Obama Earned Nobel For - Waging a succesful campaign to unseat an unlawful ruling party

[kpete]

The right wing says that Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize for being not-George W. Bush. This talking point gets repeated as if it's a witty put down. When they say it, they're implying that Obama won just for showing up. We tend to assume that Obama won just for what he's done, or promises to do, as president.

In fact, Obama earned the prize for waging a successful campaign to unseat a ruling party that rejected the rule of law at home and abroad. Much has been made of the fact that nominations for the prize closed in February, just after Obama was sworn in. One of Obama's first acts in office was to order the closure of prison at Guantanamo Bay. That was an courageous act of profound national and international significance. As president, he repudiated the Bush administration's torture policies and shut down its secret prisons.

To Americans it seems absurd that this record would merit a peace prize, but our perspective is different from that of the Nobel committee. We're evaluating Obama relative to our vision of a perfectly peaceful president. So, of course he comes up wanting. The Nobel Peace Prize is all about celebrating nascent efforts and rewarding relative improvements. We don't have to discount one approach to appreciate the other.

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In choosing Obama, the Nobel Committee focused on the really big picture. For all his shortcomings, Obama has fundamentally changed the U.S.'s orientation towards the rest of the world. After eight years of contempt and lawlessness from the Bush Administration, it wasn't a foregone conclusion that America could regain regain its standing in the international community. Regaining trust is a two-way street. Any president can say he wants to improve relations with other countries, but it's not a given that those countries will respond in kind. When they do, that's an achievement for the president.

more:
http://majikthise.typepad.com/majikthise_/2009/10/remember-how-hard-it-was-to-get-notbush.html#more

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There is no Nobel prize for journalism, and now we know why.

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In his will, Alfred Nobel committed part of his estate for a prize “to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations.” Any successor to George W. Bush was going to have a head start in a fraternity-of-nations contest. The purchase of a nice globe for the Oval Office and the placing of a few inter-hemispheric phone calls seems like world peace in comparison to Dick Cheney’s international crime spree.

Fact is, Obama deserves this award, and I believe he also accepts it on behalf of the American people who had the good sense in 2008 to repudiate Bush’s global belligerence and domestic neglect. Congratulations, America.

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This episode presents us with an altogether different type of idiocy. Those who imagine or hope for a political downside to the winning of the Nobel Peace Prize are, simply, nuts. Sure, Obama’s political opponents could be expected to find the negative. Had he been nominated and lost, these same Obama-haters would be mocking his failure to win it.

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If ever we needed the news media to pull the cigars and helium tubes from their mouths and return to the streets with us, now is the time. An idle hope, I fear.


more:
http://firedoglake.com/2009/10/11/nobel-decibels/

[Tuesday Afternoon]

1. accepts it on behalf of the American people ....K&R

thanks for this post.

[Oregone]

2. Made up reason number #73

This award has become quite a rorschach, with everyone contributing their own unique justification (is this suggestive of a lack of a main, over-riding one?). I guess as the days go on, and the more "answers" arrive, I just grow a bit annoyed. Some people's 2 cents are worth far less than others. It isn't as if the Nobel committee didn't release a statement about the award. In the end, just congratulate Obama...er, wait, I mean the American People who this is really for...er, oh, I mean Cheney who made this all possible, or...er....