Ex-Nobel secretary, Geir Lundestad, admits that awarding the committee’s esteemed Peace Prize to Barack Obama in 2009 was a mistake.
A press release at the time announced that Obama had earned the award based on “his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples,” though he had only been in the White House mere weeks when he was nominated. The committee awarded the prize to Obama based entirely on his media popularity, not based on anything he actually did.
Lundestad, aside from admitting that the stunt had proven a failure, revealed the reason behind it wasn’t exactly in keeping with the credibility of the panel or the award, once a symbol of excellence.
The former secretary told the Associated Press that “the committee hoped the award would strengthen Mr. Obama.”
Understanding nearly a decade later that strengthening an American president wasn’t exactly in the committee’s job description, Lundestad voiced some regret.
BBC News – Nobel secretary regrets Obama peace prize https://t.co/JnmE4r9WBL
— Kimberly Guilfoyle (@kimguilfoyle) January 3, 2019
“No Nobel Peace Prize ever elicited more attention than the 2009 prize to Barack Obama,” Lundestad writes in his memoir.
“Even many of Obama’s supporters believed that the prize was a mistake,” he adds. “In that sense, the committee didn’t achieve what it had hoped for.”
Obama expanded and continued war and tensions across the globe
While it’s good to hear Lundestad admit the Obama Peace Prize was a mistake, it isn’t simply because the committee wasn’t able to strengthen his presidency that made it so.
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The real reason is that they awarded a prize for peace to a man who had no diplomatic achievements, would allow terrorism to flourish throughout the Middle East, and who would become the longest wartime president in history, expanding war into several countries like Libya and Syria.
The committee at the time wrote, “Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world’s attention and given its people hope for a better future.”
That ‘better future’ didn’t quite pan out. A report in November of 2015 indicated that terrorism-related deaths had more than quadrupled since Obama took office, actually peaking in 2014.
America, Rolling Stone reported, had been at war under Obama “longer than under George W. Bush — or any other U.S. president, for that matter,” and that over 2,500 Americans had died in Afghanistan and Iraq by May of 2016.
Peace wasn’t exactly Obama’s strength.
The failed former president is no longer pictured in the section titled “Featured laureates” on the Nobel website, reserved for such individuals as Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mother Teresa.
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I have to agree with President Trump. Obama was the lousiest president the US has ever had.
Hoped it would strengthen Obama! That means they knew he was weak at the time! Pure unadulterated BS from what was once a prestigious organization. Now just another group of flunkies being controlled by the NWO!
So, it was a mistake which most of the World knew. Take it back and Amit your mistake!! Politics — Drain the SWAMP 😡😡
Not sure if I’m alone in this but when I think of the “Nobel Peace Prize” I think of a prize named after a guy in a white lab coat with a beard, and has now become an insignificant political award that amounts to nothing more than a politically biased pat on the back from a liberal group that somehow scams enough money to award it to someone based on phony non-existent criteria.
Giving the prize to that little musim fraud, obama*, cheapened it down to the price of a dinged up hubcap !
The committee was stupid to think they could play politics or the race card.
Now and ever hereafter, the prize is no more than an over publicized “atta-boy” !
By giving him the prize for doing nothing, you have succeeded in turning one of the most prestegeous awards in the world to a prize found in CrackerJacks ! Great Job !
*Lower Case Intentional
Everybody new that it was a mistake but nobel politician people. The same mistake like the secretary Kissinger, the drug singer Bob Dylan, ……
Golly – I was really worried there… the Nobel Prize Committee actually has an IQ higher than Forrest Gump’s and realized they presumed that the half-and-half was as smart as his 4-year indoctrination course said he was. BHO’s IQ probably exceeds that of the committee, but he was a non-producer like most communists are, and now that we have a ‘free-enterprise’ President they wake up to the difference. It’d be nice if they retroactively revoked it.
