Courageous or Dumb? Giving Obama the Nobel Prize!

Unless you've been living in a box with your ears stuffed with cotton and your eyes taped shut, you probably know by now that The Norwegian Nobel Committee has awarded President Barack Obama the Nobel Peace Prize. I'm pretty sure it was one of the first things I heard this morning as I turned on the television to catch the morning news.

All I could think was this must sit like a sticky and volatile mixture of gasoline and nitroglycerin on the already smoldering faces of Obama haters. That thought was hard to deal with before I had my coffee so I quickly moved to a different perspective; I thought it's kinda like sitting next to the guy who wins three times in a row at Bingo, including the nightly Jackpot, and then waking up the next morning to see his face on television cashing in the winning Lottery ticket. You gotta concede the guy is living right or perhaps the smartest or luckiest guy around.

Was there any doubt that the Obama-haters would jump out right away and blame President Obama? Come on, it's not like he really had anything to do with this award - I'm sure he was as shocked as most of us to hear the news. None the less, the barrage has already started. The irony here is that the man, Alfred Nobel, who is behind this award

must literally be rolling around in his grave at all of the turmoil and uproar that today's selection has caused. Here we have an instrument that is supposed to recognize efforts towards peace creating so much discord.

According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize should be awarded "to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses."

Alfred Nobel's will stated that the prize should be awarded by a committee of five people elected by the Norwegian Parliament. Norway and Sweden were at that time still in union, and with Sweden responsible for all foreign policy, Nobel felt that the prize might be less subject to political corruption if awarded by Norway.

So presumably, this committee spent seven months scrutinizing the 205 resumes of dissident monks, human rights advocates, political figures, and other nominees before concluding that President Barack Obama was their man.

Quite possibly, Barack Obama was their best man. Think about it. When was the last time YOU did anything to promote or work for -" fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses."

I'm not sure I've done any of that stuff lately. Heck, I don't even know what most of that means!

If President Obama did anything at all this year to that end, then I'd submit that he probably did more than anyone else because there are people fighting all over the globe and I don't see anyone out there doing anything to stop it or even slow it down.

In my heart of hearts though, I must consider if this was a political move by the committee to, perhaps, stimulate President Obama to keep working for and pursuing those lofty and illusive goals of peace.

Are they the puppeteers manipulating the puppet? Are those five members sitting around tonight sipping vodka thinking -"We've really done it! Alfred Nobel will be proud of us. Shucks, we deserve the Nobel Peace Prize."

Was this a Courageous move or a Dumb move by the Nobel Committee?

I don't know.... It's too close for me to call. But I enjoy thinking about it!

Time will surely tell!