I don't see what the big deal about the entire nomination thing is. It was only the nomination, the prize itself wasn't decided on those two weeks.

I believe by that point he had already signed the executive order on Guantanamo Bay which is enough for a nomination in any case.

Nobel Peace and Literature Prizes are a joke. The Nobel Prizes for medicine, physics, chemistry, and the like are for those who do great things.

Except closing Guantanamo Bay was entirely symbolic, the United States is still going to hold terrorists without trial for an indefinite amount of time and will continue to interrogate people using the same techniques they used for the past decade.

Seriously.... look over the list of Nobel Peace Prize winners and you'll get my point.  Nothing Obama has done puts him anywhere near anybody on that list.

I dunno.  Aside from Obama the rest of the Nobel Peace Prize winners are extradonary figures.

Well outside of the Israel and Palsetine guys who ultimatly whiffed on a peace deal.

Literature is a joke though.

...?

That seemed to be entirely unrelated to my point. I was merely saying that he had done enough to secure a nomination (along with ~200 other people). As I said earlier I also think this is a surprising choice of recipient.

You said you didn't think it was comical.

First that he was nominatead when he'd accomplished nothing (closing down guantanamo is not nobel prize worthy... and you shouldn't be nominated for something unless you've done something worthy enough to win).

Then he won... despite the fact that his resume doesn't even come close to anyone else there.

Pardon as I'm trying to forge an appropriate sports analaogy and i'm not that familiar with New Zeland popular sports but...

It would be like the equivlent of Darren Bent being inducted into a soccer football hall of fame. 

Young guy... lots of promise... but hasn't accomplishsed ANYTHING yet.

Your putting someone in the hall of fame based purely on potential.

Honestly a "retro" pick would of made more sense.  They've done it before.

True for example the Finnish diplomat who won last year had spent decades working for peace, often in dangerous places risking his own life. He had also received numerous peace prizes before the Nobel Prize, showing that there was consensus in the world for his value.

I'm more and more inclined to believe that this prize was given to try to shape Obama's policies. Imagine you get a Peace Prize, you'd feel enormously guilty for doing or not doing certain things after that...

I can see that... but I mean that's a horrible misuse of the comitee's responsibility.

Besides.  The only other time they tried that it failed.  Ariel Sharon walked away from the table despite having a really good deal.

There are great people who have won the Nobel Peace Prize, but when they give it to people who didnt do much for peace it makes the prize much less presitigious.  Gore and De Klerk come to mind.