Why The Committee Chose Obama

[cali]

By EAMON JAVERS
Updated 3:38 AM PDT, Sat, Oct 10, 2009

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Barack Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize Friday shocked the world.

But a peek at the backgrounds of the five people who made the selection gives a clue why the prize panel would be so favorably disposed to Obama – three of them would be considered hard-left liberals in American politics. One of those belongs to Norway’s Socialist Left party.

And all five people on the committee are politicians selected by the Norwegian parliament, and generally hew to a Norwegian view of foreign affairs — internationalist in outlook and with a broad affinity for Obama’s posture on the world stage.

“Obama’s speech at the United Nations was received very positively, and falls right in line with the way Norwegians see their own foreign policy,” said Terje Leiren, a professor of Norwegian studies at the University of North Texas.

The other two members are Norway’s version of Republicans. The committee said Friday that the vote for Obama was unanimous.

Thorbjørn Jagland, the chair of the Nobel Committee, is a former Norwegian Prime Minister, and a former head of the Norwegian Labor Party, which is the largest political party in the country.

Leiren explained to POLITICO that the Norwegian Labor party is center-left politically, much like the British Labor Party was before Tony Blair pushed it toward the ideological center in the 1990s. “All of the parties on the left in Norway are ‘evolutionary’ socialist parties,” explained Leiren. “They believe that socialism evolves, and you do that in a democratic way.”

Leiren said that’s a distinction from “revolutionary” socialists who favor tearing down democratic governments, and who are not represented in the mainstream of Norwegian politics.

More at:

http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/politics/Why_the_committee_chose_Obama-63898557.html

[DonCoquixote]

1. In other words

Nobel committee=DLC/Third Way?

[KharmaTrain]

2. Typical Politico Bullshit

Now if the recipiant were Raygun or some other rushpugnican, the story would read how grateful the Europeans were for American leadership and a sign of American prestige and power. But since its a Democrat, there's gotta be something sinister going on. Looks like the "socialist/communist" meme is being dragged out. Gotta be...only commie would honor one of their own? :sarcasm:

[roakes10190]

3. about that UN speech

Obama was chosen long before his UN speech. Why is it that liberals the world over are denigrated?

[jacko_be]

4. I'm glad

I for one am glad that the Nobel Foundation has relaxed their standards when it comes to the Nobel Peace Prize. Imagine if they had to wait around for someone like Gandhi or MLK to show up. They’d be stuck with a bunch of medals and millions of dollars in prize-money.

[HamdenRice]

5. Cool! "Evolutionary socialist" parties of Europe support Obama!

but Trotskyite anti-progressives, anti-Greens, anti-Labor hate him. Go figure.