The Peace Prize II

It's been a few days since the Nobel Peace Prize was announced but no one has advanced a good reason for why is went to President Obama. Lets face it, there is no good reason. There are two likely possibilities:

1) The Nobel committee for got that Bush left office because of term limits and gave Obama the prize for replacing him. This is a variation of the theory that he was given the award by not being Bush. There is something to this. The Prize committee hated Bush enough that they gave two or three previous awards as a slap at Bush.

2) They wanted to be part of the Obama experience. Back in 2008 the Obama campaign felt like a movement to the participants. People fainted regularly just from hearing him speak. The wife of a friend of mine forbid him from leaving the house the night of Obama's acceptance speech. She wanted him to hear history live.

This enthusiasm was also present overseas but without any outlet. Citizens of Finland couldn't vote in the US election.

When Obama was nominated, this gave the award committee an opening. They could become part of the Obama experience by giving him the Peace Prize. It hardly mattered that he was not qualified. He won the election with little qualification and the Presidency has real power.

Under normal circumstances, giving the Peace Prize to a newly-elected president seems ridiculous but, given these two factors, Obama seems like a slam dunk.