The President's Peace Prize Problem

Oct 9

The same week that Saturday Night Live skewers President Barack Obama for accomplishing absolutely nothing, he has won the Nobel Peace Prize? Spin this: President Obama was 11 days into his presidency when nominations closed for the Peace Prize. What exactly was he nominated for? Forget Jimmy Carter waiting over two decades for his - One could argue that George W. Bush should have gotten the Nobel Peace Prize, since he literally may have done more for world peace by leaving office than Obama did by entering it.

I like President Obama, and I suppose I'm proud that the U.S. President won the Nobel Peace Prize. But I don't think I'm going to go to parties at the Swedish Embassy for a while. In the meantime, I'm sure Kanye West plans to disrupt Obama 's Nobel ceremony, saying that the award should have gone to Beyonce.

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Comments (5)

Oct 09, 2009

Anonymous said...

While I'm happy for the President that he's won the Nobel Peace Prize, I don't agree that he should've won it solely on the basis that he's "planning" to do things. If that's all it takes these days to win the Nobel Peace Prize then every Miss [State] should win won for wanting to bring world peace.

Oct 09, 2009

Stephen Tiano said...

I voted for and remain a supporter of President Obama. I also have great hope yet for his administration. But I'm baffled by the Nobel Prize award. Is it some kind of exercise in irony by people from a cold part of the world? Just exactly what is i for, especially given that the nominations closed only a few weeks after he took office. Is it just a feel-good award: Europe's forgiving the U.S. for the Bush years? Does it somehow help focus the President even more than he is? Exactly what does this accomplish?

Oct 09, 2009

clarke thomas said...

I'm baffled how in such a short a time, they can give out this award so trivially. Didn't it take Carter several decades post his Presidency? What this does is add a heavy cloud of doubt over past recipients

Oct 11, 2009

Snezhana Conway said...

well, consider this as an advance premium.... with such an honor thrust upon him, how can he then turn and ask Congress for some war funding? but it looks like he very well can: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/us-preparing-bomb-iran/story?id=8765343
I hope that this will stop some government spending from being wasted again... we shall see

Oct 12, 2009

Don Halley said...

Instead of simply pointing out that President Obama doesn't yet deserve the Nobel Peace prize (an obvious observation), his supporters here use it as a opportunity to bash Bush. Fine - Bush was the devil and Obama is God. But have you considered the possibility that President Obama (with his own party in Congressional control) hasn't lived up to his campaign promises to undo all the evil that Bush did, because he has learned that Bush was doing what was necessary? Naw, that couldn't be it, could it?

About

Dr. Mark Drapeau is a biological scientist, government and private-sector consultant, and prolific writer on science, technology, innovation, government, and society. He is currently an adjunct faculty member in the School of Media and Public Affairs at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and until recently he held the position of Associate Research Fellow at the Center for Technology and National Security Policy at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C., where he is still engaged part-time in a number of activities. Mark is currently a regular writer for Washington Life, Federal Computer Week, and numerous high-profile blogs. He is a co-founder of Government 2.0 Club and is the co-chair of the O'Reilly Media / TechWeb-produced Gov 2.0 Expo. Mark has a B.S. and Ph.D. in biology and has held postdoctoral fellowships from the NIH and AAAS. His research has considered many topics, from the origin of insect behavioral instincts to the honeybee genome to government operations during pandemic flu to the uses of biological metaphors in national security.