A Very Political Nobel Prize

Thorbjoern Jagland, chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, holds a picture of President Obama Oct. 9.
Thorbjoern Jagland, chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, holds a picture of President Obama Oct. 9. (photo: Reuters)

The selection of President Barack Obama as this year’s recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize is a most peculiar choice, given how briefly he has been president and how little he has done in concrete terms to advance the cause of peace since assuming office.

Given this paucity of tangible accomplishments in the cause of peace, it’s impossible not to conclude that the Nobel selectors were motivated farm more by their enthusiasm for Obama’s political agendas than by his actual record of working for peace. This is especially true given that the nominations for the prize closed Feb. 1, less than two weeks after Obama assumed office.

By that date, Obama had done virtually nothing substantive to advance international peace. But he had already taken one action that dramatically intensified the international war against the unborn: By executive order on Jan. 23, he overturned the pro-life Mexico City Policy that denied any U.S. taxpayer funding of organizations that promote abortion overseas.