Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize award is spoken of with skepticism, an interesting form of skepticism where people are saying it’s too early to give it to him, he hasn’t done anything to deserve it yet, the award is for what he has the potential to do over the next few years. Others say that he has done plenty and applaud the award. So who’s right?

1.    Has it been enough time?
Obama has been the President now for not quite a year, and he has made a serious impact on the world. By far and away his most obvious victory is changing the way the U.S. is perceived across the globe, giving people hope and reaching out to countries that had given up on the U.S. over the last 8 years. That’s a huge element, especially as we are nobody’s best friend right now, with the whole global financial crisis thing… But what about climate change? What has he done? H

2.    Does he really have a good record on climate change?
Alden Meyer of the Union of Concerned Scientists, had this reaction to Obama's award: "My guess is he was awarded the prize as much for his efforts to change the tone of the global conversation, re-engage the U.S. with the rest of the world, and listen to others' points of view with respect. The contrast with the previous U.S. president is pretty stark on these fronts, and it's a change that clearly appeals to the Nobel Committee.
The award is likely more for the promise of what Obama hopes to accomplish on global warming, nuclear weapons reduction, Middle East peace, and other issues than it is for what he's accomplished to date. Whether the award helps the president achieve those objectives remains to be seen."

[Quote from New York Times Greenwire]

Fact is, he hasn’t done anything of merit yet but get the conversation going and get the U.S. to the table- we are entering with the expectation that we sign something, or at least I think we are…

3. What does Copenhagen have to do with it?
Well, the COP15 summit is December 7 – 20 in Copenhagen and the Nobel ceremony is in Oslo on December 10- how could he possibly go to receive an award partly based on his contribution to the global battle against climate change and not hop over to the worldwide summit about exactly that? And after flying there specifically to talk to a committee about… the Olympics?
Obama has to go. There is no way around it, either diplomatically or politically. Compared to this, all his questionable press over the past year will be nothing compared to the skewer that awaits him if he doesn’t go- but if he does go, are people expecting him to be superman? I mean, he is still the President of the United States, and we have a lot to negotiate for- and so far, we aren’t leading the way:

Meyer just published a statement from the preliminary Bangkok summit titled: "U.S. stance retards progress at Bangkok climate talks."

Will Obama retard or heal the Copenhagen summit?