President Obama wins Nobel Prize

(CNN) -- President Obama said Friday that he was "surprised and deeply humbled" by the decision of the Norwegian Nobel Committee to award him the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.


President Obama, speaking Friday, said the award was "an affirmation of American leadership."

The committee said it honored Obama for his "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples."

Obama said he viewed the decision less as a recognition of his own accomplishments and more as "a call to action."

The decision appeared to catch most observers by surprise. Nominations for the prize had to be postmarked by February 1, only 12 days after Obama took office. The committee sent out its solicitation for nominations last September, two months before Obama was elected president.

-- CNN (emphasis mine)

I've followed some of the reactions by bloggers and other commenters throughout the day, and I have, I guess, the advantage of commenting after a whole lot of other people have had their crack at it.

The nomination both was premature, and wasn't. The reason I say that is because, no, Obama hasn't really so much accomplished the goals that he has laid out (and had even less so when his name was put in), but he has laid out goals for a world free of nuclear weapons, and he has emphasized diplomacy. What he has promised is an important shift in American foreign policy, and it was the opinion of the Nobel Committee, just as it is the opinion of many people world-wide, and of the many Americans who voted for Obama, that this is a very good start. A change that will do the world some good.

Would it be better if he were recognized after accomplishing these goals? Of course, but the road to achieving a lasting peace isn't smooth. We simply do live in a world with belligerents, where there are countries with which we are at odds and groups of people who mean us ill. What I will point out is that Obama himself is as aware as anyone of this--

And even as we strive to seek a world in which conflicts are resolved peacefully and prosperity is widely shared, we have to confront the world as we know it today. I am the Commander-in-Chief of a country that's responsible for ending a war and working in another theater to confront a ruthless adversary that directly threatens the American people and our allies. I'm also aware that we are dealing with the impact of a global economic crisis that has left millions of Americans looking for work. These are concerns that I confront every day on behalf of the American people.

Some of the work confronting us will not be completed during my presidency. Some, like the elimination of nuclear weapons, may not be completed in my lifetime. But I know these challenges can be met so long as it's recognized that they will not be met by one person or one nation alone. This award is not simply about the efforts of my administration -- it's about the courageous efforts of people around the world.

And that's why this award must be shared with everyone who strives for justice and dignity -- for the young woman who marches silently in the streets on behalf of her right to be heard even in the face of beatings and bullets; for the leader imprisoned in her own home because she refuses to abandon her commitment to democracy; for the soldier who sacrificed through tour after tour of duty on behalf of someone half a world away; and for all those men and women across the world who sacrifice their safety and their freedom and sometime their lives for the cause of peace.

-- whitehouse.gov

I can appreciate the impatience of the voices on the Left who want to see more accomplished, who are only too aware that we still are in Iraq and Afghanistan and that Guantanamo is still in business. But we can look at these issues from the outsider advantage of the agitators, without seeing the details that must be wrapped up, without actually dealing with the push-back of both advisers and political foes. We know what his stated intentions have always been; what I suppose is that there is a good deal of prioritizing in favor of the possible-soonest (the things most desired are very likely harder to obtain).

I am less sympathetic to the voices on the Right who somehow see this as a negative--this is an American president who is being honored because lots of people think he's on the right track! Like Obama or hate him, the Nobel prize isn't hurting our country's prestige any--why so much griping? I think there is a benefit in a policy that emphasizes diplomacy, anti-proliferation, openness, and countries not wanting to bomb each other to bits. If you want to call the prize meaningless, you have an argument, but an absolute negative, it's not!