President Barack Obama has been awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. Apparently the Nobel Committee awarded the US President the honor because of “his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and co-operation between peoples.” Not that it really matters, but surely it’s a little premature to be giving President Obama a Nobel Peace Prize?

If you ask me I think that there is another story behind this decision. I think perhaps the judges all got together and had a wild night of strippers and booze then through the heavy haze of a hangover they just came up with the first name of someone ‘important’ that they could think of.

I don’t know about you, but the reason for the award sounds like something of an excuse, not dissimilar to those I used to offer my school teachers when they asked me where my mysteriously absent homework was. “Oh yeah, well you see, I was on my way to school and there was this old lady that had lost her white stick so I rolled up my English homework and gave that to her to use as a white stick.”

I like the President, really I do, but shouldn’t we at least wait for him to produce a little peace in the world before we give him a prize for doing so?

I suspect that Mr Obama himself is probably wishing that the judges had chosen someone else from their list of 205 nominees. The award will undoubtedly lead to a media focus on what the President has actually achieved (or not achieved) so far in his first term.

Such is the state of the modern political machine that any President would struggle to bring about rapid change. This truth is especially harsh for President Obama who used ‘change’ as a key feature of his election campaign.

Could it be that the prize has come from the global sense of relief that President Cheney Bush is no longer the “leader of the free world” (by the way, I absolutely detest that overblown phrase)? Such was the international distaste for that man that I can understand why a committee of international types might want to give the new President a prize, if for no other reason than for having the balls to step into the mess left by eight long years of President Bush.

If that was the case though, could we not have come up with a new award? Something like the ‘International Balls of Steel award’, which could itself lead to a very interesting trophy and acceptance ceremony. Surely such an award would then give us reason to create a similar accolade for the ‘Worlds Biggest Dick‘ whereupon a committee decide who has been the biggest dick of the year. At least awards like these would be a little more entertaining and not feel like saccharine political bullshit.

Perhaps we should just merge the Nobel Peace Prize with the MTV video music awards. At least that way Republicans like Joe Wilson could clamber onto the stage, Kanye West style, and ruin the ‘Barack Stars’ acceptance speech with an awkward ode to a some bemused white Senator sitting in the audience trying not to look mortified.

Maybe I shouldn’t make light of this. The Nobel Peace Prize isn’t supposed to be a prop of showbiz bling. Previous winners have included Nelson Mandela, Mother Theresa, Aung San Suu Kyi, and Martin Luther King, Jr. But at the time of writing this several polls showed that most people feel that President Obama doesn’t deserve the prize, yet.

So, what do you think? Was there someone more deserving of the prize? Does this even matter? Who would you give the award to if you were on the Nobel Committee?

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Thank God that’s over

“You never know what you’re history is going to be like until long after you’re gone.”

Former president Bush said that back in 2006, and doesn’t it feel great to call him former President Bush. You kind of get the feeling that the entire world has breathed a collective sigh of relief now that Bush is gone. Lets just hope that the damage he has done is repairable.

I watched President Obama’s Inauguration along with millions across the world. He’s got a tough road ahead of him. His country, and indeed the world is in something of a shambles at the moment. I’m not suggesting he can fix it all, but you would have to admit that the President of the United States is uniquely placed to exert a great deal of influence. I for one feel better that there is now a man of considerable intellect in charge of the USA, rather than some trigger happy pseudo Texan.

So as we say goodbye to George ‘Dubya’ Bush, it seems only fitting that we send him off by looking back on some of the wisdom he shared with us.

“Will the highways on the internets become more few?”

“It’s important for us to explain to our nation that life is important. It’s not only life of babies, but it’s life of children living in, you know, the dark dungeons of the Internet.”

“Most imports are from outside of the country”

“Security is the essential roadblock to achieving the road map to peace.”

“Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?”

“They want the federal government controlling Social Security like it’s some kind of federal program.”

“One of the great things about books is sometimes there are some fantastic pictures.”

“It’s clearly a budget. It’s got a lot of numbers in it.”

And finally, showing what a true Statesman he was, I especially love the question he put to the Brazilian President Fernando Cardoso in November, 2001. “Do you have blacks too?”

Oh how we’ll miss insightful gems like that.

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Shortly after Barack Obama was declared the winner of Tuesday’s US Presidential elections I was reminded of something Winston Churchill once said. “You can always count on Americans to do the right thing – after they’ve tried everything else.”

Never before have I seen so much interest in a US Presidential election here in the UK. The day after Obama’s win the national press went positively Obamy, carrying full front-page pictures of Obama with coverage of the US election going several pages deep into the newspapers. If you were judging by press coverage alone, you might have been forgiven for thinking that the UK had at some point become the 51st state.

Here, and I suspect across much of the world, there is something of a sense of relief that the Bush years will soon be behind us. After a local firework display celebrating ‘Guy Fawkes night,’ one of my neighbors spoke to me about Obama’s win with a broad smile. “I stayed up late to watch the election. Wasn’t it wonderful that he won.” She told me.

