Update - BBC Call: NO FREAKIN' WAY!: Obama Wins 2009 Nobel Peace Prize

Update 2: Just came in email after a lively phone chat with the BBC producer:

Great stuff. Do visit our site and email me over your details so we can arrange your transport. We're live on BBC World at 11.30 - 1200 Washington time, and 1300 - 1400 live on BBC World Service Radio

Sometimes these things don't come off for whatever reason. But if it does, I'll be on the BBC TV network discussing the award with some folks from around the globe. I believe it's 11:30 AM our time via World Have Your Say. Then, I believe I'll be staying on for a live radio show an hour later. If it works out, this should be a fun day given the headline that attracted them. NO FREAKIN' WAY!! It was an interesting discussion with the producer, I can say that much. Nice person. At one point she wanted to know what he had done so wrong that makes the prize an issue for me. I replied that I didn't realize one received prizes for not screwing up in a certain regard, yet - especially given Iran's quest for Nukes and N Korea getting them as a result of Bill Clinton's talking, which Obama seems destined to repeat. Then I launched into American exceptional-ism, suggesting most of us probably couldn't care less what the world thinks. I can hardly wait to share those views with some good folks from around the world! heh! 

Update: Full text of the pathetic, foolish, worthless and dishonest announcement below.

I do not freakin' believe this. But via the BBC- it appears to be true. For what? Are you frickin' kidding me? What a stupid joke. What a worthless award. Video of the announcement here. They put weight on his WORK? For Nuclear Weapons? All he has done is TALK! This is total BS!

THE MAN HASN'T DONE ANYTHING!! I can't believe this. Really, I can't. What a waste. One sensed this was just a worthless political award anymore. But this removes all doubt. If I were on the committee I'd be embarrassed. This is an absolute disgrace.

Full text below of announcement, via Fox. Try not to throw up in your mouth!

US President Barack Obama has won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.

The Nobel Committee said he was awarded it for "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and co-operation between peoples".

There were a record 205 nominations for this year's prize. Zimbabwe's prime minister and a Chinese dissident had been among the favourites.

The laureate - chosen by a five-member committee - wins a gold medal, a diploma and 10m Swedish kronor ($1.4m).

"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 Norwegian committee said as the prize was announced.

"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 Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 is to be awarded to President Barack Obama for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples. The Committee has attached special importance to Obama's vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons.

"Obama has as president created a new climate in international politics. Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play. Dialogue and negotiations are preferred as instruments for resolving even the most difficult international conflicts. The vision of a world free from nuclear arms has powerfully stimulated disarmament and arms control negotiations. Thanks to Obama's initiative, the USA is now playing a more constructive role in meeting the great climatic challenges the world is confronting. Democracy and human rights are to be strengthened.

"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. 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.

"For 108 years, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has sought to stimulate precisely that international policy and those attitudes for which Obama is now the world's leading spokesman. The Committee endorses Obama's appeal that "Now is the time for all of us to take our share of responsibility for a global response to global challenges."

Unfortunately, this inexperienced, indecisive, ineffectual jerk doesn't seem to speak for America. And that's his real problem in the end. At this rate, the man is going to become reviled by a majority of the American people in four years.

Comments

[lonetown]

This vote must have been like the one at the beginning of the movie "Putney Swope"!

[xerocky]

How much more Carteresque can he get?

When they said that Zimbabwe's prime minister was up for the nomination, I thought that the prize must be for causing inflation, right? Obama, Mugabe, Carter...but then I realized that Mugabe is the president of Zimbabwe, and Morgan Tsvangirai is just the prime minister.

[WBestPresidentEver]

Those Freaks in Norway must have been off their PROZAC. Suffering from a KOOL AID overload. They felt sorry for him because he lost the OLYMPIC BID and they thought maybe this would boost his HC BS and his Cap and Tax Bill in the senate.
This is a start to the NEW WORLD ORDER. The Bilderburgs are estatic. There is a plan behind this all. The USA is doomed for failure.
We are in BIG TROUBLE.
LESSON LEARNED,IF YOU WANT TO WIN A NOBEL PEACE PRIZE JUST GO AROUND THE WORLD AND TRASH YOUR COUNTRY AND PRAISE MUSLIMS.
VOTE THIS PUPPET OUT OF OFFICE IN 2012 AND ALL CRONIES IN 2010. AMERICAN UNITE NOW !!

[PattyAnn]

Acorn is everywhere!

[Benjamin]

Unbelievable. So he's basically getting this prize for a couple of speeches where he painted a utopian vision of nuclear disarmament - when Iran and N. Korea are going full speed ahead. And they also give him credit for a disgraceful, historically inaccurate, and pandering speech he made in Cairo. This is a joke - but watch the state-run media slobber about this now.

