Short stay miffs Norwegians

[MrLiberty]

By MATTI HUUHTANEN (AP) – 16 hours ago

OSLO — President Barack Obama's decision to break with tradition and not follow the lead of past Nobel Peace Prize winners bewildered some Norwegians. Others thought he was being impolite.

Obama had quite a whirlwind day Thursday — he signed the Nobel guest book, huddled with Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, met with King Harald V and Queen Sonja, and delivered an acceptance speech after he was formally presented with the prize. He also joined the king and queen at an evening banquet.

But he skipped several other activities, including lunch with the king, a news conference at Oslo's Grand Hotel, CNN's traditional interview with the prize winner and a "Save the Children" benefit concert, where organizers replaced him with an Obama cardboard cutout. Obama also won't be around for Friday's Nobel Concert.

Obama blamed his schedule. "I still have a lot of work to do back in Washington, D.C., before the year is done," he said during an appearance with Stoltenberg. The president's quick visit also reflected a White House that saw little value in trumpeting an honor for peace just days after Obama announced he was sending more troops off to war.

In a survey published Wednesday in Norwegian VG daily, 53 percent of respondents said Obama's decision not to attend the Nobel Concert was "impolite," and 48 percent said the same of his decision to skip the CNN interview and the news conference. Forty-four percent disapproved of his decision to pass up lunch with the king.

The survey was conducted Dec. 8 by InFact. It involved telephone interviews with 1,000 people and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

Siv Jensen, leader of the right-wing opposition Progress Party, told VG she thought Obama should "show some respect for the monarchy."

Jonathan Mann, the CNN reporter who for the past 15 years has interviewed the Nobel Peace laureate, said he wasn't offended at being turned down by Obama.

"He's a busy guy, essentially. We're not taking it personally," Mann told Norwegian national broadcaster NRK.

The Associated Press: WHITE HOUSE NOTEBOOK: Short stay miffs Norwegians

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Again this shows a clueless man in the White House. He campaigned on the issue that you don't piss off your European allies, but what has he done since taking office. He has insulted just about all of our allies with his snubs.

I've said it before, obama is an empty suit and is clueless as to what the job entails!

[faithful_servant]

I actually think that he did the right thing this time. With all of the controversy surrounding the NPP this year, I think that his minimizing it was a good call. He did the bare minimum required to accept an award that he did the bare minimum to get.

[Sulayman]

He shouldn't have accepted an undeserved Peace Prize, of course, but I see no reason for him to linger in Norway either.

[Mustang Man]

Too cold for him, I bet. Probably prefers someplace warm.