Jagland: What Obama "Did" To Win The Nobel Peace Prize
Buyer's remorse likely kicked in for the Nobel Peace Prize Committee during President Obama's acceptance speech, when he trumpeted not the merits of ending violence, rather the merits of doing it well.
Now that the peace prize winner has brought America into a third concurrent war, the Nobel committee members find themselves defending their less than peaceful choice, particularly from criticism by Obama's shrinking leftist base. An interesting quote was recently made by Thorbjorn Jagland, the Nobel Committee’s chairman. He told POLITICO, “He got the prize for what he did. Not what he did afterwards.”
What he "Did?" Let's review what he "did." To do that, we start with the time constraints set up in Alfred Nobel's will which created the prize:
The whole of my remaining realizable estate shall be dealt with in the following way: the capital, invested in safe securities by my executors, shall constitute a fund, the interest on which shall be annually distributed in the form of prizes to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind.
"During the preceding year." The President won the award in February of 2009, which means his work in 2008 when he was running for President had to "confer the greatest benefit on mankind."
But what does "confer the greatest benefit on mankind" mean? Alfred Nobel did not leave the Norwegians to their own devises to figure it out. He put in his will 3 things the Peace Prize winner must do to win it:
...and one part to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.
During 2008, Obama took no action toward the fraternity of nations, didn't abolish or reduce a standing army and held no peace conferences.
What he did was write some speeches. If it was his words the jazzed the Nobel Committee into a frenzy of gift giving largess, they should have awarded him the 4th prize listed in Nobel's will: one part to the person who shall have produced in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction. Perhaps literary works of fiction are disqualified.
I confess that Obama was President for a full 12 days before he was awarded the prize. I examined his released Presidential Schedule for those 12 days. Let's see what he did to grab himself the Peace Prize, which I understand the President is packaging into a TV infomercial called, "How To WIn The Nobel Prize In Only 12 Days."
January 20: Sworn in as president. Went to a parade. Partied.
January 21: Asked bureaucrats to re-write guidelines for information requests. Held an "open house" party at the White House.
January 22: Signed Executive Orders: Executive Branch workers to take ethics pledge; re-affirmed Army Field Manual techniques for interrogations; expressed desire to close Gitmo (how's that working out?)
January 23: Ordered the release of federal funding to pay for abortions (killings) in foreign countries. Lunch with Joe Biden; met with Tim Geithner.
January 24: Budget meeting with economic team.
January 25: Skipped church.
January 26: Gave speech about jobs and energy. Met with Hillary Clinton. Attended Geithner's swearing in ceremony.
January 27: Met with Republicans. Spoke at a clock tower in Ohio.
January 28: Economic meetings in the morning, met with Defense secretary in the afternoon.
January 29: Signed Ledbetter Bill overturning Supreme Court decision on lawsuits over wages. Party in the State Room. Met with Biden.
January 30: Met economic advisers. Gave speech on Middle Class Working Families Task Force. Met with senior enlisted military officials.
January 31: Took the day off.
February 1: Skipped church. Threw a Super Bowl party.
Good grief. The Nobel Peace Prize shall hereafter be known as "The Norwegian People's Choice Award."
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Comments :
Re: Jagland: What Obama "Did" To Win The Nobel Peace Prize
Love the timeline. Sometimes when I'm feeling down, I remember that President Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and it reduces me to giggles.
Feb '11
Re: Jagland: What Obama "Did" To Win The Nobel Peace Prize
I think he was nominated in February and it was awarded months later.
Jun '10
Re: Jagland: What Obama "Did" To Win The Nobel Peace Prize
Obama got the Nobel Peace Prize for beating the Republicans in 2008, because all Norwegians know that America's Republicans are "corrupt theocratic racist woman-hating homophobes (and not in the good way like Hamas) who want to take over all third world countries with preemptive war, steal their natural resources, and make their children work 12-hours a day in sweat shops." (please notice the quotation marks)
Jan '11
Re: Jagland: What Obama "Did" To Win The Nobel Peace Prize
I hear the Russians are suggesting he should give it back already.
Re: Jagland: What Obama "Did" To Win The Nobel Peace Prize
You are correct - The nomination petition deadline was February 1, 2009. None accepted after that. He became President 12 days earlier.
Whatever work he did constituting "the greatest benefit to mankind" was required under the rules to be done between February 1, 2008 and Febrary 1, 2009. That entire time he was compaigning to be President, except the last 12 days when he was President.
It was awarded to him in October 2009, but the committee could only look at what he did from February 1, 2008 to February 1, 2009.
Jun '10
Re: Jagland: What Obama "Did" To Win The Nobel Peace Prize
I think you are being too hard on President Obama. He clearly deserves to be in the ranks with Al Gore, Jimmy Carter, Yasser Arafat, Kofi Annan, Mohamed ElBaradei, and Le Duc Tho
Edited on Apr 6, 2011 at 8:21amMay '10
Re: Jagland: What Obama "Did" To Win The Nobel Peace Prize
Who was it suggested that he should return the award by having it launched through Qaddafi's head? Somebody on Red Eye?
Seems like the ideal solution. Everybody wins.
Dec '10
Re: Jagland: What Obama "Did" To Win The Nobel Peace Prize
Well, he did vanquish the Hillary Clinton threat (mostly), which merits some consideration.
May '10
Re: Jagland: What Obama "Did" To Win The Nobel Peace Prize
Even Obama knows his prize is a fraud. Recently, as he was naming Steven Chu to head something about natural gas safety or something, he said: "Chu's the right guy to do this, he's got a Nobel prize in physics -- he actually deserved his Nobel prize,"
He would have increased his stature had he the brains to refuse the silly prize but, vanity must be served, I guess.
Nov '10
Re: Jagland: What Obama "Did" To Win The Nobel Peace Prize
I realize most people know this, but it still humors me...
The 2009 winner (Oblahblah), threw a State Dinner for the Imprisoner (China) of the 2010 winner (human rights activist Liu Xiaobo).
Small world.
Jan '11
Re: Jagland: What Obama "Did" To Win The Nobel Peace Prize
I can't believe this. That committee must think people have the memory of a goldfish. During the whole shebang there was an uproar because he hadn't done anything, his country was at war, and there were lots of people nominated that year who did qualify. The committee countered by saying (paraphrasing), "We're giving it to him for what he will do in the future." People wondered if they were trying to shape his foreign policy. Optics and rules flew out the window on the wings of Hope and Change.
Liars! This committee and Obama deserve each other.