American Morning
We Listen – Your comments 10/9/2009
Editor's Note: American Morning's Friday audience responded to breaking news of President Obama’s win for the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. The majority offered praise for the president’s efforts for “consistently trying to open the doors of communication and peace between the nations of our global community.” Those questioning the Nobel Committee’s choice considered the win “an affront to President Bush plain and simple,” and asked “just what did he actually do?”
Approve
- Linda: Congratulations to President Obama for winning the Nobel Peace Prize. He has been consistently trying to open the doors of communication and peace between the nations of our global community. He has demonstrated the peaceful means we hope to open honest, peaceful resolution to that community. He has brought Hope to world leaders, respect for American principles, and is very deserving of the Nobel Peace Prize. Shame on the cynics...Hurray for our President and the honor he has brought back to the United States in the global community.
- Dr. Sam: Most deserving! Peace is the ever present challenge; without it, nothing else matters. While holding up the offensive arm as a superpower leader, Obama has also freely extended the opportunity for peace for all peoples throughout the world. Republican will say no to everything, including this one. I am most disappointed about Ed Rollin's comments.
- Ronald: Barack Obama wins Nobel Prize for Peace. Why? Because the world itself envisions the US President far more than the run of the mill media giants. Because, the world knows if any person is capable of bringing peace between Israel and Palestine, it will be Barack Obama. What the media channels should project is the dream for peace is closer than the knuckleheads of the past. To question the abilities for peace to become materialized is to question yourself whether you are a winner or a loser. Mr. Obama is a winner and the world knows it. He may have been in office merely 9 months, but just wait how the pages of history shall become written by those achievements he shall perform. Lastly, the world is abundant of politicians, but how many of them are truly statesmen? Now, you understand why!
- Rose: YAY! President Obama! He totally deserves this. He has made major strides for this country and for different races in America. We have hope that if you are a person of color you can have the same opportunity as a white person and we love the fact he is reaching out to other cultures and countries. We acknowledge that he is the one who ended the long war in Iraq. He acknowledges that America has not always been right, unlike in the past, we were sometimes starting fights and conflicts just because we are the USA and we can.
- Ken: I am delighted that President Obama has been awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace. If nothing else, it is recognition of his defeating the Republican War Criminals!
Disapprove
- Alex: The Peace Prize? THIS WAS NOT GIVEN TO PRESIDENT OBAMA FOR HIS BODY OF WORK!!! THIS IS AN AFFRONT TO PRESIDENT BUSH PLAIN AND SIMPLE!!! THIS AWARD WAS GIVEN TO TRY AND EMBARASS GEORGE BUSH!!! I don’t know why but this just doesn’t seem right! It seems offensive. THIS IS NOT RIGHT!
- Greg: The world now knows just how big a joke the Nobel booby prize is! Why are your reporters not reporting he was nominated just two weeks after being sworn in. Just what did he actually do!
- James: This award is no doubt a surprise to the international community, let alone citizens of the United States. As of yesterday, many believed Barack Obama's policies were creating a first term worthy of the Peace Prize. Now, both supporters and detractors of the President cannot help but wonder why he was awarded so early. Unfortunately, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has rewarded a peaceful-minded leader who strives for disarmament, via a timeframe that leaves much to be desired, and leaves even more room for criticism.
How do you feel about the president’s win of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize?
Video: Obama accepts Nobel as 'call to action'
(CNN) - President Obama on Friday said he was "surprised and deeply humbled" by winning the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.
"I do not view it as a recognition of my own accomplishments, but rather as an affirmation of American leadership," Obama said from the White House Rose Garden.
"I will accept this award as a call to action."
Obama said he did not feel he deserves "to be in the company" of past winners.
The Nobel announcement was a stunning decision that comes just eight months into Obama's presidency.
Rollins: Obama must now 'earn' Nobel Peace Prize
President Barack Obama won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, a stunning decision that comes just eight months into his presidency.
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/10/09/rollins.ed.art.jpg caption="Ed Rollins questions what President Obama will do to "earn" the Nobel Peace Prize."]
The decision appeared to catch most observers by surprise. Ed Rollins, CNN political contributor and Republican strategist, says the question now is what does he do with it?
Rollins joined John Roberts and Kiran Chetry on CNN’s “American Morning” Friday. Below is an edited transcript of the interview.
