Nobel committee announcement of Obama's selection to receive the Peace Prize [full text]

Here is today's announcement, as prepared by the Norwegian Nobel Committee, that President Obama has been chosen to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for 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. 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."

Oslo, October 9, 2009

-- Steve Padilla

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Comments

[Connor jakes]

I can't see why everyone is upset over it. Give the President a chance. He is trying to communicate with everyone, he is at least talking to them.
Once Tony Blair did this with the IRA in Northen Ireland, they eventually found peace.
I can see why his eldest daughter; Malia Obama has picked her favorite book as 'Fledgling Jason Steed'. The young adult novel is about a boy who against all odds never gives up and wins through.
Like father like daughter, they both seem to enjoy the determination that is required to win.

[Steven Jacobson]

Based on these standards Neville Chamberlain should also have won.

[Michael]

This is a joke, right?

No reflection on whether I think the guy has done a good job - but the guy hasn't been in office for a year.

This goes to show the Nobel Peace Price is a joke - see Arafat's win several years ago

[Joe]

Lol, what a joke...

I suppose Osama Bin Ladin will win next year.

[Rick P. Calabasas]

This extreme left wing committee gave Al Gore and failed Ex-President Jimmy Carter a nobel. Remember they hated George Bush and are only interested in pleasing their left-wing commie buddies. Look at the facts this President is imploding and does not know how to handle the economy or Afghanistan.

[Dumbfounded]

AMAZING how he was able to accomplish so much ONLY 9 DAYS INTO OFFICE! What a joke. Go Tookie!

[discgraced]

Are you kidding me!
He's done nothing and people are falling all over him! What a disgrace to belittle the true achievers and people who truly deserve such a prize. The Nobel Prize means nothing now.

[Duane]

This "award" is usually given to some left wing t*rd who floated to the top of the toilet, amdf this is a great example of that.

[D]

Never in the history has a man who has done nothing accomplished so much. Too bad, so sad.

[kristin]

I didn't realize the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded solely on the basis of campaign promises. Those promises have yet to be fulfilled.

[Nick Rosales]

For What? He hasn't anything, Polical Joke by socialist europeans, Nobel memorial nightmare.

[Ted Suzukawa]

That Obama won this prize despite not having a great body of work or a significant achievement in diplomacy leads me to question the committee's methods.

However the fact that some are reacting with hatred and contempt instead of reasonable questions makes me worry about our country.

[sasha]

President Obama is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and this serves as a forum for his detractors (putting it very mildly) to post brilliant (putting it very sarcastically) comments like:

"This "award" is usually given to some left wing t*rd who floated to the top of the toilet, amdf this is a great example of that."

and

"Are you kidding me!
He's done nothing and people are falling all over him! What a disgrace to belittle the true achievers and people who truly deserve such a prize. The Nobel Prize means nothing now."

I imagine all former Nobel Prize winners will line up to hand over their awards now that the prize has been "disgraced." Or maybe they don't have time for such ridiculous and indignant outrage.

[leef]

I read the Nobel committee announcement of the Peace Prize selection and I am proud that Obama's message to Americans, calling on us to create a better future, has been heard around the world. This is good for the US. It can return our nation to her role as an inspiration of individual freedom and is a reminder of our responsibility to ensure the basic human rights of dignity, peace and opportunity (including the opportunity for work, education, health care) for our citizens.
I note that the Republican spokesperson, Michael Steele, echoes the Taliban today. Sour grapes don't win my vote.

[Swon]

Obama has done nothing to deserve the peace prize. This president shows a dislike for america, he is a speech reader, a weak leader who makes verbal attacks against america.

[TZ]

People should receive a reward for the good they do, not the good they talk about and promise to do.

[javier]

castro and hugo chavez are happy with obama´s nobel peace prize

[steve]

To all the critics here ... the award may be premature for Obama, but he's striving for a better world, while the highest aspiration most of us has is a better car or a bigger television set.

[William Brion]

Congratulations Nobel committee! In one stroke of the pen, you have made this award meaningless.

[JohnB]

Is it true they pay the Nobel Peace Prize award in Disney Dollars?

[coastx]

This can all be settled diplomatically by having a war in Denmark. If they win, Obama can keep his stupid prize. If they lose, he has to burn it. Also, Denmark has to burn with it. Fair enough, eh?