President Barack ObamaPresident Barack Obama accepted the 2009 Nobel Prize for Peace today.

Amazing, absolutely amazing!

There are not enough words to describe how proud I am of this man.  First impressions are just that…first impressions, and he has proven (at least in my mind) he is the real deal.  Mr. Obama is now the face of our nation and all of us must support him through his journey — our journey.  I believe he welcomes differing ideas, opinions, and rational discourse.

Not only did the former administration leave a huge pile of  Texas horse manure on the front steps of the White House,  it also wiped its cowboy boots all over our Constitution.  And upon exiting, had the audacity to say, “it’s his problem now.”

Change can be scary – very scary. On the other hand, change is good and can offer so many opportunities for growth.  Change builds character.

Those who fight change will never change.  Regardless of their motivation, the doubters will always be doubters and the saboteurs will always be saboteurs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34MG-QaHeI0

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FrankenPC
Member

I’m a fan of Obama’s as well. And I know he welcomes rational discourse. That’s been his platform and his behavior since day one.

My concern and the evidence I’ve seen so far is that there is very little rational anything going on in both floors.

Regardless, in my mind, Mr. Obama’s intelligent meetings with Russia to unilaterally disarm the nuclear warheads and his rapid withdrawal of Bush’s planned anti-ballistic missile program from Europe is enough justification for the peace prize. He’s putting his best foot forward to any country that is still willing to speak to us after the last 8 years to propose peace.

Bernard Marx
Member

I don’t know if you’ve seen or read it, but here’s the transcript of the speech delivered by Thorbj

bito
Member

Good link Bernard, I have not heard a thing about that speech. I know the committee can do as they choose but this is the most I’ve read about their reasonings.

Hopeington
Member
Hopeington

Excellent info, thanks so much.
This is my first night in the Planet and you are the first comment I’ve read, after checking in with the folks I’m already acquainted with.
This is exactly the kind of info I’d hoped to be sharing with people.
You just helped me, free myself a little bit more from distraction and meaningless loss of time, and become a planet person.
Thanks again

Bernard Marx
Member

That’s great. Welcome! I’m fairly new here too, but already I can see that the Planet is an excellent site with the potential to get even better as more people join.

Hopeington
Member
Hopeington

I totally agree, and thanks for your other comment about my son, the reply button disappeared over there….yes, it is a crime, for sure, They definitely used and abused him as an example in the town…

Kalima
Admin

Hopeington, when you run out of a reply button, borrow the next one up and your reply will land above the comment you are replying to.

Hopeington
Member
Hopeington

Love it!!

Hopeington
Member
Hopeington

Couldn’t find the recipe links…I’ll be looking.

Kalima
Admin

Here you go. At the top and bottom of the page you will find “Older Comments” if you click on it, it takes you back to all the previous comments.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/interactive/2009/dec/08/best-christmas-recipes

Hopeington
Member
Hopeington

Thanks for being my “big sister” tonight and helping me navigate..
see ya soon.
Good day to you.

Kalima
Admin

You are welcome and good night to you.

Chernynkaya
Member

Boomer, I could not agree more. And his speech was brilliant.

Kalima
Admin

Thank you boomer, I got up a little late this morning so I must have missed his speech on CNN international. Is there somewhere that I can watch the whole speech?

javaz
Member

Excellent article, Boomer.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/30448

“”President Barack Obama

choicelady
Member

It’s designed to make progressive turn on him. There IS such a thing, not sure this is it, but I take him at his word that he’s trying to do right by the gigantic mess Bush left him and us.

And if Bush thought THIS was a “just war”, why did he STOP going after bin Laden when his forces were saying they knew where he WAS? Rumsfeld and the Bush cronies appear not to have wanted to get bin Laden because then they’d have NO “justice” in their “just war” when they so clearly wanted war, no matter what. I will never recover from hearing Bush so blithely dismiss bin Laden saying he did not spend any time thinking about him.

Tell that to over 3000 good people who died on your watch, Mr. B.

bito
Member

What ever happened to McCain’s “plan” to get OBL? I s that still his secret?

Kalima
Admin

OBL has now become “OTHER BLIGHTER’S LOT” as far as McGrumps is concerned. Have a feeling he needs a map to find his way home these days.

bito
Member

Kalima, I do have a “feeling” about him. He is my Senator. GRRRR.

