You Cannot Be Serious: Obama Receives Nobel Peace Prize

Yes, I know Grunt has already mentioned this but I must weigh in. I realize this is all political and the Nobel Peace Prize is a joke considering the likes of Al Gore, Jimmy Carter and Yasser Arafat have received it, but seriously, don't you have to at least accomplish something to win this?

U.S. President Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for giving the world "hope for a better future" and striving for nuclear disarmament, in a surprise award that drew criticism as well as praise.

The decision to bestow one of the world's top accolades on a president less than nine months into his first term, who has yet to score a major foreign policy success, provoked gasps of surprise from journalists at the announcement in Oslo.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee praised Obama for "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples."

The first African-American to hold his country's highest office, Obama has called for disarmament and worked to restart the stalled Middle East peace process since taking office in January.

"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," the committee said in a citation.

Hope for a better future? How about telling that to the folks in Afghanistan.

I'm not the only one scoffing at this absurdity.

"Obama has a long way to go still and lots of work to do before he can deserve a reward," said Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri. "Obama only made promises and did not contribute any substance to world peace. And he has not done anything to ensure justice for the sake of Arab and Muslim causes."

Issam al-Khazraji, a day laborer in Baghdad, said: "He doesn't deserve this prize. All these problems -- Iraq, Afghanistan -- have not been solved...The man of 'change' hasn't changed anything yet."

Liaqat Baluch, a senior leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami, a conservative religious party in Pakistan, called the award an embarrassing "joke."

Indeed, it is. Why not just award this esteemed prize to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad? He's done as much to accomplish "peace" as Obama.

It's all about the Hopenchange, I guess.

I wonder what Neda Agha Sultan's family thinks about about this?

She should be the one getting this prize: