You can watch the official announcement above, or read the official announcement below.
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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
11 Comments
Joe Blackmon
What part of this is supposed to be a shock? They gave one to Al “Hole in the Ozone” Gore. I think two of the requirements for getting one of these is (a) you have to be a flaming liberal and (b) you have to hate America.
Denny Burk
I wonder if this is the first Nobel Peace Prize awarded to a person who is weighing whether or not to send more troops to a war-zone. If President Obama sends the troops to Afghanistan that his general is asking for, it will be a major escalation of the war-effort. Talk about ultimate irony!
John
This is one of those Onion videos, right?
Joe Blackmon
That would be kinda funny.
Troy Patterson
Yet our enemies are more brazen than ever… Iran proliferating nukes with no consequences?
Sean
Denny, I think it would only be irony if no one knew about the decision the President is about to make. It’s actually a calculated attempt to dictate American policy. Obama can’t add troops in Afghanistan without looking hypocritical and they hope that will sway his decision.
Gim Anderson
This brings glory to America. Wonderful.
Steve
This is the He-is-not-Bush prize. Reagan, who helped to end the cold war, was never considered for the Nobel Peace Prize. Obama joins Carter and Gore in rendering the award meaningless and silly.
Don Johnson
I see this as a pre-emptive award.
Nathan
Pre-emptive to what? ๐
Don Johnson
So they can discuss taking it away if he does something they do not like.