Depends on their definition of “Extraordinary”

October 9, 2009 at 6:59 am (America Lost, Anti-Sharia, Libtards, Stop Obama, Thanks for ruining my monitor, Village Idiots)

The alarm radio was blaring. Blearily, I hit the snooze. Wow. I must have been dreaming – Obama awarded the Nobel Peace Prize?

Not I wasn’t dreaming. I’m just stunned.

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

Allahpundit is looking around for Rod Sterling.

This makes three times, incidentally, in just seven years that the committee’s turned the Peace Prize into a “**** Bush” award by bestowing it on a liberal American Democrat.

More from the committee:

“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,” Thorbjoern Jagland, chairman of the Nobel Committee said. “In the past year Obama has been a key person for important initiatives in the U.N. for nuclear disarmament and to set a completely new agenda for the Muslim world and East-West relations.” [Emphasis Admin]

At least they got that last part right. But is it an agenda that includes an intact and powerful America in the future? The committee’s water cooler must have been spiked with HopeNChange Kool-Aid.

The Memeorandom thread is here. Updates throughout the day as the story unfolds…

UPDATE I: Opinions:
Fausta
Gerard
Dan Reihl (who, by the way, will be on BBC Live today at 11:30 EST on World Have Your Say)
Legal Insurrection
Powerline
Belmont Club
Mickey Klaus

Pundit and Pundette sums up nicely

So he’s getting it for his pro-Islamic rhetoric, his adolescent no-nukes mentality, his denigration of the US, and his infatuation with the UN. Oh yeah, and for bringing us all “hope.”

And he’s viewed as a narcissistic leader who is weak and vain enough to let his foreign policy be influenced by the ego-stroke of the award. I’m afraid they’ve got his number. This will only puff him up and encourage his president-of-the-world ambitions further.

UPDATE II: More Opinions:
Pat in Shreveport
Jules Crittenden
Michelle Malkin
Erick
Ed Morrissey
Ace of Spades
Gateway Pundit

UPDATE III: Even More Opinions:
Anchoress
Yuval Levin
Glenn Reynolds
Times of London – “Mockery”
Jimmie Bise (put liquids aside)
Ed Morrissey, #2

Benjamin Kerstein/The New Ledger on what, exactly…

Obama, by contrast, has precisely two concrete accomplishments to his credit: letting the military do its job with a handful of Somali pirates, and pumping enormous amounts of money into the American economy, thus far with inconclusive results. At best, the jury is still out on everything else he has attempted. On the issues that tend to interest the Nobel committee, this particularly apparent. His engagement of the Iranians has lead nowhere; his efforts toward peace in the Middle East have proved an embarrassing failure; his pledge to reverse Bush-era security policies and close Guantanamo Bay has been, ironically, reversed; the withdrawal from Iraq is precarious; he has snubbed fellow peace prize-winner the Dalai Lama; in regard to Darfur, North Korea, Pakistan, and other trouble spots, he has done nothing; he has made no decision whatsoever in regard to Afghanistan, and will most likely pursue not peace but an escalated war; and his relationship to European leaders is already deeply strained, to the point that the president of France, of all places, has criticized him for being too soft on the Iranian issue. Given all this, it is difficult to conclude that the Nobel committee’s decision is anything other than the final nail in the coffin of Obamamania, a “we’re bigger than Jesus” moment scripted like the final scene from Duck Soup, with the committee and all who sail in her replacing the “Hail Freedonia!”-singing matron being pelted with mud by the Marx Brothers.

UPDATE IV: Even More, More Opinions:
Robert Stacy McCain
Steve Eggleston
Dr. Dave
Dr. Melissa
Donald Douglas
Scott Ott
Rick Moran
BuzzFeed (h/t VodkaPundit – Hope you feel better!)

Troglopundit

“You gotta admire that Brad Woodhouse. Even circus contortionists stare at him with their mouths wide open.”

UPDATE V: Paco has the committee transcript. Really.
Ron Radosh – will Ayers write the acceptance speech?
Bookworm Room has more updates than me.