I'M REAL PROUD FOR YA MR. PRESIDENT, AND AHMO LET YOU GET BACK TO THAT REAL QUICK. BUT I JUST WANTED TO SAY BISHOP DESMOND TUTU HAD ONE OF THE BEST NOBEL PEACE PRIZE VICTORIES OF ALL TIME!"

Didn't Carter get one of these too?

'nuff said.

He won it in 2002, well after his presidency. Sadat and Begin won for the Camp David Accord in 1978. You can also ridicule former presidents Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson for winning this award.

Some of you muricans really don't get that there's a world out there, huh?

Just wanna clarify the award isn't for his presidency. Selections closed in early February and criteria was 2008 based. It's for his campaign and for his historical election as the first black man to be head of a non-African country in modern history.

In that respect, it is, as wiser heads have explained, an hat-tip to the American voter for peacefully closing the book* on neoconservatism & its inevitable overreach. There is also something to be said of it being the bookend to MLK's pick -- as the youngest Nobel Peace laureate -- as Obie is the realization of the promise of the Civil Rights movement.

& on the policy front, in events occuring since 1st February -- as surely the selection committee (Norwegian parliamentarians, who, given their Nordic character, are not the sort to be rash) considers events from that date in deciding -- the U.S. has made marked gains in addressing non-proliferation not with guns, but butter.

Being open to the Copenhagen Climate Conference helps, too.

The award was a big FU middle finger for Bush. I voted for O, but I'm sure the White House is wishing they wouldn't have been selected for this... Great comedy to see it spun on both sides.

I love how the dopes on the Right are screaming about how this can happen WHEN HE'S ONLY BEEN IN OFFICE FOR A FEW MONTHS.

When all they do is scream about ALL THE THINGS HE'S DOING THAT ARE TAKING THEIR COUNTRY AWAY FROM THEM even though he's only been in office for a few months.

Hypocrites, as usual.

Not necessarity an "FU"... we in the US too often think that when other countries depart from our sphere of influence it is an "FU"... it's not about us, necessarily.

The prize makes a kind of sense to me. It is NOT about anything he has done as president (the timing of the choice etc.). It is NOT about a lifetime of work. It is about the most powerful country in the world, with the power to end human life as we know it, having rattled sabers, being threatening and bellicose, invading countries.... and having a movement in that country to counteract that (to most of the world's eyes) distrurbing threat to world peace... and having the leader of that movement eloquent and influencial throughout the third world and Europe.

I can think of many others who would have been better choices, but the choice, in itself is reasonable if you get out of the American political mind.

So what you're saying harry, is that the real winner is the 55+ million people who vote for Obama?

Interesting theory if so.

Yeah Harry, I'm firmly in the "this was another FU to Bush" camp, but that's an interesting analysis you got there. Although truth to be told, I've never cared or even noticed who won this prize in the past.

Chicken or egg. Any number of other "winners" were recognized because they symbolized the hope and better selves of a movement. Rigoberta Manchu, Aung San Whatever her name was. even Mandela... were recognized for a movement in a body politic.