Does President Obama Deserve The Noble Peace Prize?

I woke up this morning at around 10 am Pacific Standard Time and tunedinto KPCC 89.3, a National Public Radio station here in Los Angeles,located on the campuses of Pasadena City College. The host of Air Talk,Larry Mantle was discussing the subject of President Barack Obama being honored with the prestigious award of the Nobel Peace Prize. Theconversation was centered on whether the President deserved the awardor not. Numerous callers called in and weighed in on the conversation.Some people were happy to learn that the President had won such a bigaward whilst others were very contemptuous and said they believe that President Obama does not deserve to be given such a huge award. I tried to call in on the program but all my efforts proved futilebecause the phone lines were very busy. People wanted to share theiropinion about the issue. That is very normal on this radio stationduring talk shows. A lot of listeners yearn to chime in a comment ortwo. It is a very common practice here in Southern California. The host Larry Mantle, made a lot of comments about President Obamabeing given this Nobel Peace Prize award, but the one comment thatcaught my attention and of which I thought warranted my response wasone that he said the President himself noted that he does not deservethe award because other people were more deserving. And so according tothis host, President Obama conceded that he was undeserving of theaward. He also mentioned that people like Nelson Mandela who have a track record of human rights activities was more deserving. These statements prompted me to write this article. First of all, every Noble Prize winner gives a very modest account oftheir achievements and they are invariably humble when accepting thisgreat award. It was in this same spirit that the president of the United States of America, President Barack Obama ,gave his acceptance speech today. He was humbled and he was very modestabout such an honor being bestowed upon him. He said in his own words,"I am surprised and deeply humbled" by the award. The President gave aspeech of about 6 minutes long on his acceptance of the Nobel PeacePrize. You can find this video here: http://nux.cc/qzfb46. Secondly, I will address the comment that many more nominees likeNelson Mandela deserved the award more than President Obama did. Hereare the facts: Nelson Mandela has already been awarded the Nobel PeacePrize! He was awarded in 1993. December 10, 1993 to be exact. So thehost mentioning that Mandela deserved this year's award more thanPresident Obama just doesn't make sense. You can read Nelson Mandela'sacceptance speech in 1993 here: http://nux.cc/98nrwq. Moreover, the Nobel Prize committee explicitly stated that: "TheNorwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for2009 is to be awarded to President Barack Obama for his extraordinaryefforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation betweenpeoples." Note the reason for the award: "...for his extraordinaryefforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation betweenpeoples." Read the full text on the Nobel Peace Prize Committee'swebsite here: http://nux.cc/8pynqh. So the prize was not givenaccording to what he has accomplished over the years but because he hasinstituted measures to help achieve global peace and as such deservesto be commended. The President himself stated that he will accept theaward as a call to action. In conclusion, I think the President deserves to receive this award.And I would like to congratulate President Barack Obama for winning theNobel Peace Prize for 2009. Continue to inspire the world and do whatyou set forth to do- to make the world a better place for all. And by the way Mr President, use the prize money to shop at http://www.dotcomsavings.com.

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