People who perhaps wouldn’t ordinarily be keen followers of American politics, all seemed to have an opinion. I stayed up until 7am to watch the coverage with friends, and across the UK others were holding their own US election night parties!

The President of the United States is undeniably one of the most influential people on the planet and after 8 years of the most inept and downright embarrassing President in modern times, Barack Obama will surely bring to an end the air of Presiduncy that seems to currently define the office for which he has fought so hard to gain.

Addressing the vast crowd gathered in Chicago’s Grant Park to listen to his victory speech Obama delivered a rousing yet sobering message. “The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even one term, but America, I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you, we as a people will get there.”

America has elected its first ever black President, and for the first time in my life, I think I might actually believe the words of a politician.

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Obama’s victory speech

I have no words.

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America has gone mad for McCain’s head cheerleader and VP pick, Pamela Anderson Sarah Palin. Her appearance has injected a new interest into the presidential race, ignited the crazy Christian ‘base’ of the republican party, and utterly derealed any conversations about Presidential issues like say the economy, immigration, foreign policy, the environment, and T.W.A.T (The War Against Terror).

I’ve actually found myself feeling a little bad for John McCain as detractors of the Presidential wannabe keep talking about his imminent death and the fact that someone who thinks the world is just 6000 years old could become the ‘leader of the free world.’ McCain might be an old man who can’t remember how many houses he owns, but surely it’s a little unkind to be counting each passing day as another moment stolen from clutches of death.

I’m not interested in speculating on Senator McCain’s longevity but instead in a question that, to me at least, seems far more interesting and relevant, that question being; How can the mother of five, including a baby with special needs, even consider running for the position of Vice President of the United States? Granted, the VP’s job is pretty much a cheerleaders role, but it’s still a demanding one and a position that sets the tone for that persons future.

Am I being sexist when I ask this question? Is this one of those questions a progressive thinking individual should not dare utter? Is counting down the days until a healthy mans death more acceptable than raising the question of motherhood and a highly demanding job?

I wonder how many other “ordinary hockey Moms” would put their careers before their children, or decide to take a demanding high profile job when they have a baby with special needs? Maybe I’m being old fashioned here, but there’s something about Palin’s willingness to set aside her duties as mother which feels a little off to me in the same way that John Edwards campaign to become president while his wife fought cancer also seemed a little off.

Matt Damon said in a recent interview that the possibility of “an ordinary hockey Mom” becoming President was like “a really bad Disney movie.” Some might call Palin’s story the epitome of the American dream, and in many respects it is and therefore criticizing it feels like a double standard. But if we’re going to concede that being a good mother is a tough job, then is the kind of person who bails out on that duty really the kind of person people should aspire to put in the Whitehouse? I’m note sure.

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Has Presidential nominee Senator John McCain made a cunning move in picking Alaska’s Governor Sarah Palin as his republican running mate in this years Presidential election? I know nothing about Palin other than she’s a woman, but with so many pissed off Hillary supporters out there this might just have been the smartest move McCain has made in his bid to become America’s next President.

America’s Next President sounds like it could be the title for a low budget ad-laden reality TV game show, and in a sense that’s exactly what it is. So far we’ve had the bitchty name calling, the lies and double-talk, the drama surrounding expensive hair-do’s, and an emotional defeat that have left fans (known in this setting as supporters) in tears and embittered.

In many respects this has actually been reality TV worth watching, but since the Clinton/Obama battle faded the ratings must have taken a slight tumble. Yes, former candidate John Edwards was spotted skulking around the corridors of a hotel getting a little extra-marital input, but the there was something, dare I say, sexy about having Hillary do battle with the Barack-star (and that’s the only time I’m ever going to use the word sexy in the same sentence as Hillary Clinton!). Her supporters might have hoped that Obama would choose her as his running mate, but that was never going to happen, and their hopes were dashed when Joe Biden’s name was put on the ticket.

Enter Miss Congeniality and former runner up of Miss Alaska, Governor Sarah Palin. Senator John McCain’s running mate is bringing sexy back to the show (sexy in a Hillary Clinton way, not a Christina Aguilera way you understand). This might just have been a master stroke by the McCain camp. It’s very possible, some might even say likely, that all those pissed of Hillary supporters who have been telling anyone who will listen how they’re not going to vote for Obama, might now be far more inclined to vote for McCain.

But who is Sarah Palin? That’s the question many people will be asking, and no doubt the news anchors will be answering that in brain popping detail. But come on, yes I know this is a serious presidential race and all, but in terms of good ol’ fashioned reality TV, Governor Palin is a ‘MILF’, and thank God for that. Now we’ve got our trash TV back and the race for the leadership of the free world is back on the ‘possibly watchable’ list once again.

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