Congratulations with Caveats

[l33tminion]

Mr. Obama was awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. Surprising. Congrats, Mr. President!

The Nobel Committee commented, "Sure, Obama hasn't accomplished that much yet to 'end militarism and war', but compared to the last guy, he's practically Gandhi!" Okay, I kid, but that really does seem to be the sentiment.

Obama at least seems to understand the situation:

Mr Obama - woken up with the news early on Friday - said in an address at the White House that he was "surprised and deeply humbled" by the award.

He said he did not feel he deserved to be in the company of some of the "transformative figures" who had previously received the award.

Speaking outside the White House, he said he would accept the prize as a "call to action".

I certainly hope so.

ETA: Alternately, you could interpret the awarding of the prize in a way that's less over-excited and more grimly pessimistic.

ETA2: FiveThirtyEight's writup is interesting, since they seem to be the only ones defending the Nobel committee's statements that the choice was based on Obama's record.

ETA3: Also, Glenn Beck's take is one of the funniest things I've seen attributed to Glenn Beck.

Comments

[peaceofpie.livejournal.com]

I would say "I couldn't have said it better myself" in response to Glenn Beck's reaction, except that I totally could have said it better, because I would have spelled all the words in my identical reaction using letters.

Now excuse me please while I go write a 5-star review of a meal I haven't tasted at a restaurant that hasn't opened yet.

[l33tminion]

If the prize committee has no qualms with being overtly political (which they clearly don't, the decision in question was evidently unanimous), this may have been a rather brilliant move on their part. Obama couldn't exactly decline the prize without it being a big "screw you" to the international community and the cause of peace in general. But accepting it increases the pressure on Obama to follow through on his commitments. If I was Obama, I'd be quite worried about the prize committee making a "we made a mistake in 2009" denouncement in 2012.

[peaceofpie.livejournal.com]

I know about as little about politics as humanly possible, but my impression is that that the affirmation of Obama which Americans perceive as a "political statement" is perceived by most of the rest of the world as "common sense".

This is not meant to be interpreted as my personal opinion on Obama, just an observation about how the rest of the world views him as a leader, in comparison with other current and recent leaders.

[l33tminion]

"We award the Nobel Peace Prize to the American people for not electing John McCain" wouldn't have been quite as diplomatic.