# obama wins nobel peace prize....what is the sound of a right-wing head exploding? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 9, 2009, 9:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-wins-nobel-peace-prize-what-is-the-sound-of-a-right-wing-head-exploding/513172 "2009-10-09T09:07:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 15
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2009, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-wins-nobel-peace-prize-what-is-the-sound-of-a-right-wing-head-exploding/513172/281 "2009-10-09T21:15:46Z")
> [@Scylla](#): > > Isn’t he the first American to win without a valid birth certificate? First Kenyan, ever. ---
**Author:** ![pinkyvee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/6de8d8/32.png) [@pinkyvee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkyvee)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2009, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-wins-nobel-peace-prize-what-is-the-sound-of-a-right-wing-head-exploding/513172/282 "2009-10-09T21:20:39Z")
> [@](#): > > > [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > > > Get someone to nominate you, and then convince the Nobel Committee that you’re capable of it. Screw the Nobel … I’m going for the Heisman (I intend to earn it some day) Trophy! ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2009, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-wins-nobel-peace-prize-what-is-the-sound-of-a-right-wing-head-exploding/513172/283 "2009-10-09T21:28:27Z")
I don’t think Obama supporters, of which I suppose I am one, should be happy about this. It is a manifestation of a particular European strain of easy, sheep-like hatred of Bush, about whom most of us actually know very little. It’s pretty obvious that the award is not for Obama, but for the American people, for electing a slightly less right-wing president. It’s patronising and stupid, in other words. The Nobel Prize was already slightly ridiculous, and this hasn’t helped. I take it about as seriously as I take the Oscars. ---
**Author:** ![LonghornDave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a87d85/32.png) [@LonghornDave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonghornDave)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2009, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-wins-nobel-peace-prize-what-is-the-sound-of-a-right-wing-head-exploding/513172/284 "2009-10-09T21:31:52Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > No, it wouldn’t be the correct response, and let me tell you why. Because the whole “Obama as Messiah” meme is retarded on the face of it. The last thing we need is to hear more right-wing American frothers accusing the left-wing American frothers of undue worshipfulness over something they had nothing to do with in the first place. Who says that the criticism is only about “left-wing American frothers”? Why isn’t about anyone, anywhere giving undue “worshipfulness”? ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2009, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-wins-nobel-peace-prize-what-is-the-sound-of-a-right-wing-head-exploding/513172/285 "2009-10-09T21:33:48Z")
> [@Ximenean](#): > > I don’t think Obama supporters, of which I suppose I am one, should be happy about this. It is a manifestation of a particular European strain of easy, sheep-like hatred of Bush, about whom most of us actually know very little. It’s pretty obvious that the award is not for Obama, but for the American people, for electing a slightly less right-wing president. It’s patronising and stupid, in other words. Now, now. Bush worked very hard to merit that hatred, especially considering he started from a position of worldwide support after 9/11. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2009, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-wins-nobel-peace-prize-what-is-the-sound-of-a-right-wing-head-exploding/513172/286 "2009-10-09T21:39:30Z")
> [@Ximenean](#): > > It is a manifestation of a particular European strain of easy, sheep-like hatred of Bush, about whom most of us actually know very little. In order to really dislike Bush, you’re saying, one needs to get to know him up close? There is nothing easy about disliking Bush; one had to experience what he did to get to that point and that wasn’t easy at all. My impression is that Europeans don’t like Bush because he was completely dismissive of them and did a horrible job. A lot of Americans dislike him for the exact same reason, although they might know more of the details and be more concerned with domestic affairs. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Bith\_Shuffle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ce73a5/32.png) [@The\_Bith\_Shuffle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Bith_Shuffle)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2009, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-wins-nobel-peace-prize-what-is-the-sound-of-a-right-wing-head-exploding/513172/287 "2009-10-09T21:40:15Z")
This is such a clueless decision. I’m really surprised. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2009, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-wins-nobel-peace-prize-what-is-the-sound-of-a-right-wing-head-exploding/513172/288 "2009-10-09T21:49:23Z")
