Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize

**Anthony Ng** · 10-09-2009, 04:38 AM

Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize

Obama only took office less than two weeks before the February 1 nomination deadline for the 2009 Nobel Prize, but that was already good enough to launch us all (not just Americans) into a new era of "world peace". Now, I have better things to do than to worry about being part of collateral damage.

**draggar** · 10-09-2009, 04:56 AM

I don't remember seeing anything that would have made him a prime candidate for this - especially before mid Feb, 2009.

The US still has presence in Afghanistan and Iraq. Mexico is still on the brink of civil war / anarchy. The Iranian government is still threatening Israel and the US (well, anything "western").

I don't remember seeing him broker any major peace talks.

IMO it's more of a publicity prize this time around.

**Seraphim** · 10-09-2009, 05:45 AM

Has the world gone mad? US foreign policy hasn't shifted an inch, not one single inch. 40,000 more boots are about to touch down in Afghanistan, while your everyday Afghan sinks lower into the worst poverty on earth. Obama has used the stick against Iran just as much as soft diplomacy [aka "all options are on the table"]. The pro-torture pro-rendition policies established by George Bush, have been reinstated by Barack Obama. Russia has nuclear submarines patrolling international waters off the eastern United States seaboard, the first since the cold war ended. Kim Jong-il has gone completely ape-shit, firing long range missile tests towards and over the top of Japan. And the list goes on, and on, and on...

This manufacturing of an icon nonsense is not just nauseating, it's getting extremely dangerous... Barack Obama has the power to turn words into action, yet thus far he's done nothing but continue every single policy that George W. Bush and Co. set into motion.

**tristanperry** · 10-09-2009, 05:49 AM

What a joke.

(Can't be bothered to say anything more; that sums up my views perfectley)

**MAllie** · 10-09-2009, 05:57 AM

They say that a prophet is never recognized in his own country. So it was with Gorbachev, and so it is with Obama, whose profile in the rest of the world is much higher than it seems to be in the States. Your still-new President is doing you proud, and it's a shame that so many over there just can't or won't see it.

**denny007** · 10-09-2009, 06:02 AM

Originally Posted by MAllie

They say that a prophet is never recognized in his own country. So it was with Gorbachev, and so it is with Obama, whose profile in the rest of the world is much higher than it seems to be in the States. Your still-new President is doing you proud, and it's a shame that so many over there just can't or won't see it.

Where can I sign this...

**Seraphim** · 10-09-2009, 06:07 AM

Originally Posted by MAllie

They say that a prophet is never recognized in his own country. So it was with Gorbachev, and so it is with Obama, whose profile in the rest of the world is much higher than it seems to be in the States. Your still-new President is doing you proud, and it's a shame that so many over there just can't or won't see it.

I take it you also just voted YES in Ireland.

A Wall Street tool being called a prophet, that's charming...

**draggar** · 10-09-2009, 06:12 AM

So, what has he done?

While none of this related to the prize:

- My wife still doesn't have a job and was laid off in June of 2008. Where are these trillions of dollars spent to "save our jobs"?
- I can barely make ends meet and my mortgage company refuses to work with us (since I make enough to pay them but leaves us very little to actually buy things like FOOD).
- Due to cutbacks there are far fewer police officers on the streets - crime rates are way up in my neighborhood.
- The economy is still in the slump here. 5 foreclosed units in my community. I owe 2.5 times what my house is worth now. I wouldn't be able to sell it and we can't afford anything new since the mortgage companies are requiring way too much down.

Even if he is going a lot of good for the world his own country is deepening into a big depression and all he's done is continue GW's trend of handing out trillions of dollars so executives can give themselves eight figure bonuses and take lavish vacations with our tax dollars. They're also using our taxes to move jobs out of the USA. How is any of this helping our economy?

**Seraphim** · 10-09-2009, 06:27 AM

It's starting to feel like we don't have a president, that's how bad this guy is. I'm convinced people around the country are close to starting up some hardcore civil unrest. Trouble in the air for sure.