[LifeTrek]

Read the reasons from the committee -- he was awarded the award just for being Obama (and not Bush, but mainly for being Obama!)!

I'm starting to worry that Scotty won't get the transporter fixed and get us back to our universe while we are still in one piece! I really don't like the mirror universe -- it simply makes no sense, right is wrong, good is bad....
David

[Terrye]

This is so ridiculous.

But hey, like Beck says, we are better off with Obama than with McCain..one can be sure McCain would not get an award like this.

[firefirefire]

Next step....King of the WORLD!!!!!!

suprised?
yes.
REALLY suprised?
No,not really.

[w3bgrrl]

Me: "Oh my gosh, Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize."
Husband: "For what????"
Me: "Exactly."
Son (age 6, getting ready for school): "What happened?"
Me: "President Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize."
Son: "For what???"
Me: "Exactly."

Try not to throw up in your mouth!
Too late.

[Lala]

Bill Clinton must be pissed.

[Philip McDaniel]

Well...at least he's in good company -- a fuzzy thinking peanut farmer from Georga and a [deceased] bi- terrorist head of the PLO.

This award may turn out to haunt him in more ways than we can imagine.

[w3bgrrl]

Upon further reflection, if I wanted to neuter the sitting American president who I knew to be a narcissist and a whore to the good opinion of others, I'd give him a Nobel Peace Prize in the hope that, on the issues of Iran, North Korea, Afghanistan, etc. he would be inclined to put his title as Nobel Peace Prize Winner above his title of Commander-in-Chief and President of the United States of America.

[Dan Riehl]

I suspect it will haunt him if he accepts it. And getting it does nothing for him with the American electorate. If anything, right now he is on his way to becoming the most disliked potus in modern history, if not all time.

[syn]

This Nobel Peace prize comes just after obami says to the Dalai Lama "screw you, peace man; it is more important to defend inhuman rights China".

[Cara]

Geez and I thought it was obvious that the world community HATED our President when they dissed him over his bullying tactics in regards to the Olympics.....

[Joe]

Come on, a Noble Peace Prize. Welcome Back Carter indeed!

The only peace summit was that sit down with Gates and Crowley.

[mike191]

"I am a stranger living in a strange land..." has become the reality after Obama being the Nobel Peace Prize winner."Tear down that wall..."has been replaced by "..can we all get along..."Free people everywhere who look at the USA as a model of human freedom are sadder,today.

[Lala]

Did he hold off on the troops for Afghanistan because he was waiting for this to happen?

[anon]

It's just bizarre, the nominations were closed when he had been president for only TWO WEEKS...so in effect, he's been given a prize [usually considered something you get for your accomplishments] for his objectives, not his achievements.

It doesn't make sense, they could have given him a Nobel Prize in 2 years or 3 years or 4 years after he had the time to have actually done something,this way, it just looks like more liberal stupidity, in that the Nobel Committee must have been so overcome by his hopey changey message and the fact that he was Black and given it to him for what they hope and expect him to achieve.

Of course no one will ever say this openly, but it really calls into question the value of a Nobel Peace prize or any of the Nobel prizes given these days since obviously the criteria are not based only on objective facts. Sad really, but I don't begrudge it to him, they gave it to him so when all the aspirations they mention turn into nothing, its on them.

[WBestPresidentEver]

IF YOU WANT TO WIN A PEACE PRIZE JUST GO AROUND THE WORLD AND TRASH YOUR COUNTRY AND PRAISE MUSLIMS, & SHARI LAW (CUT OFF HANDS AND FEET, STONE WOMEN)AND PRAISE ISLAM AND ALLAH. THATS HOW IT IS DONE.

THE 5 MEMBERS THAT VOTED FOR OBAMA.
http://nobelpeaceprize.org/en_GB/nomination_committee/members/

IF U READ ABOUT THE NEW MEMBERS ONE IS A SOCIALIST & ONE IS THE LABOR PARTY(UNION) FIGURES. KOOL AID DRINKERS. http://nobelpeaceprize.org/en_GB/nomination_committee/committee_2009/
http://nobelpeaceprize.org/
http://nobelpeaceprize.org/en_GB/about_peaceprize/
http://nobelpeaceprize.org/en_GB/home/announce-2009/
The Nobel Peace Prize 2009
24.07.2009
The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 is to be awarded to President Barack Obama for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.
"I BET CHRIS MATTHEWS HAS "MORE" THAN A TINKLE RUNNING UP AND DOWN HIS LEG NOW." LMAO

[CPT. Charles]

This award is for the present and FUTURE humbling of Amerika.

Anybody got a better reason?

[Bob]

Where can one complain, i.e., ridicule the Nobel committee responsible for tis joke?

