Moore and her dad Robert -- raise your hand -- where's Dad? There's Robert. (Applause.) They look at the stars together in New York. And last year -- think about this -- when she was only 14 years old, she became the youngest person ever to discover a supernova -- and not just any supernova, but a kind that we may have never seen before. And earlier this year, Lucas Bolyard -- Lucas, raise your hand. Where are your folks? Where's Lucas's folks? Raise your hands, I know you guys are proud. (Applause.) A high school sophomore from West Virginia, discovered some unusual data that turned out to be an extremely rare kind of star called a pulsar. And Lucas was explaining to me just what a pulsar was so that I wasn't embarrassed when I came out here. (Laughter.)

Here's one.

Small steps. Nine months is a gestational period. We'll see what we see as the administration matures, but so far I'm surprised at how well I like it.

Getting out talking to world leaders -- without destroying their property or assaulting them -- is such a hellacious improvement over the last eight years that the Nobel Committee saw it as worth rewarding publicly. Loudly. Substantively.

Or as some other sources for that NYT blog post suggested:

DESMOND TUTU

Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, who won the prize in 1984 for his efforts toward ending apartheid, said the award shows great things are expected from Mr. Obama.

“It’s an award coming near the beginning of the first term of office of a relatively young president that anticipates an even greater contribution towards making our world a safer place for all,” Archbishop Tutu said. “It is an award that speaks to the promise of President Obama’s message of hope.”

MOHAMED ELBARADEI

The director-general of the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency, who received the prize in 2005, said in a statement that he was “absolutely delighted.”

“I cannot think of anyone today more deserving of this honor,” he said. “In less than a year in office, he has transformed the way we look at ourselves and the world we live in and rekindled hope for a world at peace with itself. He has shown an unshakable commitment to diplomacy, mutual respect and dialogue as the best means of resolving conflicts.”

MIKHAIL GORBACHEV

Mr. Gorbachev, the former Soviet leader who was awarded the prize in 1990, was quoted by the news agency Itar-Tass as saying, “In these hard times people who are capable of taking responsibility, who have a vision, commitment and political will should be supported.”

(It happen. So there.)

All the Nobel Committee is saying is Give Ponies a Chance....

The reaction of the youth vote amongst my friends is nothing at all like Sarah's sanctimonious neener-neener. It's interesting, I'm not one of Obama's fans at all and yet feel much more ambivalent about the award than the harsh commentary from some of his most ardent supporters. I find it more amusing than a terrible tragedy. Like CD, I don't find the Peace Prize that impressive (sadly, because there are numerous worthy recipients), certainly not on the same as those going to, say, Chemistry or medicine.

There are events that crystallize the critique of individuals on such a startling scale that the truth of the critique becomes unavoidable. Katrina was such an event and was the big reason, in my mind why the public soured so sharply on Bush and the GOP. This award, focusing on the good feelings rather than accomplishment while so so many suffer (look at Detroit! CA!) may be a similar episode for Obama. While I don't think it will change anything, I do hope that it raises the bar for Obama (rather than gut wrenchingly vomitous "baby steps") and that he will rise to the challenge. He's underperformed at every opportunity so I'm not holding my breath. Still, it would be nice.