So true
The Nobel Committee can pee on your leg and tell you it’s raining all they want. Obama – or whoever the hell he really is – was not given that award due to media popularity – they can spin it all day long – he was given that award because he is black – well half black really – and it was his white half that supposedly qualified his citizenship – let alone the presidency. It was all touchy feel good B.S. from the left. The last time i looked there were a hell of a lot of black people in this world – and they are 100% black too. The Nobel committee better start cranking out a lot more medals.
Nobel secretary tries to sell book by throwing Obama under the bus.
Obama- already threw self under the bus.
2009 got the prize, by now all his prize money spent, Nobel Prize was influenced by politics at that stage.
While we’re at it, why not reconsider Al Gore’s and Yasser Arafat’s Peace Prize?
Oh no you don’t! You can’t just oh well and be done with it, Hillary.
You fakers knew it was baloney the whole time and did it for politic$.
Not to mention ManBearPig.. C’mon man, it’s hard to take you seriously anymore.
Even in the $cience$
Obozo the Kenyan Klown, what an unmitigated disaster! It will take several more Trump’s to fix the corruption and destruction caused by this complete idiot!
“once a symbol of excellence”
And that is the key phrase in regards to that totally irrelevant award since as they admitted this was given out for no reason to an unaccomplished dolt…….
One has to wonder how a man with moderate wealth draws a President’s salary for 8 years and then comes out of it with over $100M. Well, $5M at least is accounted for.
giving Obama a Nobel Prize cemented that prizes status as just another libby participation trophy, much like an oscar or a golden globe award is…these feel good trophies mean absolutely nothing….
Another form of affirmative action…
I never knew it went as far as the Presidency.
The former secretary told the Associated Press that
“THE COMMITTEE HOPED THAT IT WOULD STRENGTHEN MR OBAMA”
Understanding nearly a decade later that strengthening an American president wasn’t exactly in the committee’s job description, Lundestad voiced some regret.
SURE SOUNDS LIKE AFFIRMATIVE ACTION POLICY….
Obozo was awarded this honor, based on his lies and biased media response! He went on an international tour, apologizing for America! He lowered the bar substantially for ethical standards and telling the truth!
Thank God for President Trump!
America First!
Obama could have declined. He didn’t.
Well, take the darn thing back from Obumber.
It took you almost 10 years to figure that one out? Hell, I knew it the minute it came out of your mouth.
Look at the Nobel Peace Prize recipients. Arafat? Gore? The IPCC? Obama? The EU? Scoundrels and imbeciles! The Norwegian Nobel Committee, a five-member committee appointed by the Parliament of Norway, has demonstrated a high degree of political bias and extreme incompetence in its selections. To suggest that the members of the committee demonstrate less-than-average intelligence in recent years would be a kindness.
“… the recipient (of the Nobel Peace Prize) is selected by the Norwegian Nobel Committee, a five-member committee appointed by the Parliament of Norway.
The awards given to Mikhail Gorbachev,[26] Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres, Menachem Begin and Yasser Arafat,[27][28] Lê Đức Thọ, Henry Kissinger,[29] Jimmy Carter,[30] Al Gore,[31] the IPCC,[32] Liu Xiaobo,[33][34][35] Aung San Suu Kyi[36][37][38] Barack Obama,[39][40][41][42] and the European Union[43] have all been the subject of controversy.” (wiki)
My comment:
Look at the above list of award recipients. Arafat? Gore? The IPCC? Obama? The EU? Scoundrels and imbeciles! The Norwegian Nobel Committee, a five-member committee appointed by the Parliament of Norway, has demonstrated a high degree of political bias and extreme incompetence in its selections. To suggest that the members of the committee demonstrate less-than-average intelligence in recent years would be a kindness.
Obama being Obama had to know that he hadn’t done anything to earn the Nobel Peace Prized yet he accepted it anyway
dylee36, it was cheapened the moment they gave it to Obama.
Right or wrong, he recd it and its over. Although Im not an Obama supporter, this going backward to discredit the giving of the Nobel Peace Prize to Obama is not right. It cheapens the merit of the prize. He won it, let it be.
The ‘prize’ was a mockery long before Obama received. Yassar Arafat receiving one? Really?
