Oh-Bah-Mah!
Hey, don’t get me wrong. I love President Obama as much as the Europeans do (we endorsed him way back when Clinton was still leading the primaries). But Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize is just…awesome. He’s been in office for nine months and hasn’t actually done anything at all yet. Except, maybe, increase the troop count in Afghanistan.
For the record, we still believe Twitter was the best choice for winning the Nobel Peace Prize this year.
Was Obama awarded the prize for his heroic attempts to fight the spread of disease? Or perhaps the fact that he is single handedly saving OpenID from its tragic yet inevitable end? We may never know.
Far be it from me to criticize the winning of an award based on nothing but an incredible ability to manipulate the press. We’re guilty of that ourselves with the CrunchPad, some would say.
But perhaps in the future the committee should wait a few years to review the accomplishments of a nominee before giving the award. Like they do with the prizes for physics and chemistry, among others. Seven of the last ten Nobel Peace Prizes were awarded for “effort” rather than achievement. And when it comes to just trying your hardest v. actually getting something done, Sean Connery said it best: