2009 Nobel Peace Prize Controversy
In October 2009, President Barack Obama received the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize, an event widely reported as "surprising" to even the President and his advisers. Conservatives and others in the media ridiculed the selection process and the President. Criticisms ranged from claims that Obama was undeserving, to the fact that he had been nominated only twelve days after his inauguration, to claims that the Nobel Peace Prize is anti-American. In an October 9, 2009 public statement, RNC Chairman Michael Steele issued a public statement which rhetorically asked what Obama achievement the Nobel Prize recognized.
Woodhouse, as Communications Director of the Democratic National Committee, responded:
"The Republican Party has thrown in its lot with the terrorists - the Taliban and Hamas this morning - in criticizing the President for receiving the Nobel Peace prize -- an award he did not seek but that is nonetheless an honor in which every American can take great pride — unless of course you are the Republican Party. The 2009 version of the Republican Party has no boundaries, has no shame and has proved that they will put politics above patriotism at every turn. It’s no wonder only 20 percent of Americans admit to being Republicans anymore – it’s an embarrassing label to claim."
The Republican National Committee (RNC) responded:
"Like most Americans, the DNC can't think of one achievement that the president has accomplished, so they resort to their predictable response and standard playbook of demonizing those who disagree with them. ...Now, when challenged to answer the question of what the president has accomplished, Democrats are lashing out calling Republicans terrorists. That type of political rhetoric is shameful."
Read more about this topic: Brad Woodhouse
Famous quotes containing the words nobel, peace, prize and/or controversy:
“Parents can fail to cheer your successes as wildly as you expected, pointing out that you are sharing your Nobel Prize with a couple of other people, or that your Oscar was for supporting actress, not really for a starring role. More subtly, they can cheer your successes too wildly, forcing you into the awkward realization that your achievement of merely graduating or getting the promotion did not warrant the fireworks and brass band.”
—Frank Pittman (20th century)
“Hard labor and spare diet they had, and off wooden trenchers, but they had peace and freedom, and the wailing of the tempest in the woods sounded kindlier in their ear than the smooth voice of the prelates, at home, in England.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“He saw, he wish’d, and to the prize aspir’d.
Resolv’d to win, he meditates the way,
By force to ravish, or by fraud betray;
For when success a lover’s toil attends,
Few ask, if fraud or force attain’d his ends.”
—Alexander Pope (1688–1744)
“Ours was a highly activist administration, with a lot of controversy involved ... but I’m not sure that it would be inconsistent with my own political nature to do it differently if I had it to do all over again.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)