This was the very first bit of news I woke up to this morning, and honestly, I read the text and thought I was probably still dreaming. xP
My reaction is still pretty much wait, what? I mean, if you look at past winners, this year's pick is pretty out of left field. Martti Ahtisaari, Al Gore, Muhammad Yunus--these are people who've been working for 30+ years to accomplish significant things. If you look at their credits compared to Obama's, it's kind of laughable (especially when compared to someone like Jimmy Carter or Kofi Annan).
I'm not saying he won't accomplish a lot, but it seems ridiculous to me to award this honor in the hope that he will. Maybe I'm too results/facts oriented, but even the Nobel Committee's justification paragraph seems to lack substance. Compare it to last year's announcement or 2006 to see what I mean (not shafting Al Gore; the 2007 page wouldn't load in English for some reason).
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Date: 2009-10-09 06:26 pm (UTC)My reaction is still pretty much wait, what? I mean, if you look at past winners, this year's pick is pretty out of left field. Martti Ahtisaari, Al Gore, Muhammad Yunus--these are people who've been working for 30+ years to accomplish significant things. If you look at their credits compared to Obama's, it's kind of laughable (especially when compared to someone like Jimmy Carter or Kofi Annan).
I'm not saying he won't accomplish a lot, but it seems ridiculous to me to award this honor in the hope that he will. Maybe I'm too results/facts oriented, but even the Nobel Committee's justification paragraph seems to lack substance. Compare it to last year's announcement or 2006 to see what I mean (not shafting Al Gore; the 2007 page wouldn't load in English for some reason).