By Keith Johnson
Al Gore at least had to write a couple of books and make a documentary to win one-half of a Nobel Peace Prize. President Barack Obama has won the whole thing, apparently just for his intentions to do something about nuclear weapons, climate change, and international strife.
After President Obama became the third sitting president to win “the world’s most prestigious prize,” head-shaking has been rampant. Typical is our own Iain Martin: “It’s so post-modern: a leader can now win the peace prize for saying that he hopes to bring about peace at some point in the future.” (Don’t even ask the Taliban their reaction to the prize.) More reactions here.
The Nobel committee put special emphasis on the nuclear-weapons push. But there was also a nod to President Obama’s stance on climate change. Specifically: “Thanks to Obama’s initiative, the USA is now playing a more constructive role in meeting the great climatic challenges the world is confronting.”
That seems to set the bar pretty low. Yes, candidate Obama (nominations for the prize closed in February) embraced a tougher stance on greenhouse-gas emissions than the previous administration. Yes, he’s been pushing for a clean-energy revolution at home.
I also think his work on Global Warming has a lot to do with this prize, when I read the news on Twitter posts I thought it had actually been mostly due to that...
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