[AllenS]

The Nobel Peace Prize committee must be heavily invested in the Obama Commemorative Plate and Coin Collection, and this is the only way that they figured it would increase in value. I don't think it's going to work.

[Dennis D]

Ronald Reagan liberated 500 Million people and ended the Cold War and he has no Peace Prize.

[labwrs]

Dan,

PLEASE let us know where we can hear this repeated. I have to be out in the field for work at that time but PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE SPEAK FOR US!! Every day I read your blog and agree with so much of what you say and the straight forward way you phrase your disgust with the MOST embarrassing, pathetic, incompetent "President" this GREAT country has ever produced. He is such a joke!
I woke up this morning and was brushing my teeth when the "Rick and Bubba" radio show broke the news. I listen to them beause they make me laugh while I am waking up and I thought this was one of their jokes. I think the joke is very much on US. Unbelievable. Simply unbelievable.

[souther Values]

I’m love it – the comments from you patriots are priceless. You can argue what Obama did to deserve this, and that’s fair. What you can’t argue is this is a resounding rebuke of 8 years of Bush lawlessness. This speaks to me of the profound appreciation and understating of how truly miserable Bush was for the world. The more you flummox about Obama not deserving this, remember that the world community is really acknowledging the utter depravity of the Bush regime and the desire to “reward” the American people for putting someone with ethics ( a whole lot more intelligence ) in to the position of US president. The irony of this is truly priceless.

[anon]

The Nobel Prize is supposed to be awareded for the achievements of the individual, not as a rebuke to somebody else that the committee/community didnt' like, what that does is devalue the entire aray of Nobel prizes...and its something that the founder would most likely have objected to.

Bush sucked and he didn't get any Nobel prizes, nuff said.

Awarding the Nobel Peace prize to Obama as a rebuke to Bush, again, shows just how worthless these awards have become in the last couple of decades.

[your mama]

The nobel peace prize just lost all credibility,should now be called,unnoble prize

[A. Stephens]

Qualifications for winning Nobel Peace Prize

1. Good intentions

2. Not be George W. Bush

3. Tell world that America is not really, "All that"

[IslamoLlama]

/puts on raincoat
/steps into shitstorm
/points
/laughs
/leaves

[templar knight]

Obama is destroying the US as a military and economic power. This is more than the Nobel committee could ever have wished for. Shit man, give the doofer the prize. By the standards of the Nobel committee, he certainly derserves it.

[southern Values]

OK patriots – Obama didn’t deserve the Nobel Peace Price. I know peace has a rather distorted meaning in the Right’s lexicon, however; I’d really like to know who do you think should have won this? Rummy? Bush himself?

Previous posts spoke to only intention as the accomplishment Obama performed to date. I would reiterate that the utter depravity of the Bush regime scared the world community so much, that even alluding to intention was such a relief from the world’s most powerful person that some statement had to made. Bush was toxic blight on world peace. You may argue this cheapens the Prize due to a lack of substantive accomplishment from Obama, but it speaks volumes to world opinion of the accomplishments of Bush.

[Anon]

How does giving a prize to person X because you thought person Y sucked do anything but diminish the prize itself?

Are we going to move all the way from any kind of merit based society and start giving prizes to people who "should" have been the best in their field or who are the nicest people in their field, or who "would" have been the best if not for the many challenges/barriers they faced along the way, or whose theory is the most popular....

I have no idea who should have won the Nobel Peace Prize this year, but I would think there must be someone on the planet who has more actual accomplishments regarding peace than Obama.

What's next, is he going to get an Academy Award and a Grammy because the film and music industries want to repudiate George W. Bush as well?

[Southern Values]

This is an odd award. You'd expect it to come later in Obama's presidency and tied to some particular event or accomplishment. But the unmistakable message of the award is one of the consequences of a period in which the most powerful country in the world, the 'hyper-power' as the French have it, became the focus of destabilization and in real if limited ways lawlessness. A harsh judgment, yes. But a dark period. And Obama has begun, if fitfully and very imperfectly to many of his supporters, to steer the ship of state in a different direction. If that seems like a meager accomplishment to many of the usual Washington types it's a profound reflection of their own enablement of the Bush era and how compromised they are by it, how much they perpetuated the belief that it was 'normal history' rather than dark aberration.

--Josh Marshall

[anon]

Is this what the award is supposed to be? I thought Nobel wanted it to go to the person who had done some tangible things toward disarmament, international relations and peace?

I grant you that George W. Bush did serious damage to American prestige abroad on many fronts and alienated all of our allies save England, and that the many constitutionally questionable actions will and are haunting us....but still....

[CPT. Charles]

Ooh, is that the sound of a troll I hear?

Or the 'plop' of a load?

Nah, must be swamp gas.

