What?????!!!!!! President Barack Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize

YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!!!!!!! The man has done nothing, I repeat nothing substantive and he gets the Nobel Prize.

The last Nobel Peace Prize recipient I have any respect for is Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank for their microcredit work. Yunus and Grameen created something that helps people. What the hell has Barack Obama done to help people.

I have no respect for the Nobel Peace Prize committee, whatsoever.

For the list of Nobel Peace Prize winners, see here.

Betsy Newmark quips:

Heck, I would have preferred Bono to this. Instead they award Obama for the speeches he's given.

The Times of London (yes that London) reacted thusly:

The award of this year’s Nobel peace prize to President Obama will be met with widespread incredulity, consternation in many capitals and probably deep embarrassment by the President himself.

Rarely has an award had such an obvious political and partisan intent. It was clearly seen by the Norwegian Nobel committee as a way of expressing European gratitude for an end to the Bush Administration, approval for the election of America’s first black president and hope that Washington will honour its promise to re-engage with the world.

Instead, the prize risks looking preposterous in its claims, patronising in its intentions and demeaning in its attempt to build up a man who has barely begun his period in office, let alone achieved any tangible outcome for peace.

At least the Brits have a sense of proportion.

Mickey Kaus suggests:

Turn it down! Politely decline. Say he's honored but he hasn't had the time yet to accomplish what he wants to accomplish. Result: He gets at least the same amount of glory--and helps solve his narcissism problem and his Fred Armisen ('What's he done?') problem, demonstrating that he's uncomfortable with his reputation as a man overcelebrated for his potential long before he's started to realize it. ... Plus he doesn't have to waste time, during a fairly crucial period, working on yet another grand speech. ... And the downside is ... what? That the Nobel Committee feels dissed? ... P.S.: It's not as if Congress is going to think, well, he's won the Nobel Peace Prize so let's pass health care reform. But the possibility for a Nobel backlash seems non-farfetched.

You can bet that the hubris of Barack Obama will not allow him to decline the Nobel Prize.