If you agree that this prize is really for bringing a change of direction to a country whose actions influence the world, then the comment is saying that it’s the people who saw the problems with the Republican world view and caused it to be voted out of power who are the real cause of the change.

I can’t really wrap my brain around that either. Does that apply to all elected officials who win a Nobel or just Obama & Americans? In other words, hell no.

I worked for Obama and voted for him. But he has got to understand that happy thoughts and good intentions go nowhere in this evil world. If he can’t shove his own party into line, how is he going to manage the Iranians, North Koreans, Pakistanis, Chinese, Russians and the rest of the world’s troublemakers?

Tallgirl, I’m with you. I hope someday Obama lives up to this prize, but right now it’s just posturing by the Nobel committee. If you want to snub American writers, that’s one thing, but really, we’e got enough political grief here already.

“To be honest, I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many of the transformative figures who’ve been honored by this prize — men and women who’ve inspired me and inspired the entire world through their courageous pursuit of peace.

But I also know that throughout history the Nobel Peace Prize has not just been used to honor specific achievement; it’s also been used as a means to give momentum to a set of causes.”

I can see how the committee might have thought that awarding him the prize would reinvigorate some of the “yes we can” global optimism that seems to have waned since the election. Personally, I feel almost more cynical now than I did when Bush was in office. I really like Obama. He’s always struck me (perhaps naively) as a good, decent man who honestly believes in working together to make our country and the world a better place. Yet much of what Ive seen since his election signals to me that very few people in power are truly interested in following suit, especially many in our Congress who continue to preen and bicker just like nothing’s changed. I know politics is slimy. But now I am starting to believe that to get anything done you have to be an unabashed bastard asshole. And whether any given constituent sees this as an evil or a virtue just depends on what side of the political spectrum he/she is on. Maybe we are too big and too divided to do anything but waffle every few years between one party or the other, getting little done as we go.

-Debbie Downer

if our economy can bring the global economy to its knees, it’s a measure of what our military means to global stability.

for all the bush-cheney years meant to those of who live in the us, the damage to those who live abroad is much greater. obama’s campaign was the beginning of a national shift, and his election literally means lives. i like the old british saying that there is only an inch of difference between Labour and the Tories, but in that inch, we survive. for many third world people Obama is a gap that is the difference between life and death. he not the only one, but he is one.