Kalima
Admin

Sorry for the added burden. 🙂

bito
Member

Hey, Girl, OK? Coping? {{hug}}

javaz
Member

Hey, b’ito.
Hanging in there.
Thank you for asking and for the virtual hug.

choicelady
Member

Thank you for such a great post! I could not agree more! And to everyone who noted that we don’t have to agree with every jot and tittle of what he says and does to admire him – you are right (as in correct!) as well. It is nice to have an adult in office, and a man with real character and stability. I do a lot of work on legal issues around torture, and my allies are all screaming that he’s betraying us by submitting the court defense of the Bush administration (already in play) when what he did was brilliant. He got rulings AGAINST the “Bush Doctrine” on virtually every issue. That freed him from RW diatribes AND achieved fast results. Why do so many Americans prefer ideological purity to actual achievement? The man is amazing. I feel secure with him – if worried about his own safety – and am proud to be an American again for the first time in decades. Thank you all for the great comments. It’s nice to be home on the Planet.

escribacat
Member

Hello choicelady…I’m intrigued by your comment that Obama got rulings against the Bush doctrine…and your assertion that he hasn’t betrayed anyone but has been brilliant in his tactics. I know very little about that. [[hint hint]] Hey, how about an article about it?? (Not that I want to hand out homework of course! Just an expression of interest!)

choicelady
Member

Hi escribacat – no such luck as an article about it already done. If you’d like ME to do it, I will work on it. He submitted via the first DOJ people just a couple of weeks into office, then under Holder those cases already in the pipeline, never changing one word of what Bush had argued. The progressives went NUTS assuming this meant he AGREED with Bush. Nope. He’s had only one adverse (meaning pro-Bush policy) ruling. He knew what he could do. MUCH faster, the rulings are on Bush policy, very cool. I will see if I can scare up the info. Few people paid any attention other than to whine that he was selling out. Duh.

bito
Member

C’Lady, You are closer to the situation than I, but there were some opinion writers, that I read, were/are in complete agreement with you.
NPR?

escribacat
Member

choicelady–I remember the uproar, charges of Bush-lite, and so on. But I don’t understand the process or the legality of it or the issues and tactics. In other words, what was the uproar and why were they wrong, in your opinion, to get into such a tizzy. Again, I’d love it if you wrote something about it…for the layperson like me who doesn’t understand what it was all about.

PatsyT
Member

Boomer
Thanks for the great post.
I could not agree with you more.
I am so glad brains are back in control of things.
I hope it stays that way!
And didn’t Michelle Obama look smashing?!!
I love our President!
I think he DESERVES this award!
I think he will live up to it.

choicelady
Member

Saw Bush on a tape of one of his press conferences – wow. What a smirking, dismissive person he was (and no doubt still IS.) I am horrified to see how used to him I’d become. The change is awesome!

bito
Member

Heh, Heh, Heh. At the most inappropriate times! and that smirk!!!

nellie
Member

No weapons over here… heh heh heh

bito
Member

nellie, I left you a link in morning post. I was amazed at the list.

nellie
Member

I never got used to him. It got so I had to turn off any device that was broadcasting his voice or his face. It was too upsetting to know that such a man was ruining so many lives without any restraint.

TheRarestPatriot
Member

Nicely done piece! Boy do I ever appreciate a well thought through effort to create, deliver and execute an opinion.
In response to the post I have to say that Americans have become so assaulted with 110mph idiocy (last administration) that traveling at a comfortable, reliable, predictable 56mph (Obama) is somehow obscene. I have said from the beginning that this president is calculating, highly educated and rarely lets others pull one over on him. He is not a messiah, savior, King, or the answer to saving the world. (as most on the Right seem to yoke him with) He’s simply a good president. Yet, most Americans, suffering from PTSD and Stockholm’s Syndrome from the last administration, have forgotten to trust education and science. Anyone with a higher level of education than a 5th grader…they can’t trust. That’s why Sarah Palin is so popular. She reminds people that even though you quit everything you set out to do, stumble over simple life obstacles and talk like a …well…I don’t even have a descriptor for what language she speaks…but it enthralls the WalMart crowds. (no offense I am forced to shop there too…yet I hope you get my point)
The Nobel Prize just infuriates the Right wing throngs because they see it as an elitist award.
I’ll say this finally:
When you are elected POTUS and the traffic STOPS in Times Square, Paris Metro area STOPS, London’s circus comes to a stand still and crowds across the GLOBE erupt in applause and cheering and happiness,…heck…you should get SOME kind of prize,…right? ~wink~

nellie
Member

You hit on a word that is very fitting in describing Mr. Obama but one that is rarely used — calculating. So many people get caught up in the “niceness” of this man, they don’t see what a hard ass he is. People know he’s educated, they know he’s been through the ringer, but somehow they don’t see the toughness and the shrewdness (the very qualities that make me breathe a sigh of relief).

