Obama accepts the Peace Prize but declines to follow tradition

Barack Obama accepted the Nobel Peace Prize today, barely two weeks after announcing he will be sending 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan. Unfortunately, accepting the prize was about the only gesture to tradition he made.

The last time President Barack Obama visited Scandinavia it was a disaster. His attempt to help his adopted hometown of Chicago secure the Summer Olympics of 2016 failed completely. Chicago was knocked out in the first round of voting. The President's visit to Norway has also been a Public Relations disaster with the Norwegian people. In a gesture worthy of his predecessor George W Bush, Barack Obama declined to have dinner with the Norwegian Nobel committee. This was surprising given that these were the very people who had given him the award in the first place. Obama declined to appear at a children's event promoting peace and to even visit an exhibition set up in his honour at the Nobel peace centre in Oslo. The snub that upset the Norwegian people the most though was Obama's decision to decline a lunch invitation from King Harald of Norway.