This?

Or this?

About even I figure.

“Honey, could you repeat that first thing?”

“That you won the Nobel Peace Prize?”

“Yeah, that one.”

“You won the Nobel Peace prize.”

“That’s what I thought you said—Michelle!”

And now the naysayers are screaming that he hasn’t done anything to deserve this, that it’s a mockery, that it’s a political maneuver and any other type of general miserable-ness they can possibly can think up. And I’ll bet not one of them visited the Nobel Peace Prize website to find out the reasons as to why Obama won. And that’s the purpose of this post. To clear the air on the how’s and why’s of how this occurred.

So…

Why did Obama win?

That’s the big question going around right now. Here’s the answer:

(Note: all quotes below are taken directly from the Nobel Peace Prize organization’s website)

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 is to be awarded to President Barack Obama for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples. The Committee has attached special importance to Obama’s vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons.

Obama has as President created a new climate in international politics. Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play. Dialogue and negotiations are preferred as instruments for resolving even the most difficult international conflicts. The vision of a world free from nuclear arms has powerfully stimulated disarmament and arms control negotiations. Thanks to Obama’s initiative, the USA is now playing a more constructive role in meeting the great climatic challenges the world is confronting. Democracy and human rights are to be strengthened.

Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world’s attention and given its people hope for a better future. His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world’s population.

For 108 years, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has sought to stimulate precisely that international policy and those attitudes for which Obama is now the world’s leading spokesman. The Committee endorses Obama’s appeal that "Now is the time for all of us to take our share of responsibility for a global response to global challenges."

Oslo, October 9, 2009

I’d say that’s pretty straight forward, wouldn’t you? The next question then would be:

How are Laureates selected?

At the first meeting of the Nobel Committee after the February 1 deadline for nominations, the Committee’s Permanent Secretary presents the list of the year’s candidates. The Committee may on that occasion add further names to the list, after which the nomination process is closed, and discussion of the particular candidates begins. In the light of this first review, the Committee draws up the so-called short list – i.e. the list of candidates selected for more thorough consideration. The short list typically contains from five to twenty candidates.

The candidates on the short list are then considered by the Nobel Institute’s permanent advisers. In addition to the Institute’s Director and Research Director, the body of advisers generally consists of a small group of Norwegian university professors with broad expertise in subject areas with a bearing on the Peace Prize. The advisers usually have a couple of months in which to draw up their reports. Reports are also occasionally requested from other Norwegian and foreign experts.

When the advisers’ reports have been presented, the Nobel Committee embarks on a thorough-going discussion of the most likely candidates. In the process, a need sometimes arises to obtain additional information and updating from the group of advisers, especially if any of the nominees are involved in current political affairs. The Committee has as a rule reached its conclusion by mid-September, but has been known not to arrive at a decision until at its very last meeting before the announcement of the Prize at the beginning of October.

The Committee seeks to achieve unanimity in its selection of the Peace Prize Laureate. On the rare occasions when this proves impossible, the selection is decided by a simple majority vote.

I’ll point out one thing here in case anyone missed it. The deadline for nominations for the year (2009 in this case) is February 1st and I’ve noticed throughout the day that certain people have been ranting about the fact that the President was nominated only 11 to 12 days after he was sworn in.

Well, so what? Someone(s) wished to nominate Obama for the Nobel Peace Prize and they had only till February 1, 2009 to do it. It certainly didn’t mean that Obama had any chance whatsoever of winning the thing. The number of nominees for the 2009 Nobel Prize was 205, the highest in the organization’s history so he had just as much chance to eliminated or end up on the short list as any of the other nominees. And by the way, the nomination process is the only time sources external to the Nobel Committee have any influence in any phase of the selection process.

So the last question in my mind would be:

Who may submit nominations?

Each year between 150 and 200 different nominations are received of candidates for the Nobel Peace Prize. The number has risen steadily as the Prize has become increasingly globalized. There may occasionally be several thousand nominators behind one and the same nominee.

Who, then, may nominate candidates for the Peace Prize?

