Who Will Win the Nobel Peace Prize?
When the Nobel Peace Prize is presented, on December 10, the winner will join a veritable Valhalla of do-gooders that includes Mother Teresa, the Dalai Lama, and Martin Luther King Jr. So it may sound odd to hear U2's lead singer, Bono, touted as a front-runner—at least by the Irish bookmaker Paddypower.com. The famously earnest champion of Third World debt relief is among a record 199 nominees on this year's "short" list. But achtung, bidders: the prize is expected to go to a person or an organization associated with disaster relief for victims of last year's tsunami. Here are some potential winners.
11:4 Viktor Yushchenko. The new Ukrainian president embraced the West and quelled anti-Russian sentiments. He was also badly disfigured by poison. The $1.3 million that accompanies the prize could buy a lot of ointment.
7:1 Bono. He would be the first entertainer to win the award. His credentials include recording a song to benefit tsunami victims. And you think his ego is big now.
14:1 Colin Powell. The former secretary of state was nominated for his help in trying to end the civil war in Sudan. But what about Iraq?
16:1 Bob Geldof. Is Geldof being considered because he organized Live Aid and Live 8, or because he reunited Roger Waters with Pink Floyd?
20:1 Ravi Shankar. The Indian musician influenced the Beatles and sired the pop singer Norah Jones, but he's not known for activism. Close, but no sitar.
25:1 Hugo Chavez. It's a bet Pat Robertson wouldn't take; others seem to agree. Long odds on the beret-wearing, oil-hoarding Venezuelan president.
33:1 Pope John Paul II. Rules forbid nominating the deceased, but the pope passed away just after the Nobel deadline. There's been only one posthumous winner: the UN secretary general Dag Hammarskjöld, in 1961.
250:1 Tony Blair and George Bush. Neither one stands an earthly chance of winning a peace prize during wartime.