John Roberts: The president has given three significant speeches talking about peace – in Germany, in Cairo, and at the United Nations. He's traveled the world very extensively in the first nine months of his presidency. Could that not be said – and considering too the change in tone – to be worthy of being recognized with the Nobel peace prize?
Ed Rollins: You usually get recognized at the end of some major accomplishment. I think three speeches are a start from his perspective. And I want to congratulate him. I'm always for Americans winning, whether it’s golf, tennis, or the international stage. And it's a lot better Friday than last Friday, when he woke up saying, “We came in fourth.”
I think at this point, the thing I'm curious about is, this is a storybook made-for-TV story. A young senator basically gets elected president after a very short period of time. Nine months into his administration, when the world is still at war – he’s sitting down at a war council today – he gets the Nobel Peace Prize. I mean, if you presented that as a made-for-TV, you probably would get the script rejected.
The key thing I think today is how does he think of himself now? … I'm now a Nobel Peace Prize winner. I've got to go out and make sure I create peace in the world. Not a bad objective. Except, are you as commander in chief basically going to abdicate some of your duties?
Obama awarded 2009 Nobel Peace Prize
(CNN) - President Obama was awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday.
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/WORLD/europe/10/09/nobel.peace.prize/art.obamablackcaucus.gi.jpg caption="Less than nine months into his presidency, Barack Obama has been awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize."]
The first African-American to win the White House, Obama was praised by the Norwegian Nobel Committee for "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples."
"Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future," the committee said. "His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world's population."
The committee also said Obama has "created a new climate in international politics."
The announcement came as a surprise - Obama's name had not been mentioned among front-runners - and the roomful of reporters in Oslo, Norway, gasped when he was named.
In his short time in office, Obama has acted on a wide range of issues from the economy to terrorism and wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Obama also lobbied unsuccessfully to bring the 2016 Olympics to Chicago, Illinois. After returning from Denmark, Obama expressed no regret about his trip, saying it is "always a worthwhile endeavor to promote and boost the United States."
Are women secretly yearning for a bad boy?
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/10/09/mad.men.2.art.jpg caption="Jon Hamm plays Don Draper, the charismatic lead character of AMC's "Mad Men.""]
Don Draper. He's the charismatic lead character in AMC"s "Mad Men," a TV show that takes place in the sixties when women mostly stayed at home, and men brought home the bacon. Draper is a suave "ad man," who cheats on his wife, but supports her financially. And who treats most other women like dirt. Women we talked to who watch the show – LOVE him.
“Don Draper. He’s just so mysterious,” says one 26-year-old. “It's a very particular type of magnetism – he is just so confident, and he never doubts himself,” says another young woman. One young woman summed it up best when she said, “You know he's not good for you, but like oh my God, you know, I have to have it!”
Some female viewers love Don Draper so much, they didn't blink an eye when he went beyond "bad boy" behavior to, um, sexual assault in a clip from season two .
Even Jezebel, a feminist women's blogsite, gave him a pass for this because "...sometimes assertive women get tired of always being so damn assertive ... sometimes they like to be told what to do."
Just sayin' – Are women secretly yearning for a bad boy?
Psychiatrist Gail Saltz says, “I think that women have throughout the ages ... yearned for the bad boy” and that women love the idea of Don Draper because, today they feel overwhelmed in a down economy with work, the kids, and the needy husband.
According to a study by the Wharton school, called “The Paradox of Declining Female Happiness," ...women's happiness has fallen both absolutely and relative to men's…”
The 60's world of Mad Men is, what Dr. Saltz calls, "a fantasy solution." “The idea that the knight would come in and scoop them up and make everything easier is also very appealing, but it's a fantasy that doesn't include the being suppressed, you're not having anything of your own, it doesn't include those things.”.
But there's even a TV show about a wife who's loyal to her cheating politician husband – called "The Good Wife."
And in real life women have scorned "cheaters" like former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, South Carolina's Governor Sanford and John Edwards.
Yet they've given some cheating men a pass like Bill Clinton and now, seemingly David Letterman. Want the real life reason why? Dr. Saltz says it's "very much a function of how much you identify with the woman who's been hurt. Feel sorry for her – hate the man. Think she can take it – his cheatin' heart might be okay.”
What do you think? Why do women love the cheatin' Don Draper? Do we now yearn for that old-fashioned, bring home the bacon kind of guy?
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