The Committee has made the Prize into a play-pen left-wing joke for many years now. This time it was such a blatant joke that it even surprised or angered leftists who like its being a leftist political statement, but at least being awarded honestly, for achievement, rather than promise or Good Feelings.

Also, the right wing has to make up their mind, is the Peace Prize a worthless piece of metal (thus the logical conclusion is that to award it is a worthless endeavor) or is it to be prized by all (and in turn the awardee has to be prized by all)? It can't be both ways if you are going to criticize the award.

People cannot nominate themselves. (Again from the Nobel web site.)

You have proven this statement factually erroneous: “President Barack Obama being awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize is akin to me winning a Pulitizer Prize in journalism.”

The committee sends out invitations for nominations. The type of people who get sent invitations are:

1. Members of national assemblies and governments of states;
2. Members of international courts;
3. University rectors; professors of social sciences, history, philosophy, law and theology; directors of peace research institutes and foreign policy institutes;
4. Persons who have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize;
5. Board members of organizations who have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize;
6. Active and former members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee; (proposals by members of the Committee to be submitted no later than at the first meeting of the Committee after February 1) and
7. Former advisers appointed by the Norwegian Nobel Institute.

The statutes of the Nobel Foundation restrict disclosure of information about the nominations, whether publicly or privately, for 50 years. The restriction concerns the nominees and nominators, as well as investigations and opinions related to the award of a prize.

It's seems there is a rash of journalists who are allergic to google these days.

Your AP quote reads: “U.S. President Barack Obama is thought to have been nominated but it's unclear on what grounds.”

While your other one says: “The US president Barack Obama and his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy are believed to be among the record 205 nominations received for the 2009 Nobel peace prize.”

Are you implying that this administration should base policy on rumor and hearsay like Bushco did or did you misunderstand what the articles you quoted said?

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politic…

then again last week before he won:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALe…

“Most prestigious award on earth? No way. Sorry but the Nobel Peace Prize has as much meaninng as the winner of a chili cookoff. The morally bankrupt, hand-wringing globalist pansies in Norway are the type of people who would stay neutral if a blind man was getting mugged.

The fact that nobody has yet come forward to claim their nomination credentials is telling. It will remain a mystery no doubt and people who ask for informatin about this will be mocked as “nominators”.

Some would disagree. Obama: long on platitudes, short on accomplishments, and stretched too thinly, from me a moderate, not a righty. One thing I do agree with you lefties is that it was not Obama's fault, it was the judges.

My suspicion — and, yes, it comes from out of left field —

No, your suspicion comes out of right field… far, far right field. But that's obvious to anyone reading your circular attempt to try to appear to be praising Obama while constantly accusing him and his administration of being up to something.

Had this piece been journalism as Mr. Remmers claims (not opinion which should be obvious to all) he could have gone to nobleprize.org and looked into their nomination process.

It took me less than five minutes to find out that nominees are not told of their nomination:

Nominations for 2009
205 names were submitted for the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize, 33 of which are organizations. The Nobel Committees in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature and the Prize Committee for Economics each usually receives 250-300 names every year, but this is the highest number of nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize ever. The last record was in 2005 when the Committee received 199 nominations. The names of the nominees cannot be revealed until 50 years later.

“I find it incredulous Obama’s staff was 100% clueless.”

They probably heard about the award, but joined everyone else in not expecting him to win (or the public, who didn't even think such a crazy thing), and were as surprised as everyone. But as for clueless, they have already created the impression that they're struggling to make stuff up as they go along, and are at times totally out of touch with the public, on the domestic issues where they have been making news.