[Vision2020] President Barack Obama Wins 2009 Nobel Peace Prize

nickgier at roadrunner.com nickgier at roadrunner.com
Fri Oct 9 22:00:47 PDT 2009 

Good Evening Visionaries:

I'm disappointed in the Nobel Committee and I'm disappointed in Obama.  He should have declined to accept the prize.  I agree with the following commentary by Jesse Berney on the Huff Post today:

I support Barack Obama. I want him to achieve great things here at home and around the world. I want him to have a Rushmore-worthy presidency. I want him to be so great that there's talk of repealing the 22nd Amendment. I want his birthday to become a national holiday because he is so universally loved for his accomplishments.

But Barack Obama's presidency is 17 days younger than my daughter, and she just figured out how to put Cheerios into her mouth. The Norwegian Nobel Committee made a grave mistake by awarding him a Nobel Peace Prize.

The Peace Prize should be more than simply a symbolic gesture of hope for the future. It should be a reward for extraordinary accomplishment and real-world results. It should be the culmination of a career devoted to the cause of building a better world.

During his eight-year presidency, President Clinton ended ethnic cleansing in Bosnia, put Northern Ireland on the path to peace, made significant gains toward peace in the Middle East, and expanded international trade. In the decade since he left the White House, he has continued his transformative work, raising billions of dollars and fostering innovative solutions to intractable problems like climate change, poverty, and disease through the Clinton Global Initiative.

Clinton's work has made an enormous, direct difference in the lives of the poor, the oppressed, the sick, and the displaced. He has left no tool untapped in the betterment of his fellow man: diplomacy, economic opportunity, scientific development -- even the judicious use of military force.

Barack Obama has the potential to match and even exceed President Clinton's accomplishments, but it would be impossible for him to come anywhere close after just nine months in the White House.

The impulse that led the Nobel Committee to award the Peace Prize to Obama was a positive one. They recognized his ardent desire to turn the page on eight years of America-first triumphalism that alienated our allies. They trust that President Obama will deliver on his campaign promise of a new American engagement and are impressed with his first steps on the world stage.

But nine months! No president -- save one with superpowers -- could possibly do enough to earn the ultimate prize in world affairs in such a short time.

The right-wing attacks on the Nobel Committee, immediate and ferocious, are as misguided as they are politically motivated. They continue to assert that America should somehow be ashamed of efforts to promote peace. They equate diplomacy with weakness and believe that strength comes only from the barrel of a gun.

But just because they're wrong doesn't mean that Barack Obama deserves a Nobel Peace Prize. And while he has done his best to accept the honor with humility, he should have gone further and declined to accept it.

He should have come out with a list of people (beginning with President Clinton) who have already done enough to win the Prize, and said that he hoped to achieve enough during his lifetime that the Nobel Committee will reconsider him many years from now.

I say he should have turned it down because I'm such a big supporter of his presidency. Imagine if he had strode up the podium and declared that he could not in good conscience accept the award, but that he was inspired to redouble his efforts to use America's resources to spread peace. It would have been the defining moment of the first year of his presidency.

I believe Barack Obama can fulfill his promise to draw inspiration from the award as a call to action. But I wish instead he had declined to accept it, and promised to work fiercely to earn one down the road.

(But at least they didn't give Kissinger another one.)


Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jesse-berney/he-should-have-turned-it_b_315691.html
---- Wayne Price <bear at moscow.com> wrote: 
> Donovan,
> 
> Sounds good to me!
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Oct 9, 2009, at 2:17 PM, Donovan Arnold wrote:
> 
> > Obama got the Nobel Peace award simply because he stopped killing so  
> > many innocent people as his predecessor. He unseated the Republican  
> > Party which was on a warpath of destruction, and stripping people of  
> > Individual Liberties, not just abroad, but also in this country with  
> > the destruction of its economy.
> >
> > Donovan Arnold
> >
> > --- On Fri, 10/9/09, Wayne Price <bear at moscow.com> wrote:
> >
> > From: Wayne Price <bear at moscow.com>
> > Subject: Re: [Vision2020] President Barack Obama Wins 2009 Nobel  
> > Peace Prize
> > To: "Glenn Schwaller" <vpschwaller at gmail.com>
> > Cc: "vision2020" <vision2020 at moscow.com>
> > Date: Friday, October 9, 2009, 7:29 PM
> >
> > And to add to that, he has been the President of the United States and
> > during HIS tenure, we haven't been attacked - more than Bush Jr. Can
> > say about his first ten months in office!
> > Inherited two useless wars and a bad economy.
> > Doesn't sound like he is asleep at the switch or will be known as the
> > "Vacation President".
> >
> > Wayne
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On Oct 9, 2009, at 10:21 AM, Glenn Schwaller wrote:
> >
> > > Hmmmm . . .   I find it sad when an award meant to honor the
> > > achievements of a lifetime of hard work is reduced to partisan world
> > > politics, and given on the basis of hopes and dreams of what may
> > > happen.
> > >
> > > World peace?  Shutting the prison at Guantanamo Bay was a key Obama
> > > campaign promise.  How's that going?  The threat of Iran's nuclear
> > > weapons production is now shown to be twice what was previously
> > > believed and Obamas "push for peace" is to put "Iran  . . . on  
> > notice
> > > that  . . .  they are going to have to come clean."  Now if that  
> > won't
> > > stimutlate peace I suppose nothing will.  And I guess having your
> > > Secretary of State comment that "she would "totally obliterate" Iran
> > > if Iran attacked Israel" can't be construed as a deterrent for  
> > peace.
> > > Of course not.
> > >
> > > Chinese nuclear proliferation?  North Korea's nuclear proliferation?
> > > Troops out of Iraq?  Troops out of Afghanistan?  Frightening surge  
> > in
> > > suicide bombers?  Yes I must say our President has done much for
> > > pushing for world peace.   Well I guess the feds did manage to bring
> > > down a still wet-behind-the-ears bus driver and street coffee vendor
> > > for turning hair bleach into bombs.  That in itself must be worth  
> > the
> > > cool $1,000,000.
> > >
> > > If Nobel prizes are to be given on the basis of one's dreams,  
> > visions
> > > and hopes of accomplishment, I say rescind the 1989 Physics prize
> > > given to Norman F. Ramsey, Hans G. Dehmelt and Wolfgang Paul (born  
> > in
> > > 1915, 1922 and 1913 - I would say that illustrates a lifetime of  
> > hard
> > > work) and award it to B. Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann.  What
> > > could be more fitting?
> > >
> > > GS
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > On Fri, Oct 9, 2009 at 2:28 AM, Ted Moffett <starbliss at gmail.com>
> > > wrote:
> > >> http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091009/ap_on_re_eu/eu_nobel_peace/ 
> > print
> > >>
> > >> President Barack Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize
> > >>
> > >> By KARL RITTER and MATT MOORE, Associated Press Writers Karl Ritter
> > >> And Matt
> > >> Moore, Associated Press Writers 2 mins ago
> > >>
> > >> OSLO – President Barack Obama won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize on
> > >> Friday for
> > >> "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy  
> > and
> > >> cooperation between peoples," the Norwegian Nobel Committee said,
> > >> citing his
> > >> outreach to the Muslim world and attempts to curb nuclear
> > >> proliferation.
> > >>
> > >> The stunning choice made Obama the third sitting U..S. president to
> > >> win the
> > >> Nobel Peace Prize and shocked Nobel observers because Obama took
> > >> office less
> > >> than two weeks before the Feb. 1 nomination deadline. Obama's name
> > >> had been
> > >> mentioned in speculation before the award but many Nobel watchers
> > >> believed
> > >> it was too early to award the president.
> > >>
> > >> "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. "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 it 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,"
> > >> the committee said.
> > >>
> > >> Theodore Roosevelt won the award in 1906 and Woodrow Wilson won in
> > >> 1919.
> > >> Former President Jimmy Carter won the award in 2002, while former
> > >> Vice
> > >> President Al Gore shared the 2007 prize with the U..N. panel on
> > >> climate
> > >> change.
> > >>
> > >> The Nobel committee received a record 205 nominations for this
> > >> year's prize.
> > >>
> > >> In his 1895 will, Alfred Nobel stipulated that the peace prize
> > >> should go "to
> > >> the person who shall have done the most or the best work for
> > >> fraternity
> > >> between the nations and the abolition or reduction of standing
> > >> armies and
> > >> the formation and spreading of peace congresses."
> > >>
> > >> Unlike the other Nobel Prizes, which are awarded by Swedish
> > >> institutions, he
> > >> said the peace prize should be given out by a five-member committee
> > >> elected
> > >> by the Norwegian Parliament. Sweden and Norway were united under
> > >> the same
> > >> crown at the time of Nobel's death.
> > >>
> > >> The committee has taken a wide interpretation of Nobel's  
> > guidelines,
> > >> expanding the prize beyond peace mediation to include efforts to
> > >> combat
> > >> poverty, disease and climate change.
> > >>
> > >> ___
> > >>
> > >> Associated Press Writer Ian MacDougall contributed to this report.
> > >> ------------------------------------------
> > >> Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett
> > >> =======================================================
> > >>  List services made available by First Step Internet,
> > >>  serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
> > >>               http://www.fsr.net
> > >>          mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
> > >> =======================================================
> > >>
> > >
> > > =======================================================
> > > List services made available by First Step Internet,
> > > serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
> > >               http://www.fsr.net
> > >          mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
> > > =======================================================
> >
> > =======================================================
> > List services made available by First Step Internet,
> > serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
> >                http://www.fsr.net
> >           mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
> > =======================================================
> >
>

More information about the Vision2020 mailing list