Obama wins 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.

I was driving in the car when this news came over the radio and I was laughing so hard that I had to pull over.

US President Barack Obama has won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.

The Nobel Committee said he was awarded it for "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and co-operation between peoples".

The committee highlighted Mr Obama's efforts to strengthen international bodies and promote nuclear disarmament.

It's the spluttering outrage this is going to cause amongst the nutcases on the right which makes me laugh so much. Malkin, Beck, O'Reilly, Hannity and the rest of them are literally going to have their heads explode.

Now, to be utterly honest, I can't but help feel that this award has been given to Obama ridiculously prematurely. I would have been happier if he had sorted out a Middle East peace deal and brought about substantial reductions in nuclear weapons before they handed him the gong, but their reasoning for doing so also makes me laugh.

Asked why the prize had been awarded to Mr Obama less than a year after he took office, Nobel committee head Thorbjoern Jagland said: "It was because we would like to support what he is trying to achieve".

"It is a clear signal that we want to advocate the same as he has done," he said.

He specifically mentioned Mr Obama's work to strengthen international institutions and work towards a world free of nuclear arms.

The statement from the committee also said the US president had "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," it said.

The committee added that the US was now playing a more constructive role in meeting "the great climatic challenges" facing the world, and that democracy and human rights would be strengthened.

Obama is being rewarded for strengthening international institutions - the UN - and for trying to bring about a reduction in nuclear stockpiles, all the things which enrage the right the most.

Indeed, he's being rewarded for pursuing all the things which the last eight years of George Bush were built on denigrating.

On the radio I also heard someone from the committee saying that, and I paraphrase as I'm typing this from memory, "Obama has given the world hope".

I remember when the Republicans based an entire presidential campaign reminding us that hope, "was just a word."

When I think of their outrage, I just find the whole thing hysterically funny. Michelle Malkin will have to take to a dark room with a vinaigrette cloth over her head for the entire weekend.

UPDATE:

I knew they would not disappoint and, true to form, they haven't let us down:

RedState's Erickson smears Obama's Nobel Peace Prize as "an affirmative action quota".

I did not realize the Nobel Peace Prize had an affirmative action quota for, but that is the only thing I can think of for this news.

Kilmeade asks whether Obama delayed decision on Afghanistan troop request in order to receive Nobel Peace Prize.



Fox & Friends criticize Obama's Nobel Peace Prize as anti-Bush.



And leave the nuttiest reaction to Glenn Beck. Of course, even as he says this, he acknowledges that it will cause controversy, which is all this silly little man ever cares about.

Beck: "Nobel Peace Prize should be turned down by Barack Obama and given ... to the Tea Party goers and the 9-12 Project".



Michelle Malkin:

The World Apology Tour yields dividends.

And returning to her theme that Obama is uppity, oops, sorry "elitist":

If Obama had an ounce of real humility, he’d refuse to accept the award.

See how they are doing this? It's his fault for being given this award, rather than the Nobel Committee.

Don't get me wrong, I think it's plain silly that he has been given this before any major peace deals have been struck or any nuclear weapons decommissioned. But I also remember insane right wingers arguing that Bush and Blair deserved the Nobel Peace prize for the illegal war they waged on Iraq. They literally thought those two should get a peace prize for waging war.

Indeed, right wingers like Australia's John Howard made the case that Bush and Blair had made the world a safer place.

US President George W Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who have been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, have helped make the world safer, Prime Minister John Howard said today.

"I believe both of them made a strong contribution to producing in the longer run a safer world," Mr Howard told journalists in Perth.

"I am absolutely unconditional in my continued support for what they did, I have a great respect for both of them."

Now, to have given it to those two would have been truly bonkers. But all of the people listed in this update would have applauded it as the right decision.

UPDATE II:

The fat prescription drug addict chips in:

Conservatives pounced on the the Nobel Prize committee's decision to award President Barack Obama the Nobel Peace Prize, with talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh calling it a "greater embarrassment" than losing the Olympics.

Can someone explain to Limbaugh that you don't lose the Olympic games? One country wins the right to host them. No-one loses. That's like claiming that actors nominated for Oscar's "lose" them.

It's ridiculous. To become one of the finalists is an honour in itself.

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Tags: Obama, Nobel peace prize