Gallup: 61% of Americans think Obama Nobel undeserved
posted at 9:50 am on October 24, 2009 by Ed Morrissey
After Barack Obama’s defenders accused critics of his Nobel Peace Prize of being un-American for criticizing the award, Gallup polled over 1500 adults to determine the public response to it. Surprisingly, Gallup found that 61% of Americans hate America — at least according to Obama’s defenders:
The majority of Americans do not believe President Barack Obama deserved to win the Nobel Peace Prize (61%), but the public is split in its personal reaction to the announcement. Asked if they are “glad” Obama received the prize, 46% of Americans say yes and 47% say no. …
The USA Today/Gallup poll conducted about a week after the announcement did not ask Americans whether they believe that the award may ultimately be deserved, or whether it was appropriately given in anticipation of the potential of the Obama administration’s peace efforts. The central question simply asked whether Obama “deserved” the award, and found Americans by roughly a 2-to-1 margin saying no rather than yes.
Not surprisingly, reaction to the awarding of the prize is partisan, although support for Obama’s receiving the prize among Democrats is perhaps not as large as might be expected. Fifty-nine percent of Democrats say the award is deserved, which can be contrasted with the 84% of Democrats who in the same survey approve of Obama’s job performance. Independents and, in particular, Republicans are highly likely to say Obama did not deserve to win the prize.
It’s not fair to blame Barack Obama for the decision to award him the prize, of course. The White House didn’t campaign for it, and got so surprised by the news that initially some of them thought it was a joke. Some blame Obama for accepting the Nobel, but that’s unfair as well. It would have been needlessly insulting to reject the award, and would have accomplished nothing. While we believe that Obama has made a fetish of apologizing for America to get people to like us, we don’t want to gratuitously insult people, either.
However, the decision to award Obama the prize by the Nobel committee for his rhetoric was and is still laughable. It’s not un-American to point out that Obama has accomplished nothing to deserve it. Even the one action that the Nobel committee highlighted in its apologia of the decision, the reversal of the US missile-defense stance in eastern Europe, has been at least somewhat reversed since. We await the next Peace Prize, which might go to the winner of the Miss America contest, for her rhetorical support of “world peace,” using the same criteria established in Oslo.
Gallup’s respondents are about evenly split on whether Americans are happy or unhappy over the award. Most of those unhappy are annoyed at the very obvious attempt by the Nobel committee to interfere with American domestic politics. Perhaps a better question would have been whether we were amused by the award.
Blowback
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Wow, the only poster with less credibility than CWforFreedom. You wouldn’t be satisfied unless Obama performed seppuku upon being notified he’d won the award.
It would have been rude and pointless to reject the award. Accepting it, while humbly saying he did not feel he had earned it yet was the classy thing to do. The hysterical reaction here has only discredited you guys further, “which is pretty friggin’ bad”.
crr6 on October 24, 2009 at 3:09 PM
“Hysterical”? Most of us just think it’s amusing. I don’t think very many HA commenters were foaming at the mouth at Obama’s winning yet another thing he didn’t really “earn”.
ddrintn on October 24, 2009 at 3:16 PM
Did you factor in all those white liberals with racial guilt complexes who would also unconditionally support any black president? Should be another 20 percent there.
docdave on October 24, 2009 at 3:21 PM
LOL. No, it wouldn’t have been either. It would have been honest and showed integrity. You can look up “honest” and “integrity”, since I know you have not a clue what they mean.
LOL. Tell me, did he REALLY feel that he hadn’t earned it, or was it just “humbly saying”-speak? There is nothing classy about accepting awards and accolades that are unearned and unmerited. Of course, lefties don’t understand that, since, if you stopped accepting unearned and unmerited things, you guys wouldn’t have anything.
LOL. You are hysterical. Hysterically funny. Tell me more about how people should accept unearned awards – though they should “humbly say” that they haven’t earned it (but grab the trophy anyway).
