Ya think?

OSLO (Reuters) – The effect of giving the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize to U.S. President Barack Obama fell short of the nominating committee’s hopes, and several awards in the past 25 years were even more questionable, the committee’s former secretary says in a new book.

Geir Lundestad, lifting a veil on the secretive five-member panel, also reveals that former German chancellor Helmut Kohl, late Czech president Vaclav Havel and several rock stars were among those who were considered for the award but never won.

Lundestad writes in “Secretary of Peace” that the prize to Obama was the most controversial during his time as director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute from 1990-2015. He attended committee meetings but had no vote.

“Even many of Obama’s supporters thought the prize was a mistake,” Lundestad wrote, adding that many Americans viewed the award as making Obama a spokesman for international peacemaking values rather than their own interests.

“In that sense the committee did not achieve what it hoped for,” he wrote, noting Obama himself rarely mentioned the prize.

The award, made by the committee in particular recognition of Obama’s vision of ridding the world of nuclear weapons, was widely criticized in the United States as premature. It came just nine months after he took office.