# If not Obama, who should have won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 9, 2009, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-not-obama-who-should-have-won-the-2009-nobel-peace-prize/513216 "2009-10-09T18:17:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2009, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-not-obama-who-should-have-won-the-2009-nobel-peace-prize/513216/21 "2009-10-09T19:53:43Z")
The prize is supposed to promote and facilitate a goal of world peace. Giving it to US Presidents who promote and facilitate peace is exactly the kind of thing the award is intended for. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2009, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-not-obama-who-should-have-won-the-2009-nobel-peace-prize/513216/22 "2009-10-09T20:46:42Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > The prize is supposed to promote and facilitate a goal of world peace. Giving it to US Presidents who promote and facilitate peace is exactly the kind of thing the award is intended for. If the prize becomes routine, a matter of status and unconnected to any real accomplishment, it will not promote anything. It will be the 'peace" equivalent of those military “honours” and “decorations” that European royalty once festooned themselves so liberally with - totally meaningless, when compared with (say) the Victoria Cross, which could only be won through actual merit; awarded for simply existing and being royal, rather than for doing anything noteworthy. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2009, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-not-obama-who-should-have-won-the-2009-nobel-peace-prize/513216/23 "2009-10-09T20:59:54Z")
Beyonce. She had one of the greatest videos of all time. ---
**Author:** ![Belowjob2.0](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Belowjob2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Belowjob2.0)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2009, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-not-obama-who-should-have-won-the-2009-nobel-peace-prize/513216/24 "2009-10-09T21:31:22Z")
Various Chinese dissidents are more than worthy of the prize, and giving it to one of them would really be speaking truth to (emerging world) power. The ruling cabal in China would lose face and be very, very angry. The Obama choice is the safest, lamest possible one. It may actually hurt him here at home, and limit his willingness to make good but unpopular decisions in foreign policy. ---
**Author:** ![Belowjob2.0](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Belowjob2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Belowjob2.0)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2009, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-not-obama-who-should-have-won-the-2009-nobel-peace-prize/513216/25 "2009-10-09T21:32:57Z")
Obama to Nobel committee: “You like me! You really, really like me!” ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2009, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-not-obama-who-should-have-won-the-2009-nobel-peace-prize/513216/26 "2009-10-09T21:47:34Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > The prize is supposed to promote and facilitate a goal of world peace. Giving it to US Presidents who promote and facilitate peace is exactly the kind of thing the award is intended for. 1. What U.S. President hasn’t promoted peace? All world leaders promote peace. 2. What has Obama done to facilitate peace? Nothing. Indeed, he’s proposing to escalate one of the wars his country is involved in. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2009, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-not-obama-who-should-have-won-the-2009-nobel-peace-prize/513216/27 "2009-10-09T22:17:31Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > 1. What U.S. President hasn’t promoted peace? All world leaders promote peace. Does “He has Weapons of Mass Destruction!” ring a bell? A few years back? > [@RickJay](#): > > 1. What has Obama done to facilitate peace? Nothing. Indeed, he’s proposing to escalate one of the wars his country is involved in. > **[Obama Wins Nobel Prize in Part for Confronting 'Great Climatic Challenges' -...](https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/gwire/2009/10/09/09greenwire-obama-wins-nobel-prize-in-part-for-confronting-55250.html)** > > President Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize today in part for what the award's organizers said was a "more constructive role in... > [@](#): > > President Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize today in part for what the award’s organizers said was a “more constructive role in meeting the great climatic challenges the world is confronting.” > > The stunning decision to honor Obama just nine months into his first term caught even the White House off guard. > > “Well, this is not how I expected to wake up this morning,” Obama said during a Rose Garden speech. > > Moments later, the president highlighted his early efforts to rid the world of nuclear weapons and halt the threat of global warming – work cited by the Nobel Prize committee that is a long way from completion. > > “These challenges can’t be met by any one leader or any one nation,” Obama said. “And that’s why my administration has worked to establish a new era of engagement in which all nations must take responsibility for the world we seek.” > > Turning to global warming, Obama added, “We cannot accept the growing threat posed by climate change, which could forever damage the world that we pass on to our children – sowing conflict and famine, destroying coastlines and emptying cities. And that’s why all nations must now accept their share of responsibility for transforming the way that we use energy.” > > In Oslo, Thorbjørn Jagland, the chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee and a former prime minister of Norway, explained that Obama’s early international diplomacy efforts helped him beat out more than 200 other nominees to become the third sitting U.S. president to win the award. The sitting presidents to win the prize were Theodore Roosevelt in 1906 and Woodrow Wilson in 1919. Former President Jimmy Carter won the award in 2002. I mentioned before that I think other people or organizations deserved the award, but I see why they gave it to Obama, it will remain a controversial choice, but I think the opposition put against Obama getting the price is reaching silly levels. ---