Don’t you ever disgust yourself? Probably not. You’re just a carrier of “disgust”.
progressoverpeace on October 24, 2009 at 3:43 PM
I figure at least another 20 percent that activist pollster Gallup left out were those who said “Oh, that phony, set-aside Nobel Peace prize? Well, I guess that phony, set-aside president deserves it!”
viking01 on October 24, 2009 at 3:45 PM
Guilty white liberals are not included because it is assumed that they only vote for liberals regardless of color.
jay12 on October 24, 2009 at 3:58 PM
Obama getting the Nobel Peace Prize is really aggravating the Neocons.
Spathi on October 24, 2009 at 10:08 AM
Neocons is a code word for hebrews!
Spazzy hates Jews ! Racist anti-semitic pig ! Pass it on !
cableguy615 on October 24, 2009 at 4:00 PM
Further evidence of racism in America.
nazo311 on October 24, 2009 at 4:06 PM
If the Nobel Committee felt he deserved the award, who is Obama to “correct” them? It’s their choice who wins it, if they want to give it to Obama that’s their prerogative. Again, rejecting it would be rude. Take a deep breath, and repeat after me…
“Obama did the classy thing”.
I know you can do it.
crr6 on October 24, 2009 at 5:00 PM
That hasn’t stopped other who have won it in the past from refusing to accept it.
Del Dolemonte on October 24, 2009 at 5:09 PM
Name someone who refused to accept the Nobel Peace Prize because they felt they didn’t deserve it. Political reasons don’t count.
Needless to say, if we’re using your standard I’ll require multiple credible sources.
crr6 on October 24, 2009 at 5:15 PM
The guy who won it with Henry Kissinger, Le Duc Tho, refused to accept it, because it was awarded to him before peace had been achieved.
But I’m sure you thought he deserved it.
Jean-Paul Satre turned down a Nobel in literature, too.
Del Dolemonte on October 24, 2009 at 5:19 PM
It’s “Sartre”. Now for the multiple credible sources proving they turned the award down because they felt they didn’t deserve it…
crr6 on October 24, 2009 at 5:21 PM
Oh, and here is the link to my 29,400 credible and multiple sources. Sorry about that!
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=le+duc+tho+turned+down+nobel+peace+prize&aq=f&oq=&aqi=
Del Dolemonte on October 24, 2009 at 5:21 PM
Le Duc Tho didn’t feel he deserved the award because peace had not yet been achieved.
BTW, the “multiple credible sources” I linked to include encycopedia.com.
Del Dolemonte on October 24, 2009 at 5:27 PM
By that standard, I have 20,000 sources for this assertion. Then again, it’s already pretty much a universally accepted fact anyway…
crr6 on October 24, 2009 at 5:27 PM
” Take a deep breath, and repeat after me…
“Obama did the classy thing”.
I know you can do it.”
crr6, how about this – you take a deep breath and repeat
“I am a douchebag who carries water for my master Obama”.
Your posts on this thread tell me that you can do it. Go for it, champ.
nagee76 on October 24, 2009 at 5:28 PM
Needless to say, the point is that others have refused it. It’s not some unheard-of thing.
ddrintn on October 24, 2009 at 5:38 PM
^ But then again, that $1.4 mil can buy a lot of Wagyu beef.
ddrintn on October 24, 2009 at 5:40 PM
^ Or can fund a few ACORN front groups, whichever.
ddrintn on October 24, 2009 at 5:48 PM
Translation: “I just got my getalife kicked to the Equator and back, so will change the subject and insult the person who just beat me”.
Saul Alinsky is looking up and smiling.
Del Dolemonte on October 24, 2009 at 6:03 PM
Calling you an idiot is a compliment.
You’ve failed to provide credible, multiple sources to prove your assertion again. You fail.
crr6 on October 24, 2009 at 6:08 PM
Why do you all want America to fail?
Constant Parrhesia on October 24, 2009 at 6:10 PM
He named someone: Le Duc Tho.
Now, give us credible, multiple sources telling us how many Nobel Peace Prize winners have done less than Obama, good or bad.
ddrintn on October 24, 2009 at 6:16 PM
This is why we keep you, you can be such an amusing troll. You just do that, you turn your back–it is such an amusing picture of you stnading there.
