Friday, October 9, 2009

Obama wins the Nobel Peace Prize


Yes, this is quite funny. April's Fool!!! Wait! It's not a joke?

Obama has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. This is a somewhat surprising move by the Nobel Committee, since Barack Obama simply hasn’t had enough time as president to do all that he had set out to accomplish. Still, Thorbjorn Jagland, the chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, claims that the prize was awarded based on Obama’s work so far. “We are not awarding the prize for what may happen in the future but for what he has done in the previous year. We would hope this will enhance what he is trying to do,” he said.

For his part, President Obama’s initial comments in reaction were indeed eloquent as he declared the conferral a “call to action” for him as well as the nation. Obama expounded on his surprise, wondering if the honor was somehow misplaced but stopped short of spurning reception, wondering aloud if the committee overlooked more deserving candidates. If anything, he lathered on the humility but apparently not enough for the likes of Fox News commentators. Fox trotted out a parade of conservative spokespersons none of whom had the slightest congratulatory comment for the President.

To my mind, Obama’s efforts at diplomacy have transformed the dialogue internationally and if only for this reason, he is surely deserving of the prize. His efforts at diplomatic solutions for seeming intractable problems, too, make him a judicious candidate. Given the unilateralism of the previous eight years, this predilection for all things Obama by the international community should come as no surprise.

Or perhaps, the nobel committee is trying to uplift the dampened spirits of a tired world by creating humorous controversy. Ha ha.

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