> [@E-Sabbath](#): > > Al Gore. Yasser Arafat/Rabin/Perez. Kissinger/Le Duc Tho. > That’s just offhand, though. Al Gore won in 2007, after having served as US VP for eight years and doing a huge amount to “…build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change.” Yasser Arafat got the award in 1994, after more than 20 years as PLO leader, and six years after he caused the PLO to accept the UN resolution affirming Israel’s right to exist. Rabin got the award in 1994 as well. He had succeded Golda Meir as Israeli PM in 1974. He served as Defense Minister and was responsible for the dialog with the PLO following the first Intifada in 1988. I’m going to stop now and ask that you offer up some serious answers here instead of making me type complete paragraphs to refute names you’re seemingly offering up without much thought. Arafat and Rabin, to be sure, also have balancing acts of violence on their records, and you may be arguing that, _balance_ they didn’t do enough to outweigh their violence to deserve the award. But that wasn’t the question. It was about anyone who had the same paucity of actual accomplishment that Obama has on the issue. Rabin and Arafat had plenty of accomplishments. You might think the good wasn’t sufficiently outweighed by the bad, but reasonable people may disagree. I’m asking about simply the PRESENCE of accomplishments, as opposed to weighing the effects of different accomplishments. ---
**Author:** ![Uzi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/91b2a8/32.png) [@Uzi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uzi)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2009, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-wins-nobel-peace-prize-what-is-the-sound-of-a-right-wing-head-exploding/513172/289 "2009-10-09T21:54:39Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > This made me laugh. We need some fighting peace troops. Kickin’ ass and takin’ names for peace! Fuch ya! Kind of a Team America type of thing. Lol! ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2009, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-wins-nobel-peace-prize-what-is-the-sound-of-a-right-wing-head-exploding/513172/290 "2009-10-09T22:08:57Z")
To answer the OP: the sound is very similar to the noise you get when you stuff a firecracker up a frog’s ass, and set it off, with a little bit of a watermelon hitting the sidewalk from the third floor window. You’re welcome. ---
**Author:** ![Anduril](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c0e974/32.png) [@Anduril](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anduril)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2009, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-wins-nobel-peace-prize-what-is-the-sound-of-a-right-wing-head-exploding/513172/291 "2009-10-09T22:18:16Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Do you think if you keep saying that over and over again, it will become true? Actually, yes. Particularly when you cannot refute it. ---
**Author:** ![Anduril](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c0e974/32.png) [@Anduril](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anduril)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2009, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-wins-nobel-peace-prize-what-is-the-sound-of-a-right-wing-head-exploding/513172/292 "2009-10-09T22:20:13Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > It would insult those who gave it to him. What he HAS said is perfect – “I don’t deserve it, but I will accept it as a call to action.” As is everything he has ever said and will say? Right, Dio? ---
**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, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-wins-nobel-peace-prize-what-is-the-sound-of-a-right-wing-head-exploding/513172/293 "2009-10-09T22:20:34Z")
> [@Huerta88](#): > > All I’ll say is that, as increasingly happens, I am unable to distinguish reality from an Onion article. [And not you alone.](http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion/482445/the_aspirational_nobel) ---
**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, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-wins-nobel-peace-prize-what-is-the-sound-of-a-right-wing-head-exploding/513172/294 "2009-10-09T22:22:48Z")
> [@Anduril](#): > > Actually, yes. Particularly when you cannot refute it. It is more likely that you can not support your opinion. > **[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. ---
