Ana -'s List: Obama peace prize

Here are excerpts from that reaction.

From the instant editorial on news-press.com/opinion:

"The Nobel prizes have lost all relevance."

"How can any American not be proud of our President."

"Although the conservative disapproval of his Nobel Peace Prize award is predictable, it is still disgusting."

"You're telling me that the Dalai Lama, Mother Teresa, et al, did not accomplish anything?"

"The fact that President Obama was elected in this still racist country is a major win for hope, inspiration and a bright future for our country and the world."

"Apparently some Democrats can't answer a simple question ... What has Obama done to deserve this award?"

Michael R. Adler of Miromar Lakes wrote the Mailbag Friday: "I awoke this morning and thought it was April Fool's day ... Mind you, the folks in Oslo have also awarded their peace prize to terrorist leader Yasser Arafat and also to President Carter, so I would respectfully question their judgment."

Here are two examples of the Facebook responses.

Isabel Arias-Squires, formerly of Lee County, wrote: "I am very happy and very proud! This is not an American popularity contest, this is the world's point of view on how the U.S.'s new diplomacy has changed the international arena for a more peaceful process."

John Anderson of Fort Myers wrote: "I for one am delighted that our president was nominated, and subsequently selected for this high honor. It is a testament to what he stands for, and a testament to a country that would choose him as their leader."

Minutes after the news broke, social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook were flooded with comments.

Half of the trending topics on microblogging site Twitter were about the prize and the U.S. President.

Mohamed Elbaradei, the director-general of the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency, who received the prize in 2005, said in a statement that he was “absolutely delighted.”

“I cannot think of anyone today more deserving of this honor,” he said. “In less than a year in office, he has transformed the way we look at ourselves and the world we live in and rekindled hope for a world at peace with itself.”

The Nobel Prize Committee has done something extraordinary. It has awarded the world’s most prestigious prize for preventing and savings lives, for avoiding or ending conflict, for making the world a better and safer place, to a man who has...made some terrific speeches. It is the ultimate triumph of style over substance, of perception over reality.

But perhaps fitting nonetheless. The Nobel Peace prize is in itself the ultimate irony. Alfred Nobel was the man who invented dynamite – a destroyer of lives -- yet his name bears the honor bestowed on those who would save lives.