Obama Wins the Nobel Peace Prize, . . .

[jazzcyclist]

And the White House is just as shocked as everybody else. You have to wonder if what happened last Friday had anything to do with this. Was this a makeup call?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33237202/ns ... ite_house/

And just think, a week ago there were knuckle-draggers dancing in the streets.

[Marlow]

W................................O................ .................W

Didn't see that coming!

No matter what your political persuasion, this is a moment for celebration and hope.

[mump boy]

er

i'm a big obama fan of course but he's won this for what exactly ??

not being bush !! coz that's about all he's achieved in the cause of world peace so far. rather premature i think :shock:

[Marlow]

i'm a big obama fan of course but he's won this for what exactly ??

yeah, this is a little nebulous

citing his outreach to the Muslim world and attempts to curb nuclear proliferation.

I just hope he doesn't become the next Jimmy Carter, who was the most moral president of the 20th Century, which made him incapable of doing the things a President HAS to do. (and making naive gestures like the OG Boycott!!)

[jazzcyclist]

I just hope he doesn't become the next Jimmy Carter, who was the most moral president of the 20th Century, which made him incapable of doing the things a President HAS to do. (and making naive gestures like the OG Boycott!!)

I think that's one area where Obama and Carter differ. Not only do I not see Obama boycotting the Olympics, but I think U.S.-Russian relations will reach an all-time high on his watch. I also see Obama lifting the Iranian sanctions that Carter imposed 30 years ago. By the way, who ran the U.S.O.C. in 1980? Whoever, he/she was, I wish that person would have followed the lead of the British O.C. who ignored Margaret Thatcher's boycott.

[tandfman]

. . . . who ran the U.S.O.C. in 1980? Whoever, he/she was, I wish that person would have followed the lead of the British O.C. who ignored Margaret Thatcher's boycott.

His name was Robert Kane and yes, it would have been nice if he had told off Carter the way his British counterparts did.

[Daisy]

. . . . who ran the U.S.O.C. in 1980? Whoever, he/she was, I wish that person would have followed the lead of the British O.C. who ignored Margaret Thatcher's boycott.

His name was Robert Kane and yes, it would have been nice if he had told off Carter the way his British counterparts did.

Was that possible? Would he not have been tarred with the unpatriotic label?

As to Obama, I can only guess they are hoping to add momentum to his first efforts at reducing the nuclear arsenal and his willingness to negotiate in general. Very strange, since I always thought that Nobel prizes were awarded retrospectively. But the Peace prize has always been a bit of an odd ball.

[jazzcyclist]

. . . . who ran the U.S.O.C. in 1980? Whoever, he/she was, I wish that person would have followed the lead of the British O.C. who ignored Margaret Thatcher's boycott.

His name was Robert Kane and yes, it would have been nice if he had told off Carter the way his British counterparts did.

Was that possible? Would he not have been tarred with the unpatriotic label?

Sebastian Coe and his compatriots seemed to come out of it unscathed.

[Daisy]

Sebastian Coe and his compatriots seemed to come out of it unscathed.

UK is not US.

For example, the flag pin nonsense during the last election would never have happened in the UK.

[tandfman]

I think the USOC could have made a principled objection to political interference in the Olympic Games and they would have gotten a lot of public support. IIRC, the reason they felt they had to buckle under to Carter was that the administration was reportedly threatening to pull government contracts from USOC sponsors if they they didn't boycott.

It was a very ugly situation, and of course one result of the 1980 boycott was the Soviet-GDR boycott in 1984 that seriously weakened so many events at the Los Angeles Games.

PS - If we are assigning blame to Carter (as we should), let's not forget to name Lloyd Cutler, the Carter adviser who apparently came up with this horrible idea and then championed it.

[jazzcyclist]

Sebastian Coe and his compatriots seemed to come out of it unscathed.

UK is not US.

For example, the flag pin nonsense during the last election would never have happened in the UK.

To be honest, I don't think there would have been any flag pin controversy if Obama was White. John McCain never wore a flag pin throughout the entire campaign, and it was never an issue for him.

[Cooter Brown]

i'm a big obama fan of course but he's won this for what exactly ??

From the radio today,

The Nobel Peace Prize is given frequently as an incentive to those who have set peace goals to stay the course.

[Daisy]

John McCain never wore a flag pin throughout the entire campaign, and it was never an issue for him.

Really? You have to love that faux patriotism.

[Mighty Favog]

I just hope he doesn't become the next Jimmy Carter, who was the most moral president of the 20th Century, which made him incapable of doing the things a President HAS to do. (and making naive gestures like the OG Boycott!!)

When asked if the U.S. should rebuild Vietnam, a country it destroyed at a cost of three million Vietnamese lives and 58,000 U.S., Carter's glib response was, "Well, the destruction was mutual."

Carter visited the Shah in 1979 and praised him for his "progressive administration" at a time when the Shah's military was gunning down thousands of unarmed demonstrators.

In response to the Shah's fall in the 1979 revolution, Carter, in his 1980 State of the Union address, set forth his Carter Doctrine: "Let our position be absolutely clear: An attempt by any outside force to gain control of the Persian Gulf region will be regarded as an assault on the vital interests of the United States of America, and such an assault will be repelled by any means necessary, including military force."

And then there's shipping arms to Indonesia to help them slaughter the East Timorese.

One could make a convincing argument that most of our Iran & Iraq problems of the last 19 years started under Carter. They were made worse under Reagan and Bush, but Carter was no saint.

[jazzcyclist]

John McCain never wore a flag pin throughout the entire campaign, and it was never an issue for him.

Really? You have to love that faux patriotism.

Check out this Republican Congressman's faux patriotism.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5LZI50d ... re=related