Commentary: When Nobel Prize rewarded failure

Julian E. Zelizer, the author of this piece, discusses the comparison of Obama to Woodrow Wilson and when each of the presidents recieved the Nobel Peace Prize and what that indicated to the world. Wilson, who was the 28th president, recieved the Nobel Prize toward the end of his second term of presidency. Wilson recieved the award for his "campaign to gain ratification for the League of Nations" in 1919. Wilson, by this point was at the end of his ropes. The second term of his presidency was said the have been full of failures. The president had failed to convince the Senate to ratify the Treaty of Versailles, which was the agreement signed at the end of WWI, and he drug the U.S. into a bloody war when he in fact promised to keep them out of war during his second term campaign. In fact, Wilson wasn't even present to accept the award because he had just suffered from a stroke. Wilson didn't only take the Nobel Prize as an honor but said that he would use it to humble him into seeing all the work that still needed to be done. Obama, on the other hand, has recieved the Nobel Peace Prize at the beginning of his presidency. So instead of using it to look back on all his failures, he can use is as a motive to succeed and acheive the goals which he is pursuing.

I really like this article. Many people criticized Obama's win of the Nobel Prize, but this article didn't judge whether or not the President deserved the award, it just looked at it analytically. It showed how the Nobel Prize could be use for motivation instead of just being another trophy on the shelf of President Obama. That although he may or may not have deserved the award, he can definately show others how he will use the award to better the citizens of America. I not only hope that Obama will uphold the U.S. and turn this country around but I also hope that American's will realize that Obama won this award for a reason. That other people all around the world think that he is an amazing peace promoter and human being and I hope that all citizens, of any political parties, will work together to help him accomplish our countries goals.

For further reading on this topic Marit Aaseng's blog is an extension of my opinion.


http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/10/12/zelizer.nobel.wilson.failure/index.html