According to the statutes of the Nobel Foundation, a nomination is considered valid if it is submitted by a person who falls within one of the following categories:

Members of national assemblies and governments, and members of the Inter-Parliamentary Union

Members of the Permanent Court of Arbitration at the Hague and of the International Court of Justice at the Hague

Members of Institut de Droit International

University professors of history, political science, philosophy, law and theology, and university presidents and directors of peace research institutes and institutes of international affairs

Former Nobel Peace Prize Laureates and board members of institutions that have previously been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize

Present and past members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee

Former permanent advisers to the Norwegian Nobel Institute

So, there you have it. Why he won, how it was done and who may nominate. It’s isn’t disclosed who nominated whom nor is the database of nominees made public for less than 50 years (see the website for more info).

As for myself, I think the guy deserves it as defined by the official reasons stated above. However, I don’t think it’s really going to help him any in fact, I think it may make his job all that much harder. Not that I don’t think he’ll keep right on trying, I’m sure he will. The trouble will come from that Nobel pry bar that’s going to take the already substantial rift between the republicans and the democrats and rip it wide open and, unfortunately, Obama’s going to have that to deal with as well.

Opinions always welcome.

And of course, like always, most of the blame falls on the President except this time the people appear to have lost their collective minds in that they seem to have completely forgotten the fact that President Obama did not create this mess.

It took decades of past administrations ignoring the situation, making wrong decisions, passing this and denying that just to make sure they lined their pockets along with lining the pockets of their “partners” and associated big business, ad infinitum. The end result of their antics was the collapse of our banks, mortgage lenders, housing market, auto industry, etc and our overall economy at the end of last summer and the final sign of the impending collapse was the massively overinflated price of fuel that hit the roof and dropped like a rock all in the space of less than 3 months.

As a consequence, all the dirty deeds (well, a large majority of them anyway) were aired before the public and more are still waiting in the wings. And lo, the sleeping American public finally woke up from their slumber of never ending complacency and screamed for change.

And our new President walked right into this mess. Did everyone suddenly forget that our economy went down the old proverbial toilet before Obama was elected?

Now, less than a year later, the public is jumping up and down like a bunch of frightened baboons screaming and pointing fingers at the President when he’s actually trying to keep the good ol’ United States of America from failing completely which is exactly what would have happened if he’d decided not to bail out the banks and the auto industry when he did. They also seem to not realize that it’s going to take years for the US to recover from this debacle if it ever does.

What no one seems to realize is that this is a whole new ballgame. There is absolutely no precedence for any of the decisions the new administration makes because no situation like the current one has ever existed before. The old way of doing business and running this country simply does not work any longer and if anyone bothered to reflect on this even a little bit would realize it. It’s the keeping to the “old way” long after it was obsolete that created this mess in the first place. Now “the powers that be”, for all intents and purposes, have to start from scratch to find a new way that will sustain us through the next several decades of rapid change. And change it will whether we like it or not.

Now the people call our President a socialist, a fascist and other such ridiculous terms when I can guarantee these people wouldn’t know socialism or fascism if it virtually walked up to them, slapped them upside the head and informed them that they’d been (hypothetically) living in it for over half their lives. In other words, these people have absolutely no idea what they’re talking about.

And as far as those who have absolute audacity to equate our President with Hitler just need to be slapped…a lot. And then be forced to visit the holocaust museum followed by a tour of Auschwitz… in February. Just another reason to resurrect putting people in stocks on the public square just for being ignorant fools who have no clue about anything.

It’s a whole new world out there folks and we’re just at the very brink of it, a cusp if you will, and the “good old days” where everything remained the same for a decade or three are dead and gone. And for those who are blaming our President for trying to keep our country from going down the sewer and taking us with it, you better damn well hope that the current administration can find a way for America to survive just for the next 4 to 8 years before the next administration takes over.

There…I’m done.

Because of this ability to read not only various daily news items but the feedback on these items as well, I’ve had several thoughts running around my head of late. Thoughts mainly revolving around our new president and this stimulus package package that was recently passed.

Any one of these ideas might be worth a post and may very well be in the near future but since time is limited (and because I’m headed out this afternoon for a 2 day trip to the Boston VA and I need to get ready) I’m just  going to list some of these thoughts in no particular order.

