2009 Nobel Peace Prize: Barak Obama

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valkyrie

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(CNN) -- President Obama said Friday that he was "surprised and deeply humbled" by the decision of the Norwegian Nobel Committee to award him the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.

The committee said it honored Obama for his "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples."

Obama said he viewed the decision less as a recognition of his own accomplishments and more as "a call to action."

The decision appeared to catch most observers by surprise. Nominations for the prize had to be postmarked by February 1, only 12 days after Obama took office. The committee sent out its solicitation for nominations last September, two months before Obama was elected president.

Obama had not been mentioned as among front-runners for the prize, and the roomful of reporters gasped when Thorbjorn Jagland, chairman of the Nobel committee, announced that the president was the winner.

The Nobel committee recognized Obama's efforts at dialogue 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 for 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," the committee said of Obama.

Obama said he did not feel he deserved "to be in the company" of past Peace Prize winners, but would accept the prize while pushing for a broad range of international objectives, including nuclear nonproliferation, a reversal of the global economic downturn and a resolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

He also acknowledged the ongoing U.S. conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, noting that he is the "commander in chief of a country that is responsible for ending a war and working in another theater to confront a ruthless adversary that directly threatens the American people" and U.S. allies.

"This award is not simply about my administration," he said. It "must be shared" with everyone who strives for "justice and dignity."

It was just before 6 a.m. that the president learned he had won the award, said Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary. The announcement by the committee caught the White House off guard. One senior administration official said that "we were quite surprised."

Some analysts have speculated that the prize could give Obama additional clout as he forms a new strategy for the war in Afghanistan and attempts to engage Iran and North Korea. Another senior administration official told CNN he hopes the White House can "use it for the positive."

The domestic political consequences are unclear. Obama's supporters hope the prestige associated with the prize will strengthen the president's hand in the health care reform debate. A top Republican from George W. Bush's administration, however, argued that "this will backfire on them for a while" and asserted it was "a gift to the right."

Obama, the first African-American to win the White House, is the fourth U.S. president to win the prestigious prize and the third sitting president to do so.
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My reaction at first was a little confused as to why he would win such a distinguished prize so early in the Presidency. But after reading the Nobel Prize site and other information that I was not aware of I understand why Pres. Obama won this award.

My feelings? I feel a little pride that an American won. :) And that aint a bad thing.
 
I've spent the day scouring the english speaking news rag world, and without fail, the majority of the 'comments' at the bottom of the 'obama won nobel' article can be summed up as WFT???

If the world wasn't so well trained, there'd be a serious backlash over this.
 
Peace is not defined as the absense of war. We're the allies creating peace in 1940?
 
its so simple

all these chickenshit backstabbing coward countries who want us to wipe thier assess for them are so glad theres nobody with hair on his ass next to the button theyll give obama an empty award simply bacause he wont bomb them when they thumb their noses at us

second verse same as the first

remember the iran hostage crisis? they couldnt wait to let them go once reagan was gonna have control of the military. as long as stupid ass carter was in the chair they new they were safe from retaliation. but once somebody with balls got the controls there tune changed

same deal

watch and see. this neuters obama more then he neutered his own stupid ass. which is quite a lot. pussy

i guess its a consolation prize for fucking up the olimpyc bid for his homeboyzzzz
 
remember the Iraq hostage crisis, they cut their heads off.

I just sayin'
not a good example.
 
Breaking News | October 9, 2009 | 12:10pm EDT
President Barack Obama was awarded the Heisman Trophy in a private ceremony on Friday at New York's Downtown Athletic Club. Samford Wurmfeld, trustee of the Heisman Trophy Trust, heralded the surprise pick, citing the president's creation of a "new climate in college football" and his work on establishing a playoff system.
Though Mr. Obama has been president for just 37 weeks and technically never played college football, the Heisman voters praised him for giving the world hope for a better post-season and encouraging the need for change.
 
Certainly Ronnie Raygun deserved the award for presiding
over the end of the cold war, which if it had turned hot
had the potential to incinerate tens of millions
in a thermonuclear holocaust.

yeah right.
 
Reagan
GHW Bush for saving Kuwait
Clinton for saving the Bosnian muslims
GW for opening Afghanistan like it has never been open before. (GW's war...Over 25 million freed)

or

Obama for saying hope
 
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