# Campaign Endorsements for Nobel Peace Prize Laureates?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/campaign-endorsements-for-nobel-peace-prize-laureates/271906
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [October 29, 2004, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/campaign-endorsements-for-nobel-peace-prize-laureates/271906 "2004-10-29T19:26:40Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@stpauler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stpauler)
#### Post date: [October 29, 2004, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/campaign-endorsements-for-nobel-peace-prize-laureates/271906/1 "2004-10-29T19:26:40Z")
I’ve seen the posts about the Nobel Prize laureates for economy in threads here and I’ve just found the medical, chemistry, and physics laureates giving their support to Kerry [here.](http://www.johnkerry.com/pdf/nobels.pdf)
So who are the Nobel Peace Prize laureates backing?
(I don’t want to know the whys, just the whos)
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### Author:  [@stpauler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stpauler)
#### Post date: [October 29, 2004, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/campaign-endorsements-for-nobel-peace-prize-laureates/271906/2 "2004-10-29T19:28:51Z")
Oops, that thread title should be **from** and not **for.**
I could get by with a little help from the mods. I could get high with a little help from the mods. 😃
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### Author:  [@Mops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mops)
#### Post date: [October 29, 2004, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/campaign-endorsements-for-nobel-peace-prize-laureates/271906/3 "2004-10-29T21:33:34Z")
Perusing [a list of Peace Prize laureates](http://almaz.com/nobel/peace/peace.html) I’d expect hardly any of them (with the exception of Jimmy Carter) to be in a position to officially endorse Bush or Kerry, because most of them are
- dead
- international organizations or UN agencies; they obviously cannot interfere in a nation’s internal politics
- NGOs - they wouldn’t want to get into the bad books of of whoever is elected
- still active as politicians and political activists - for much the same reason
- government officials and diplomats - protocol of their role pretty much forbids them officially endorsing a candidate in a foreign election.
The laureates of the other Nobel prizes OTOH are mainly academics who are much less constrained in expressing their personal opinion.
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### Author:  [@Roches](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roches)
#### Post date: [October 29, 2004, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/campaign-endorsements-for-nobel-peace-prize-laureates/271906/4 "2004-10-29T22:18:19Z")
I doubt many people are going to decide who they vote for based on what some ‘ivory-tower intellectual elitist’ thinks. (This opinion is far from true; the average middle manager is far more elitist than most scientists I’ve met. But it’s a catchphrase people can understand.) There are quite a few names I recognize, though, and a couple names I would have expected to see (scientists who I would think are rather liberal) but probably didn’t endorse anyone.
Is there a corresponding list for Bush? I can’t imagine that many Nobel laureates would endorse him, simply because funding is a constant struggle for scientists and he hasn’t been terribly generous. (Reduced funding is analogous to a substantial tax increase, or even price caps in business.) There is also, in the US, a significant correlation between supporting Bush and being Protestant, and an inverse correlation between religious involvement and working in science.
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### Author:  [@stpauler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stpauler)
#### Post date: [October 29, 2004, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/campaign-endorsements-for-nobel-peace-prize-laureates/271906/5 "2004-10-29T23:36:17Z")
Well, [Jimmy Carter is backing Kerry.](http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/news/local/states/georgia/counties/houston_peach/10012191.htm)
> [@](#):
>
> “It’s no secret that I’m a Democrat, and I hope the Democrats will prevail,” said Carter, expressing his support for Democratic nominee Sen. John Kerry over Bush, the Republican incumbent.
[George W Bush](http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1068699/posts) (along with Tony Blair) were nominated for the 2004 Peace Prize.
> [@Roches](#):
>
> Is there a corresponding list for Bush? I can’t imagine that many Nobel laureates would endorse him, simply because funding is a constant struggle for scientists and he hasn’t been terribly generous. (Reduced funding is analogous to a substantial tax increase, or even price caps in business.) There is also, in the US, a significant correlation between supporting Bush and being Protestant, and an inverse correlation between religious involvement and working in science.
Here’s the list of the 6 Nobel laureate economists who support [Bush](http://www.nationalreview.com/nrof_comment/release_bc04_economists.html).
Here’s the list of the 10 Nobel laureate economists who support [Kerry.](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2735269.stm)