Your View: President's Nobel Prize Win Justified, Should Cause Pride, Joy

Editor, The Auburn Plainsman

There has been a lot of outcry over the Nobel Peace Prize being awarded to President Obama, considering the president is only 10 months into his first term and the deadline for nominations was two weeks into his presidency.

While the Nobel Peace Prize has always been a politically motivated award (given to two critics of George W. Bush during his eight years in office - Jimmy Carter and Al Gore), and while the Nobel Prize itself was created to restore some luster to Alfred Nobel's tarnished name, there is no question that the Nobel Peace Prize is a prestigious award and a great honor.

We should be proud of American's Nobel Peace Prize laureates, like Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and now, Barack Obama.

But it raises the question: what exactly did President Obama do to deserve such an award?

Even an Obama supporter like myself realizes ten months of groundwork is hardly enough to warrant a Nobel for accomplishments.

But if we look at the changes in the world's attitude towards America since November, and the changes in America's attitude toward the world since January, we see progress.

A revitalized effort to eliminate nuclear arms, a renewed call for peace in the Middle East, an unequivocal denunciation of torture, and heavy lifting in the fight against global warming are all signs of what President Obama is not.

It's clear that President Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for not being President Bush, and for that we can all be thankful.

Alex Roberson

sophomore, political science