Apparently, the Committee that decides who to award the Nobel Peace Prize agrees with the above image.

I think the second part of the title to this article might give you readers a little bit of insight into how this article is going to play out, but if not, I’ll spell it out plainly: I’m absolutely astounded and appaled at the fact that this award has been given to Barack Obama.

Now, before anyone jumps on here and starts defending him, trashing me, claiming I’m a right-wing nut who hates Democrats or anything else, please read on. I supported Obama’s campaign in the last Presidency. I was a bona fide Bush-hater, and I still have hopes for Obama. That said, he had no business winning (or even being nominated for) a Nobel peace prize.

Let’s look at his track record in politics:
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* Obama won a seat in the Illinois state Senate in 1996. During his time there he worked on welfare and ethics issues.

* Obama won a heavily contested U.S. Senate seat in 2004, carrying 53 percent of the Democratic primary vote in an eight-candidate race. He easily won the general election as well. In the U.S. Senate he compiled a liberal voting record, but was one of the few Democrats to back a measure on class-action lawsuits.

* Obama announced his presidential candidacy on Feb. 10, 2007. New York Sen. Hillary Clinton was initially seen as the front-runner for the Democratic nomination.

* Obama won the first contest of the Democratic primary in Iowa in January 2008, but did not clinch the nomination until the last states had cast their ballots in June.

* Obama won 53 percent of the popular vote on Nov. 4, beating Republican rival John McCain, and became the first black U.S. president.
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Two and a half weeks after this timeline ends, he was nominated for a Nobel peace prize. TWO AND A HALF WEEKS. What could he have possibly done in 2.5 weeks? As efficiently as our government runs, if his presidency were manifested as an actual human being, this wouldn’t have been long enough for Potus (the name of said manifestation) to take a shit! (Unless, perhaps, he decided not to wipe.) All jokes aside, this is disgusting! The deadline for the nominations was February 1st! To be nominated for the mere notion of bringing “HOPE” and “Change” is crap. Since when is the Nobel peace prize awarded for making promises?

I feel that by giving this award to Obama for his promises, it cheapens the work done by all the past recipients. Let’s look at a few of them, shall we?

The 14th Dali Lamaa won the award “[for] his struggle for the liberation of Tibet [and] consistently has opposed the use of violence. He has instead advocated peaceful solutions based upon tolerance and mutual respect in order to preserve the historical and cultural heritage of his people.”

Nelson Mandela was jointly awarded the prize with Frederik Willem de Klerk “for their work for the peaceful termination of the apartheid regime, and for laying the foundations for a new democratic South Africa”

Jimmy Carter, who has built hundreds of homes for Habitat for Humanity and founded and/or worked with countless other humanitarian projects and organizations, was awarded the prize “for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.”

DECADES of untiring effort. Obama was in office for 2 weeks. Grotesque is the only word I can think of to describe the miscalculations involved in giving this award to Obama at this point in time. Perhaps, one day, (and I truly hope this) he will be deserving of the award, but not yet, my fellow Mammoths. Not for a long time.

I will, however, give Obama credit for publicly recognizing here that he doesn’t feel he deserves the award. Then again, it’s not him that I’m disgusted with. It’s the committee that decided to give him the award that deserves chastising.

In the end, I suppose we have no choice but to sign on with Obama’s plan and “hope” that he will, someday, be truly deserving of this award. Till then, I’ll keep a watchful (and skeptical) eye over any other “laureates” the Nobel committee decides to bestow this “prize” upon. Lord knows it’s only hurting opinions of Obama at this point…