Nobel Jury Defends Awarding Obama Prize

(AP)  Members of the Norwegian committee that gave President Obama the Nobel Peace Prize are strongly defending their choice against a storm of criticism that the award was premature and a potential liability for the U.S. president.

Asked to comment on the uproar following Friday's announcement, four members of the five-seat panel told The Associated Press that they had expected the decision to generate both surprise and criticism.

Three of them rejected the notion that Mr. Obama hadn't accomplished anything to deserve the award, while the fourth declined to answer that question. A fifth member didn't answer calls seeking comment.

"We simply disagree that he has done nothing," committee chairman Thorbjoern Jagland told the AP on Tuesday. "He got the prize for what he has done."

Jagland singled out Mr. Obama's efforts to heal the divide between the West and the Muslim world and scale down a Bush-era proposal for an anti-missile shield in Europe.

More coverage of Mr. Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize

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Obama 'Humbled' by Nobel Prize
Politics of Obama's Nobel Win
"Washington Unplugged:" Translating Obama's Nobel Win
Nobel Peace Prize Seen in a New Light
Obama: Nobel Prize a "Call To Action"
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Nobel Prize: Placing a Wager on Peace
Nobel Notables

"All these things have contributed to - I wouldn't say a safer world - but a world with less tension," Jagland said by phone from Strasbourg, where he was attending meetings in his other role as secretary-general of the Council of Europe.

Aagot Valle, a left-wing Norwegian politician who joined the Nobel panel this year, also dismissed suggestions that the decision to award Mr. Obama was without merit.

"Don't you think that comments like that patronize Obama? Where do these people come from?" Valle said by phone from the western coastal city of Bergen. "Well, of course, all arguments have to be considered seriously. I'm not afraid of a debate on the peace prize decision. That's fine."

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What's Your Opinion?

In Friday's announcement, the committee said giving Mr. Obama the peace prize could be seen as an early vote of confidence intended to build global support of the policies of his young administration.

The left-leaning committee whose members are appointed by the Norwegian Parliament lauded the change in global mood wrought by Mr. Obama's calls for peace and cooperation, and praised his pledges to reduce the world stock of nuclear arms, ease U.S. conflicts with Muslim nations and strengthen the country's role in combating climate change.

However, the decision stunned even the most seasoned Nobel watchers. They hadn't expected Mr. Obama, who took office barely two weeks before the Feb. 1 nomination deadline, to be seriously considered until at least next year.

[qpublic]

Can anyone say NORWEGIAN AFFIRMATIVE ACTION?

[Lawyers-Guns-n-Money-01]

by Marc_1986 October 13, 2009 1:00 PM EDT
...when mentioning 'anti-Americans' you might want to think about just how 'American' Obama has been over the past few months. ...he's certainly been criticizing America a whole lot recently.
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by velma179 October 13, 2009 1:49 PM EDT
President Obama has not been "criticizing America" -- that claim is so easy to disprove, I can't imagine a thinking person using it?
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Who said anything about thinking persons?

[hockeymom441]

I love the fact that the committee (when referring to Americans' criticism) is like, "where do these people come from!?!". It's a relief to know the rest of the world sides w/ us, the thinking Americans, who are proud to call Obama President, and see the ignorant, racist losers who hate everything Obama, for the morons that they are.

[pickaguitar1]

YES WE CAN!

[msimamaji]

Let's consider Obama's own reaction to receiving the Peace Prize

´I do not view it as a recognition of my own accomplishments, but rather as an affirmation of American leadership on behalf of aspirations held by people in all nations."

AND

"We can't accept a world in which more people are denied opportunity and dignity that all people yearn for -- the ability to get an education and make a decent living; the security that you won't have to live in fear of disease or violence without hope for the future."

AND

"This award is not simply about the efforts of my administration -- it's about the courageous efforts of people around the world.

"And that's why this award must be shared with everyone who strives for justice and dignity -- for the young woman who marches silently in the streets on behalf of her right to be heard even in the face of beatings and bullets; for the leader imprisoned in her own home because she refuses to abandon her commitment to democracy; for the soldier who sacrificed through tour after tour of duty on behalf of someone half a world away; and for all those men and women across the world who sacrifice their safety and their freedom and sometime their lives for the cause of peace."

You will never find such quality of leadership in the GOP, Wall Street, and certainly NOT in the media.

Obama made it clear that the Nobel Peace Prize was not his prize, but a prize for peacemakers around the world. The gang of GOP, right-wing haters who on the warpath don't hate Obama - they hate America. They lack a positive vision for themselves or for America, and they cannot stand to America transcend the gutter if ignorance, violence, hatred, and fear that they themselves inhabit. Just like the Taliban, they want to see America fail.
October 12
So the health insurance industry wants tougher sanctions to force people to buy insurance. That's understandable. So the lobbyists have descended on Capitol Hill like locusts from a Biblical Plague. Who pays their salary?
You or your employer does. You also pay mega=million salaries of CEO's on Wall Street. You pay for stock dividends. You pay for campaign contributions because every major player in health care reform - Max Baucus, Mike Enzi, Chuck Grassley, Olympia Snowe, Mitch McConnel, Orrin Hatch, all receive generous bribes from the health insurance industry.
The health insurance companies are threatening to raise rates. Apparently a lot of people have not read an article by Arthur Delaney on the Huffington Post, October 5. Blue Cross/Blue Shield is alrea

[mljohns00]

Who'd have ever thought a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate would be building bunker buster bombs and flying "Grim Reaper" death planes over foreign nations?

[jxknowles]

They don't have to defend their decision. It was a reward for an honest attempt to straighten out and reverse eight years of cold-war paranoia, propaganda and deceit.

[rocketjl]

The Islamic effort has fallen apart, so it is not an accomplishment. He said no to the missile shield, which may be good or in reality, saving money for health reform. America beware, we can easily be misled by Obama speeches, as the Norwegian Pulitzer committee was.

[mooksie1]

How can the Nobel Peace Price Committee defend their decision to award this prestigeous prize to Obama? This is nothing but an anti-Bush award. The prize has now permaanently lost its luster. When yasser Arafat got it, and Jimmy Carter as well, I cringed. But this tops it all. Apart from running around the world apologizing for the United States; making Poland and the Czeck Republic vulnerable to attacks; letting American soldiers die on the fields of Afghanistan for lack of back-up forces, grinnig a lot, as well as being exceedingly skilled in reading from a telepromter, what else has Obama accomplished worth mentioning? To top it all off, he is now picking a fight with Fox News, whining and throwing tantrums, because "they are attacking me, and they don't like me". A mature president would never do such a thing.

[jxknowles]

You sound like a bitter, angry person who lost an election. I don't think you'll be getting a Peace Award any time soon.

[mooksie1]

Jxknowles,
The truth hurt you doesn't it? When you don't like the message; attack the messenger. Just like Obama does to Fox News. Whining and throwing tantrums is not befitting a president.

[mjlewis6]

I wonder if all the Nay sayers (possibly lots of Republcans) would agree that Bush W should have been considered for the Pulitzer Peace Prize for actually LEAVING OFFICE in order for a more peaceful era to be ushered in?