The life of being optional.

First of all, let me preface this with the fact that I am a raging liberal and supported Obama throughout the entire campaign. So I may be a little biased.

A friend of mine posted one of those stupid polls to Facebook, this one asking if Obama deserved the Peace Prize. His vote was ‘No’. So I posted this response as to why I feel he deserved the award, and asked for his reasons as to why he felt he didn’t deserve it. Since I felt the post was kinda insightful (and took me forever to write up), I felt I would re-publish that comment here. Partly because I liked my arguements, but mostly because I want my thoughts to not be caged away on someone’s wall on Facebook, bu instead available to the wider world webs. So, here it goes (in it’s entirety, completely unedited).

So I’m curious as to what your reasons are for why he doesn’t deserve the award? Here are my reasons why he did deserve it:

A) Alfred Nobel’s will, which established the award, states the Peace Prize should be given to the person “who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity among nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.”

This is the protocol the Committee uses when determining a winner. Sure he was nominated early in his administration, but voting didn’t end 9 days into it. In fact, it only recently ended.

Furthermore, *anyone* can be nominated by a person who is eligible to nominate someone. In fact, Adolf Hitler was once nominated, only to have the nomination rescinded 3 days later by the person who nominated him. This simply shows that any person could be nominated for the Peace Prize. Once nominated, the committee then looks at everyone, shortens the list, and sends it out for people to vote on. So, using the tactic of time isn’t a viable option.

B) Look at all he’s done to end nuclear proliferation (meets the “abolition or reduction of standing armies” bit of the criteria. Next, look at all he’s doing to try to resolve things with countries the Bush administration would’ve much rather just dropped off the face of the Earth. That was no way to act as a world power, and it seriously pushed us back several years in terms of being a responsible world citizen. The simple act of reaching out to these nations with the promise of peaceful, meaningful talks is a huge leap forward for us. And the simple fact he’s willing to not hold the threat of an invasion over their heads is utterly fantastic. If threats don’t work, try being reasonable with them instead. This would satisfy the “holding and promotion of peace congresses” bit of the will.

C) Read the reason the Nobel committee gave him the prize. They did it to stimulate him to keep at his course. They want to see what he’s been talking about come to fruition and hope that giving him the Peace Prize will be enough motivation to keep it up.

So, as you can see, he has met both criteria set by Alfred Nobel in his will for giving out the Peace Prize. Furthermore, the Nobel committee is encouraged by his work so far and wants to see things progress even more.

So, tell me Jeff, why doesn’t he deserve this award?