Before I left work this morning, a co-worker told me Obama had won the Nobel Peace Prize. I dismissed him as another person just trying to get me riled up and start an argument. I mean, the idea was so ridiculous I couldn’t take it seriously. After all, what has he done besides talk and talk and talk.
The stunning choice made Obama the third sitting U.S. president to win the Nobel Peace Prize and shocked Nobel observers because Obama took office less than two weeks before the Feb. 1 nomination deadline. Obama’s name had been mentioned in speculation before the award but many Nobel watchers believed it was too early to award the president.
You think? I mean, how early is too early?
After they gave the Peace Prize to Gore, I thought they had hit rock bottom. I remember he beat Irena Sendler, a woman who saved 2,500 Polish Jews from the Holocaust. (Read that again and tell me the Nobel Peace Prize has any credibility.)
When I heard Barack Obama won, I instantly wondered, “Who did he beat?”
Ingrid Betancourt, French-Colombian ex-hostage
AFP/Getty Images
Ingrid Betancourt holds her award from Reporteres Sans Frontieres on Sept. 24, 2009 in Montreal. Betancourt was captured by FARC in 2002 while campaigning for the Colombian presidency and held for more than six years before being rescued.
If anyone knows how to bounce back from tragedy, it’s Betancourt. During the Colombian senator’s 2002 presidential campaign, she was abducted by a marxist organization and held captive for six-and-a-half years. Since being rescued in July, 2008, she has been dubbed a “freedom fighter” and “symbol of hope.”
Denis Mukwege, Medical doctor
Dr. Denis Mukwege jokes with patients outside the surgical ward of Panzi hospital in Bukavu, DRC. On this photo’s date, Dr Mukwege had treated 21,000 women suffering from devastating gynecological injuries as a result of rape in Congo’s brutal war. He is the only gynecologist treating these wounds in the country. Oct. 14, 2008
Seeing pregnant women arrive at the hospital on a donkey and dying during childbirth encouraged Mukwege to study gynaecology and obstetrics. Noticing that so many women had been sexually abused, he later founded the Panzi hospital in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Hundreds of thousands of female sexual violence victims have been helped so far.
Handicap International and Cluster Munition Coalition
AP
An injured boy is tied on a bed after a bus he was in was hit by a mine. Nine women and seven children are among the 30 killed in the blast. The packed bus traveling from the western city of Herat to Kandahar, Afghanistan hit a land mine in Maiwand district Tuesday. Thirty-nine people were wounded.
These organizations are recognized for their consistently serious efforts to clean up cluster bombs, also known as land mines. Innocent civilians are regularly killed worldwide because the unseen bombs explode when stepped upon. Thirty-four nations are known to have air-dropped cluster bombs from the 1970s to the 1990s.
You have got to be kidding me?
Unfortunately, the only joke here is that Obama was more deserving than any of these three.
And there were 205 people/organizations nominated. Who else was more deserving? I’d say 204 of them.
UPDATE:
Sweet. Thanks to Mary Catherine Ham for the link at The Weekly Standard. If you came here from there, welcome! Don’t forget to subscribe.
Also, thanks to Below the Beltway for the link as well.
UPDATE 2:
In The Colony reminded me of another award Obama won before he was elected: Country Music Entertainer of the Year! There were rumors of a Nobel Prize back then.
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