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Obama's Nobel undeserved, public says

by Mark Silva

President Barack Obama did not deserve to win the Nobel Prize for Peace, the way most Americans surveyed view the surprise prize -- only the third Peace Prize for a sitting president of the United States.

Yet a lot of people are glad he did: 46 percent.

A strong majority surveyed by the Gallup Poll -- 61 percent -- say the president does not deserve the prize that he will travel to Oslo to pick up on Dec. 10. The Nobel Committee said it was awarding the prize to Obama for creating a new environment in international affairs, placing diplomacy ahead of conflict and seeking global nuclear disarmament and control over climate change.

""Not surprisingly, reaction to the awarding of the prize is partisan, although support for Obama's receiving the prize among Democrats is perhaps not as large as might be expected,'' writes Frank Newport, editor-in-chief of the Gallup Poll.

Obama himself said that he did not deseve a prize that placed him in the company of so many "transformative'' figures in world history, but would accept it as a "call to action.'' He has vowed to donate the $1.4 million that comes with the prize to charity.

A USA Today/Gallup Poll conducted about a week after the announcement on Oct. 9 did not ask Americans whether they believe that the award may ultimately be deserved, or whether it was appropriately given in anticipation of the potential of the Obama administration's peace efforts. The question was whether Obama "deserved" the award. Americans said no, by a roughly two-to-one margin.

As partisan as the divide in opinion of the prize is, just 59 percent of the Democrats surveyed said the award is deserved, compared with the 84 percent of Democrats who in the same survey approve of Obama's job performance. Independents and, in particular, Republicans are highly likely to say Obama did not deserve to win the prize.

Obama's overall job approval in the latest Gallup Poll daily track reported today stands at 54 percent, a few points up from a low of 50 that he reached earlier this week and three times before since late August. The president had gotten a bit of a "speed bump'' from the prize, his approval reaching 56 percent in the days following its award.

The prize findings come from a survey of 1,521 adults conducted Oct. 16-19, with a possible margin of error of plus or minus 3 points.

(President Barack Obama is pictured above in the Oval Office on Oct. 9 before stepping out to the Rose Garden to address the winning of the Nobel Prize for Peace. ( Photo by Alex Brandon)

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