Re: the Peace Prize
I, too, am not too enthused about Obama winning the Peace Prize so soon after entering office, but people, at least understand that dozens of peace prize winners over the decades have not ACCOMPLISHED their peace goals. They were awarded for their efforts to advance the cause of peace.
I may be unhappy with his lack of concern for privacy, net neutrality, inability to get anything passed with a supermajority, and his hiring of RIAA executives for the justice department (read: Fair Use is effin’ doomed), but it is very true that he has completely changed many of the conversations of conflict in the world. Saying that it is a goal to get rid of nuclear weapons … in the US? That’s new. Saying that Israel needs to man up and stop building on land they’re supposed to be negotiating over? That’s new. Going to the middle east and speaking to them at length about the possibilities of our relationship as well as their responsibilities under the muslim God? That’s not just new, it’s effin’ ballsy.
Before I heard the list of previous contenders, I was all ready to stand up and say “But he hasn’t actually ACCOMPLISHED ANYTHING! No treaty has been signed thanks to him!” It is clear, though, that if Woodrow Wilson can get in for the League of Nations, anyone who puts in the most effort in a given year can get in, whether that effort is successful or not.
Unfortunately, we have no idea who he was being compared to this year, and we won’t for another 50 years.