**Author:** ![toofs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4491bb/32.png) [@toofs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toofs)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2009, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-wins-nobel-peace-prize-what-is-the-sound-of-a-right-wing-head-exploding/513172/295 "2009-10-09T22:25:17Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > This made me laugh. We need some fighting peace troops. Kickin’ ass and takin’ names for peace! Fuch ya! > > We’re gonna kill anyone who does not want to get themselves some peace! Who want’s a piece of this? Huh? Come on! That’s what they tell us we are. The commander in chief has yet to recall me or my unit. I don’t feel at peace, especially when I point guns at people when I am in their country. He needs to bring us home. Earn the prize, right? ---
**Author:** ![Scylla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2009, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-wins-nobel-peace-prize-what-is-the-sound-of-a-right-wing-head-exploding/513172/296 "2009-10-09T22:25:44Z")
The OP and several of our more… kneejerk leftists have been going on about the tidal wave of outrage and hatred and anger that this was generating on the right. Do we have, like, examples that this is the majority reaction? or has the bar on supporting stupid memes been lowered yet further as a form of affirmative action for our less mentally able board participants? ---
**Author:** ![Anduril](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c0e974/32.png) [@Anduril](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anduril)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2009, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-wins-nobel-peace-prize-what-is-the-sound-of-a-right-wing-head-exploding/513172/297 "2009-10-09T22:27:36Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > It is more likely that you can not support your opinion. > > [Obama Wins Nobel Prize in Part for Confronting 'Great Climatic Challenges' - NYTimes.com](http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2009/10/09/09greenwire-obama-wins-nobel-prize-in-part-for-confronting-55250.html) Admit it. You don’t even know what I originally posted. Kool-Aid? ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2009, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-wins-nobel-peace-prize-what-is-the-sound-of-a-right-wing-head-exploding/513172/298 "2009-10-09T22:29:25Z")
Obama hasn’t put his life on the line to protest or oppose an unjust government or brought together groups to end a long-lasting conflict, or spent years or decades organizing a group that’s been working on some major global issue. I see no way to dispute any of that. His administration could achieve things on par with past honorees, but it hasn’t to this point. That wouldn’t be possible in eight months. I don’t think that invalidates the award or makes it a bad choice, but it has to be acknowledged that even if you think Obama’s firmly on the right track, this is partly about the course he is charting and not about what’s been done along the way. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2009, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-wins-nobel-peace-prize-what-is-the-sound-of-a-right-wing-head-exploding/513172/299 "2009-10-09T22:30:03Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > I’m going to stop now and ask that you offer up some serious answers here instead of making me type complete paragraphs to refute names you’re seemingly offering up without much thought. > > \ > > It was about anyone who had the same paucity of actual accomplishment that Obama has on the issue. I offered you the two women above. Paucity of accomplishments for Obama in comparison to them? The ladies got a lot of people to march. Hell, the Teabagger got more people. Anyway: > [@](#): > > (AP) [Iran and six world powers put nuclear talks back on track](http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/10/07/ap/national/main5368321.shtml) at a landmark session that included the highest-level bilateral contact with the U.S. in years. > > China’s premier, Wen Jiabao, met the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, today at the start of a state visit, amid signs the [North may be willing to restart talks over its nuclear weapons programmes.](http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/oct/04/china-wen-north-korea-visit) > > Moscow: [Russia and the US are set to hold crucial talks on missile defence system](http://www.zeenews.com/news569378.html) and a new arms control pact to replace Soviet-era START-1 Treaty ahead of a key visit by the American Secretary of State next week. So nothing much…just little things like nuclear proliferation. YMMV ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2009, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-wins-nobel-peace-prize-what-is-the-sound-of-a-right-wing-head-exploding/513172/300 "2009-10-09T22:32:41Z")
> [@Scylla](#): > > …Do we have, like, examples that this is the majority reaction? or has the bar on supporting stupid memes been lowered yet further as a form of affirmative action for our less mentally able board participants? To hear is to, like, obey! [http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/10/right-wingers-pitch-fits-over-nobel-peace-prize.php?ref=fpa](http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/10/right-wingers-pitch-fits-over-nobel-peace-prize.php?ref=fpa) (Lefty site. Shields up!) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-wins-nobel-peace-prize-what-is-the-sound-of-a-right-wing-head-exploding/513172.md?page=14) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-wins-nobel-peace-prize-what-is-the-sound-of-a-right-wing-head-exploding/513172.md?page=16)