In a stunning surprise, the Nobel Committee announced Friday that it had awarded its annual peace prize to President Obama “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples” less than nine months after he took office. . . .
As to whether the prize was given too early in Mr. Obama’s presidency, [Nobel Committee Chair Thorbjorn Jagland], said: “We are not awarding the prize for what may happen in the future but for what he has done in the previous year. We would hope this will enhance what he is trying to do.” . . .
“One of the first things he did was to go to Cairo to try to reach out to the Muslim world, then to restart the Mideast negotiations and then he reached out to the rest of the world through international institutions.
Obama apparently had not been considered a front-runner (did anyone know he had been nominated?), but according to Jagland, the vote was unanimous, and uncontroversial.
-Kathleen Bergin
An interesting turn of events.
He has done a lot to promote world peace, rid the world of nuclear weapons and to combat global warming. I for one, am happy for news. Now if he would only end Bush's wars.
Posted by: Chris R | October 09, 2009 at 12:59 PM
Stop the war!
What are we doing over there? [rhetorical question] Seriously. WTF
Posted by: anon | October 09, 2009 at 01:42 PM
I think the Nobel Prize is an honor for the President and our country. Hopefully, this means we can end the war.
Posted by: Lisa | October 11, 2009 at 10:58 PM