What Should Obama Say in His Nobel Speech?

On Dec. 10, President Barack Obama will be in Oslo, Norway, to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. His highly anticipated acceptance speech comes just days after he announced his decision to sent 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan. So, what should the president say?

Just as there are varied opinions as to whether Obama deserved to win the Nobel Peace Prize, there is no shortage of advice on what the president should say to his audience in Oslo and across the globe.

At Mediaite, Rachel Sklar says she believes the president should shift the focus away from himself and even suggests the wording he should use to do so:

"I accept this award but not for myself. It's for the millions who work tirelessly for peace outside the spotlight, fighting against inhumanity, injustice, tyranny, oppression and indifference, often at great personal risk."

In an interview with Fox News' Chris Wallace, former Vice President Dick Cheney's daughter, Liz, thinks the president should pull a Brando and send a surrogate to pick up the prize:

"I think what he ought to do, frankly, is send the mother of a fallen American soldier to accept the prize on behalf of the U.S. military. Frankly, to send the message to remind the Nobel committee that each one of them sleeps soundly at night because the U.S. armed forces, because the U.S. military is the greatest peacekeeping force in the world today."

The New York Times' Thomas Friedman also likes the idea of singling out the U.S. military as a force for peace and, like Sklar, has provided a ready-made script, which includes the line:

"I will accept it on behalf of the most important peacekeepers in the world for the last century -- the men and women of the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps."

Former Ronald Reagan speechwriter and Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan is in sync with Cheney and Friedman about taking the time to recognize America in the speech:

How about an unapologetic address, a speech, with the world's elites leaning forward and listening, about the meaning of America? A speech that shows a grounded and sophisticated love for his country and its great traditions and history. Not a nationalistic speech, note a prideful one, but a loving one.

Given the president's initial public reaction to receiving the award, what he ends up saying in Oslo might not be all that different than what these opinion writers have suggested.



We're curious to hear your suggestions for what Obama should say in his acceptance speech, too.