Unfortunately, we weren’t afraid to turn our back to Bush, we knew he had it covered. It’s Obambi we have to worry about. I would NEVER turn my back to him, without having one of the HA memembers to cover me!
lovingmyUSA on October 24, 2009 at 6:34 PM
You are the sort of slime who would accept an award wrongly given to you, and you would then brag to people about your award. You have no sense of dignity, fairness, or integrity. You are the lowest sort of scum there is. You remind me of John Kerry, who would take a purple heart for a scratch.
If you want to know why you are a moron leftist, your attitude about accepting awards that you are undeserving of says it all. The very thought should offend you, but quite the opposite. You figure, “They’re giving it to me, even though I don’t deserve it … Cool.” You are pure slime. A typical leftist, though. You people are just beneath contempt.
progressoverpeace on October 24, 2009 at 6:43 PM
Actually crappieboy–we are all glad he got this award. This is the best representation of the farce that his presidency portrays. I can’t wait to download the picture of his face while he is standing there with that medal hanging around his neck. This is the equivalent of saying that Obambi is the BEST PRESIDENT the US has EVER had, 9 onths into his presidency. It’s a bogus medal, by a bogus committee, for a bogus president.
It will be great fodder for lots of jokes–as you have already seen…LMAO!
lovingmyUSA on October 24, 2009 at 6:45 PM
How fitting, the last survivor of the Titanic died today. (She was 97yrs. old). The Titanic now represents Obambi’s presidency…
lovingmyUSA on October 24, 2009 at 6:49 PM
Obama has his head so far up his .. rear .. that the Nobel Committee will have to use the services of a proctologist to give him the Peace Prize medal.
J_Crater on October 24, 2009 at 8:42 PM
Headline should read: “39% of Americans stupid enough to think President Obama deserves Nobel Peace Prize for getting elected president.”
cackcon on October 24, 2009 at 10:06 PM
You really don’t get it at all. I don’t think conservatives were really that upset that 0bamao got the award, especially considering the equally undeserving clown who won it last year. Barry getting the award was comedy gold and most of us just thought it was hilarious. Also, it just validated everything we’ve been saying about the guy for the last two years: that he’s an empty suit with zero accomplishments who has spent his entire adult life getting pats on the back for doing a lot of nothing. This is just more fodder to use to ridicule “The Won.”
WarEagle01 on October 25, 2009 at 1:11 AM
The White House didn’t campaign for it, and got so surprised by the news that initially some of them thought it was a joke.
It was definitely a joke. A poor joke to bestow the award on Obama. But given recent recipients, the award itself is dubious in value. A devalued award and a sign of approval from a world that disapproves of America. But apparently approves of Obama. Not good.
Some blame Obama for accepting the Nobel, but that’s unfair as well.
Not accepting the award is something that would never occur to Obama to begin with. A counterfactual non-starter.
It would have been needlessly insulting to reject the award, and would have accomplished nothing.
I disagree completely and I suspect so do many other Americans. I could care less about insulting those who have insulted the world by bestowing this award on a Carter or a Gore. It has become a ridiculous award. Rejecting it would NOT be ridiculous then. Accomplished would have been the statement that the prize is ridiculous. Again, a non-starter for Obama would never reject that prize. A notion beyond the pale.
While we believe that Obama has made a fetish of apologizing for America to get people to like us, we don’t want to gratuitously insult people, either.“We” don`t believe it, we KNOW it. I consider the prize to now be an insult to the original intent of the prize itself.Perhaps the Committee has now learned a valuable lesson and will in the future award the Peace Prize to a worthy person. Shameful behavior on the part of informed people who should know better.
However, the decision to award Obama the prize by the Nobel committee for his rhetoric was and is still laughable.
And we come back to this. The decision was laughable. Why accept such a now comedic prize which should aspire to be something to those who aspire to true peace and have made real contributions to make those aspirations a reality and an inspiration to all of us?
Sherman1864 on October 25, 2009 at 2:07 PM
I urge you to look into a mirror or some reflective surface and ask yourself the very same question.
Reflective. I like that word.
Sherman1864 on October 25, 2009 at 2:12 PM
Just more nonsense from the “Blame America First” crowd.
Constant Parrhesia on October 25, 2009 at 3:00 PM
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