[Gary]

Unfortanately Southern, more peace has been achieved through war than through progressive bullshit talk of peace. Bush and many DemoRats supported the war in Iraq over flawed (to say the least) intelligence and freed 25 million people in the meantime. More liberal bullshit talk of peace will just lead to more violence globally. Good Luck

[Southern Values]

Cheapen the Nobel Prize? Bush took the American ideals, and everything we have stood for prior to his “election”, and soiled that completely. Any return of the US back to a lawful actor in the world community would be seen as critical to world peace. This does not cheapen the prize but acknowledges that a force of real peace and justice in the world needs to rewarded.

[anon]

Have we really returned back to being a lawful actor? Guantanamo is still open, the ability to revert back to torture tactics is still wide open, the Patriot Act is still in force, in fact, nothing that Bush did on the war on terror front has been explicitely and directly repudiated, which means that all of those threads are still there to be picked up at any time in the future.

It is much too early to say or know that Obama is a force of peace and justice, he's been in office six months and had been in office TWO WEEKS when he was nominated.

Not being George Bush is not sufficient to be getting a Nobel Prize.

[Dr. K]

If Alfred Nobel were alive today he'd be spinning in his grave.

Apologies to Y. Berra

[Southern Values]

More peace has been achieved through war. If that’s not cognitive dissonance, than I wasn’t home schooled properly.

[Mad Monica]

I feel like barfing and laughing hysterically all at the same time. I knew this prize was a joke, but now it's been confirmed. George Soros and the Obama pay off machine must have been working over time. I wonder if this is to make up for the screw you Obama got from the Olympic committee?

This is so pathetic and sad. Just another atta boy for a man who has done absolutely nothing in his entire life. Must be fabbo to have folks falling over themselves to tell you how special you are.

The worst thing for me is all those around the world who really ARE working for peace and democracy and human rights will continue putting their lives on the line working hard to do REAL things to help the world all the while being ignored. If the people with the money to do some good and the political pull to ease the way would stop this almost masturbatory stroking of this president and do something for THESE people, something might get accomplished. Alas, no.

They're too busy propping up a failed empty suit. What a crying shame.

[John]

Unfortunately, the knee jerk hate was entirely predictable. As the committee pointed out he's probably done more than any other world leader over the past eight months to lower global tensions. Whether this was enough to justify it who knows but the Pavlovian reaction from the right where all of a sudden the Norwegians become morons and Obama is an undeserving jerk just serves to reinforce the impression in the country that the right has lost its marbles. If you think this is doing the Republican cause any good you need to focus on the other side of these polls instead of rejoicing about whether Obama is up or down 2%......Republican appro is completely in the tank and it's because of this sort of irrational reaction to what is basically a huge national compliment that's ultimately going to assist US diplomacy. That this has to be explained beggars belief but that's where we are today.

[Dr. K]

John:

It's not the Nobel Lowering Global Tensions Prize.

[Southern Values]

This is completely inline with the Right’s reaction to losing the Olympics. The international prestige of holding the games and economic upside notwithstanding, it’s a loss for Obama. The joke here is that the Right claims their outlook is America first, when in fact their ideological fundamentalism won’t let them see past their on bigotry and political self-interests. What a sad Party / Movement you’ve become – completely devoid of ideas.

[anon]

Oy, "good feelings" don't really go that far in diplomacy, while I believe in the beneficial effects of "soft power"...soft power alone isn't going to get you more than rhetoric.

How exactly is Obama wining the Nobel Peace Prize going to help w/US diplomacy? Do you really think that the Russians, Chinese, Iranians, North Koreans, Pakistanis, Israelis, Palestinians are going to be be more cooperative because Obama won this prize? Um, good luck with that.

I don't believe there IS a financial upside to hosting the Olympics or that Chicago/Illinois are finacially able to spend hundreds of millions on the Olympics. I also thought it was unseemly for a president to go pitch the IOC.

[Gary]

Uhhh gee John pleez splain it to us!! This man won the prize because he's not Bush. In other words He won the prize on the hope for hope and change. He has accomplished NOTHING,he's just talked about it with lousy platitudes that dems love to hear

[Andrew]

He won? How did he possibly beat out Neville Chamberlain?

Obama, Nobel Laureate...brought to you from the country that also brought you Vidkun Quisling. Any irony in that?

[SDN]

Hey, Southern Values, why don't you ask the ghost of Hitler whether war brought peace. Moron. Scalawag (if you are a Southerner, you know what that insult means). Copperhead.

[WPE]

Congrats guys, you're with the Taliban:

"The Taliban Friday condemned the decision to award this year's Nobel Peace Prize to U.S. President Barack Obama, saying he had "not taken a single step towards peace in Afghanistan"."

I'm betting the Taliban also celebrated last week when the US lost the Olympic Bid.