To bad he doesn’t get a prize for being the most stupid of all, after making the Nobel prize a mockery of the world.
Give the useless person 4 million dollars for doing nothing, ess than nothing and fanning the flames of Jihadi extremism – DOH!!!!!
What an admission just way way way too late and no promise they won;t give some useful idiot infidel more money to promote Islam as the next great thing on the way to integration globalism social-Islamoism, gag. Just cut my head off like Nancy Pelosi’s daughter says to do unto Trump.
What Obama did in America more than provide for a revocation of the award, but apparently they don’t do that.
What he did internationally not only justified revocation, it justifies never awarding such a prize to a person based only on rhetoric and hope in the future.
Obama’s support of terrorism via the Muslim Brotherhood alone is proof that my above assertions are correct and irrefutable.
Due to the propriety and eternal effects of the “Beer Summit”, he was a shoe-in.
I thought soros BOUGHT the prize for him….????
As El Rushbo said BO was awarded the prize on the come. He had done nothing to earn it much as he’d won the Presidency without ever doing anything except being a rabble rouser, or more PC version, Community Organizer. Voting present most of his Legislative career, and digging up trash on political opponents is not Nobel worthy!
Rescind the award, ask Mr. Obama to pay back the 1,000,000 and then to write a letter to the committee explaining that HE made the mistake in accepting it…….
I have always said he did nothing to get that award. The only reason he got it is he was the first black president.
I DIDN’T know that obozo had “strength”…WHEN, WHERE, HOW….??? Oh, strong in FLAPPING his lips, giving EMPTY, HOLLOW speeches…???? Yeah, THAT’s WHAT it was……!!!!
the entire 8 year o-bungle horror show was a mistake. the “prize” simply ‘highlighted’ it.
wife of RET/DAV/USA
Well, well will wonders never cease.
Obama was a miserable president responsible for more military deaths there any president in memory. The idea that he won the Nobel peace prize is a horrible joke.
Hillary Clinton actually said one thing that was absolutely true during her run for Dem. Presidential nominee against Obama. She accurately stated that Obama “Gives a good speech.” That is the extent of his achievements.
Kind of confirms what we thought all along.
Obama supported the Muslim brotherhood in overthrowing Egyptian president Mubarak, Gaddafi and instigated the Syrian war resulting in the ISIS caliphate. He supported and financed Iranian interventions in Yemen and Syria. He attempted to arm the Syrian rebels resulting in the attack on Bengazi and the death of ambassador Stevens and three others.
This was an absolutely disgusting event
I agree wholeheartedly with Nathan! I no longer have any respect for this body! Obama’s ‘AWARD’ was
apparently for ‘breathing’…….!
Well, you certainly lost your credibility and compromised your integrity. But, then again, the Nobel Peace Prize has been a joke for years, especially since Arafat.
Not sure if I’m alone in this but when I think of the “Nobel Peace Prize” I think of a prize named after a guy in a white lab coat with a beard, and has now become an insignificant political award that amounts to nothing more than a politically biased pat on the back from a liberal group that somehow scams enough money to award it to someone based on phony non-existent criteria.
Giving the prize to that little musim fraud, obama*, cheapened it down to the price of a dinged up hubcap !
The committee was stupid to think they could play politics or the race card.
Now and ever hereafter, the prize is no more than an over publicized “atta-boy” !
By giving him the prize for doing nothing, you have succeeded in turning one of the most prestegeous awards in the world to a prize found in CrackerJacks ! Great Job !
*Lower Case Intentional
Everybody new that it was a mistake but nobel politician people. The same mistake like the secretary Kissinger, the drug singer Bob Dylan, ……
Golly – I was really worried there… the Nobel Prize Committee actually has an IQ higher than Forrest Gump’s and realized they presumed that the half-and-half was as smart as his 4-year indoctrination course said he was. BHO’s IQ probably exceeds that of the committee, but he was a non-producer like most communists are, and now that we have a ‘free-enterprise’ President they wake up to the difference. It’d be nice if they retroactively revoked it.