**Author:** ![Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troy_mcclure_sf/32/4150_2.png) [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troy_McClure_SF)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2009, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-not-obama-who-should-have-won-the-2009-nobel-peace-prize/513216/28 "2009-10-09T22:18:40Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Giving it to US Presidents who promote and facilitate peace is exactly the kind of thing the award is intended for. Dude, we **get it**. Note the thread title of “ **If not Obama**.” ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2009, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-not-obama-who-should-have-won-the-2009-nobel-peace-prize/513216/29 "2009-10-09T22:38:51Z")
I’d have given it to Taylor Swift. Just to piss off Kanye West. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2009, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-not-obama-who-should-have-won-the-2009-nobel-peace-prize/513216/30 "2009-10-09T22:50:09Z")
I would say Robert Gates or David Petreaus for their efforts in bringing **actual** peace to Iraq. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Some\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ad7895/32.png) [@Just\_Some\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Some_Guy)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2009, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-not-obama-who-should-have-won-the-2009-nobel-peace-prize/513216/31 "2009-10-09T22:57:57Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > Does “He has Weapons of Mass Destruction!” ring a bell? A few years back? One moment and the next moment it was a “roadmap to peach in the Middle East” which is the original point. Even the biggest warmongering President in living memory had his moments of supporting world peace. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2009, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-not-obama-who-should-have-won-the-2009-nobel-peace-prize/513216/32 "2009-10-09T23:14:26Z")
> [@smiling\_bandit](#): > > I might select a leader of the opposition to Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe. [Tsvangirai was on the short list, at least.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Nobel_Peace_Prize#Nominees) ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2009, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-not-obama-who-should-have-won-the-2009-nobel-peace-prize/513216/33 "2009-10-09T23:15:47Z")
> [@Belowjob2.0](#): > > Various Chinese dissidents are more than worthy of the prize . . . And one of them was on the short list, too. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2009, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-not-obama-who-should-have-won-the-2009-nobel-peace-prize/513216/34 "2009-10-09T23:19:07Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > It diminishes what the Prize is supposed to be for, to make its award a mere matter of routine. > > "Congratulations on your election last week, Mr. President. Ah, I see you are a Democrat. Here’s your Nobel. " Unfortunately, the way things stand now, such recognition of a non-Pub president of the world’s greatest military power **does,** all by itself, serve the ends Nobel stated. And that is to the Republican Party’s shame, nobody else’s. May this inspire it to re-invent itself and purge its neocon wing. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2009, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-not-obama-who-should-have-won-the-2009-nobel-peace-prize/513216/35 "2009-10-09T23:20:42Z")
I say they should’ve given the prize to a courageous international pot smuggler – someone who’s actually **doing** something to spread peace in the world! ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2009, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-not-obama-who-should-have-won-the-2009-nobel-peace-prize/513216/36 "2009-10-10T00:26:34Z")
> [@Curtis LeMay](#): > > I would say Robert Gates or David Petreaus for their efforts in bringing **actual** peace to Iraq. I guess it wouldn’t be any stranger than giving it to Arafat, but it would still be a hell of a stretch. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2009, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-not-obama-who-should-have-won-the-2009-nobel-peace-prize/513216/37 "2009-10-10T00:48:31Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > 1. What U.S. President hasn’t promoted peace? All world leaders promote peace. Just curious . . . what planet are you from? ---
**Author:** ![Scylla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2009, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-not-obama-who-should-have-won-the-2009-nobel-peace-prize/513216/38 "2009-10-10T00:59:45Z")
Bono ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2009, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-not-obama-who-should-have-won-the-2009-nobel-peace-prize/513216/39 "2009-10-10T01:30:55Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > What’s wrong with that? World Wars one and two for starters… ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2009, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-not-obama-who-should-have-won-the-2009-nobel-peace-prize/513216/40 "2009-10-10T01:39:40Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > My first thought was that maybe it should have gone to Aung San Suu Kyi, but it turns out she won the prize in 1989, and I think that statement has already been made. > > I think someone in another thread mentioned the Dalai Lama, who won the prize in 1991. It was the other way around. Suu Kyi won in 1991, the Dalai Lama in 1989. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-not-obama-who-should-have-won-the-2009-nobel-peace-prize/513216.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-not-obama-who-should-have-won-the-2009-nobel-peace-prize/513216.md?page=3)