**south** · 10-09-2009, 06:28 AM

Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize

Seriously?

Yes, the world has gone mad.

For?

Is there still a free country in the world I could move to? Anywhere?

**Seraphim** · 10-09-2009, 06:32 AM

Originally Posted by south

Seriously?

Yes, the world has gone mad.

For?

Is there still a free country in the world I could move to? Anywhere?

I'm an American living in Poland. Plenty of good beer and beautiful women here. Come on over.

**south** · 10-09-2009, 06:34 AM

Originally Posted by Seraphim

I'm an American living in Poland. Plenty of good beer and beautiful women here. Come on over.

You never know

Speaking of which, too bad Obama just threw Poland under the bus.

**DomainMagnate** · 10-09-2009, 06:40 AM

Originally Posted by MAllie

They say that a prophet is never recognized in his own country. So it was with Gorbachev, and so it is with Obama, whose profile in the rest of the world is much higher than it seems to be in the States. Your still-new President is doing you proud, and it's a shame that so many over there just can't or won't see it.

The rest of the World (Europe in particular) just wants to see US weak economically and politically.

**draggar** · 10-09-2009, 06:41 AM

Originally Posted by south

Is there still a free country in the world I could move to? Anywhere?

I hear Canada is always looking for good workers.

Or, the Pacific side of Costa Rica?

**south** · 10-09-2009, 06:46 AM

Originally Posted by DomainMagnate

The rest of the World (Europe in particular) just wants to see US weak economically and politically.

Their wish has been granted.

Originally Posted by draggar

I hear Canada is always looking for good workers.

Or, the Pacific side of Costa Rica?

Well, at least I could grow my own in Canada..

**tomsa** · 10-09-2009, 07:10 AM

He will be canonized soon

**Seraphim** · 10-09-2009, 07:12 AM

Originally Posted by DomainMagnate

The rest of the World (Europe in particular) just wants to see US weak economically and politically.

This is very true, it's particularly bad in parts of Western Europe. I don't sense this in Poland much however. People here were very much against the Iraqi invasion, but they seem to hope for stronger US-Poland relations regardless. Russia and Germany will always keep Poland warm towards the US.

Originally Posted by tomsa

He will be canonized soon

**randomo** · 10-09-2009, 07:28 AM

Even though I'm generally supportive of Obama, when I saw the headlines this morning I had to check the date, make sure it wasn't April 1st ....

I see this award partly as an affirmation of his goals, but also largely as a repudiation of Bush's lone-cowboy style of international diplomacy. (We don't need no steenkin' UN!)

**tristanperry** · 10-09-2009, 07:31 AM

Originally Posted by MAllie

They say that a prophet is never recognized in his own country. So it was with Gorbachev, and so it is with Obama, whose profile in the rest of the world is much higher than it seems to be in the States. Your still-new President is doing you proud, and it's a shame that so many over there just can't or won't see it.

Not true.

I think he's a prat.

A prat with arguably good (albeit too-hard-to-achieve) intentions, but a prat nonetheless.

Okay prat may be too strong, but I certainly don't agree with what he's doing.

Is Obama popular in Ireland? People in the UK (at least, the people who know anything about politics) don't seem to think he's doing a good job.

It's like Gordon Brown sees himself as a World-wide hero, when in truth even members of his own political party don't trust him or rate him and he's now too weak to do anything but do what everyone else wants him to do.

**MAllie** · 10-09-2009, 07:42 AM

Originally Posted by tristanperry

Is Obama popular in Ireland? People in the UK (at least, the people who know anything about politics) don't seem to think he's doing a good job.

You must be reading different UK newspapers from the ones I read, Tristan, and watching different UK TV.

Seraphim, I voted 'No,' because I think it was antidemocratic to insist we vote again on the same set-up just because the EU didn't like our first answer. The whole Lisbon Treaty should have been redone before the question was put again.