The first time I’ve ever seen him uncomfortable was making the Afghanistan speech. Perhaps he is as uneasy with that decision as the rest of us.

escribacat
Member

nellie
Member

How nice to come to PPOV and find this as the top article on the home page. It’s no secret I’m a big fan of Mr. Obama — even though I have strong disagreement with some of his positions.

I don’t know why people seem to think they have to agree with everything the president does in order to support his administration. When did we become a country of my-way-or-the-highwaymen? Who even has friends who are carbon copies of themselves? I know I don’t.

It seems people forget we elect a president to govern for all of us — not for each of us individually. Glenn Greenwald recently posted a bitter article in Salon entitled “My friend the president,” chastising people for having faith in the man. The article would have been more accurately titled “I resent the president because he isn’t my own personal lackey.”

So thank you for this bit of positivity about our president. I wholeheartedly concur. And I appreciate the sentitment.

AdLib
Admin

Woo Hoo! Excellent and timely article Boomer and with all the graphics AND video!

As you say, it would be and was a joke that for the last 8 years, the president of the U.S. would win, let alone even be nominated, for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Pres. Obama is change. Not the huge and enormous change many were expecting but a strong and steady change away from the cold and distant America it was.

As Obama said, this is a prize for all Americans, all of us who elected him.

So, like the Stanley Cup, I hope he passes it around to each American household to the next for at least a night on their mantle.

Pepe Lepew
Member

Hockey references, woo hoo!

Except, do you have any idea the kinds of things hockey players actually do to the Stanley Cup? Let’s hope Obama shows a little more respect.

AdLib
Admin

Obama? Wait till you see what I have planned for it!

Fondue anyone?

escribacat
Member

I did a quick scan of the headlines this morning about the Nobel and almost all of them were along the “peace prize in time of war” vein.

I don’t believe the peace prize was about Afghanistan or Iraq. I believe it had to do with the fact of Obama’s election itself. In a way, I think the peace prize was for us — the people who elected Obama. Here we are, a nation founded on the blood and sweat of slaves. Now, several generations later, we have elected a black man (well, mixed race) as president. The First Lady of the United States is the descendant of slaves. Wow. It truly is an achievement. We have come a long, long way.

KevenSeven
Member

The Nobel is a funny thing. You gotta believe that Obama wishes that they had never thought to give it to him. Lord knows, there is more than enough of a narrative of Obama being able to walk on water, and no politician wants too much of that. Next thing people will be expecting you to walk on water.

The real treat is to see how the asshole reactionaries have reacted to the prize. Clearly this is the Europeans thanking America for not giving BushCo a third term. And the reactionaries just don’t get it. The world is tired of the US strutting around, claiming a right to order the world. The World is resenting it. One needs only look at the world wide opinion polls of America. We were real popular in 2000. We inspired nothing but fear and loathing in 2007.

And somehow the reactionaries think it is GOOD to have the world terrified of us. Which, I suppose, is what makes them reactionaries.

All that said, I am a fan of the president, but I do not genuflect at the mention of his name. He fucked me on the teleco immunity vote. And he is doing all he can to maintain the executive privileges gifted to him by BushCo. Just one example: his Justice Dept just filed a brief asking that the civil suit against John Yoo, with the argument that it would undermine the ability of govt lawyers to give full and frank advice to the executive.

Even if that advice is how to commit war crimes and get away with it.

Obama is a good man. But he is no saint. He is a politician, fully prepared to make the compromises necessary to maintain his power. That is what they do. I’m OK with that.

kesmarn
Admin

I was really disappointed with the John Yoo decision, too. Brilliant people should not be allowed to get away with using their brains to ruin peoples’ lives and torture. “I was just following orders” (to give shady legal opinions) doesn’t cut it.

nellie
Member

That one is a disappointment for me, too — although I’ve also read that it is actually a strategy to get the Bush opinions overturned.

The last administration committed so many crimes against the country, but I fear no one will ever be held responsible.

It is a real shame that the most accomplished criminals who do the most harm face the least threat of ever being held accountable.

bito
Member

On Bill Moyers, he had a discussion with Bruce Fien and a columnist from The Nation. Left and right. That was a major point of both of them on why Bush should be impeached. So the next presidents (no matter what party) would be wary about using the sweeping powers (unitary executive) that Bush used. Both said if they were allowed to stand, every President will use them.
And now…..?

bito
Member

Good job Boomer! I got to hear parts of the speech, but not the entirety of it.What I heard was good and NPR had nothing but glowing words for it. I’m sure the naysayers are all over it and picking it apart by now. Who cares? Like the joke: If Obama could walk on water, the RW would say it was because he couldn’t swim.