So…

• No, Obama is not a socialist nor is he a communist. He wasn’t Muslim either. Get over it.
• Yup, he’s black. Get over that one too.
• 95% of Americans alive today wouldn’t know a communist if they were dropped into the middle of Red Square in 1960 and bumped into Nikita Khrushchev. The other 5% wouldn’t either.
• Same goes for a socialist. The majority of Americans simply don’t have a clue despite what they may think. Why should they?
• America (meaning the USA) is a republic whose political structure is based on democracy. It’s economical structure is based on capitalism. For the most part each individual state in the union operates autonomously. Among the towns and cities and their various political structures there’s a fair helping of democracy, socialism, communism, nationalism, feudalism and more all mixed together. The phrase “melting pot” does not just apply to the people.
• About 95% of all comments I’ve read on news items about the economic crisis and the stimulus package are complaints, rants and insults (some racist). Around 5% actually offer productive insights into the situation.
• The current economic crisis is real, no doubt. It’s also 100% uncharted territory. If someone either professionally, politically or otherwise states they know what to do, they’re blowing smoke…period. No one knows what do to do. It’s a “take it one day at a time” situation for now.
• Today’s crisis is not comparable to the Great Depression. It’s 2009 not the 1930’s. Think about it.
• It took a second world war to halt the last depression, it was never “solved”. Think about that also.
• Obama never said the economic stimulus package was going to solve the crisis. It’s a “jump start” only. Let’s just hope the engine catches.
• No, tax cuts alone would not have helped. Not even a little bit. Tax cuts alone never helped before so why should they now?
• Bush, McCain and others warned congress that this crisis was going to happen back in 2002 (and even prior to that). Congress ignored them. Fancy that.
• Only the American people along with a great deal of damn good improvisation and flexibility by the Federal government can turn this current crisis around.
• Most Big Business mainstream players today will either adapt or fail entirely. Guess which one of the above two options will be the most common.
• Things are going to get worse before they get better and it’s “We the People” that will determine whether we make it through this or not. The question is whether “We the People” are still capable of weathering a bad storm or not.
• And no, it wasn’t just the government that caused let crisis happen in the first place. It was just one of the many players.

I know that a few might take umbrage at some of my thoughts listed above but then again, they’re only thoughts. And that’s what this blog is all about—thoughts.

It’s a rough road ahead to be sure. The kind of road that this country (and most of the rest of the world as well), as it exists today, has never dealt with before. The old ways of doing business either politically or economically have come to an end and, to my way of thinking, the American people have been way too complacent about it up to now, myself included.

At present it’s more akin to sailing an early 19th sailing vessel through a hurricane in that there’s going to be a whole lot of “sailing by the seat of your pants” and not much else for awhile. Let’s just hope the captain and our fellow crew mates know what they’re doing.

And I’d bet that I’m not the only one whose had thoughts running around their heads these days. Anyone else?

See you in a day or so.

There was a bit of stumbling at first during the swearing in but it was smoothed out quickly enough. Makes me wonder how many will take up on that as a bad omen. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if some actually did as sad as it sounds.

Anyway…

It was a hell of a speech that threw a hell of a lot of responsibility on the government’s shoulders—and a lot of responsibility on the shoulders of the American people as well and that’s the way it should be. When it comes to running a country nothing is ever one sided…ever.

For too long now “we the people” have been complacent with our lot in life and this year most decidedly woke us right up now didn’t it? And now we have a brand new, just sworn in, [already] history making President in the White House and he’s going to have one hell of a busy term starting tomorrow. I hope he appreciates his 47 years ‘cos he’s going to need all the energy he can get.

If there was just one major point he got across in his speech it was that the only way we’re ever going to be able to tackle these obstacles and conundrums that we face on our own soil and abroad is to work together, people and government, to make it happen and for the first time in my adult life I feel that we actually have a chance to do this. On the other side of the coin I also realize that we equally have a chance to screw things up royally, both people and government.

I have no idea if we’ll be able to take care of all the things that were mentioned during that speech especially in the light that these situations Obama ticked off are very true indeed, there’s no denying their existence. He has one huge job to do…

…and so do we.

I wonder if this country, President, Government and People, can actually pull this off.

I’ll just leave it at that for now. I need lunch, my blood sugar is getting low.