Many are already questioning, legitimately, what Obama has actually accomplished to deserve the Peace Prize. There is no good answer, but I believe he can use the occasion fruitfully to thank the Nobel Committee for their faith in him, acknowledge that he has still to earn it, but explain that he sees the Prize as an obligation to go forward with his efforts to bring adversaries to the bargaining table rather than as a reward for past achievements.

I think Shimon Peres ( another winner) sums it up best:

The Lede

“Very few leaders if at all were able to change the mood of the entire world in such a short while with such a profound impact. You provided the entire humanity with fresh hope, with intellectual determination, and a feeling that there is a lord in heaven and believers on earth.” Mr. Peres, who won the peace prize with Yitzhak Rabin and Yasir Arafat in 1994 following the Oslo Accords, added: “Under your leadership, peace became a real and original agenda. And from Jerusalem, I am sure all the bells of engagement and understanding will ring again. You gave us a license to dream and act in a noble direction.”

LMAO!!!

Congratulations to Obama on receiving the Yasser Arafat award!

This award has become a complete and utter joke. At one point in time it was given to people who brought peace to some place in the world. Now it is simple political grandstanding by the Euro-left. As meaningless as it is ridiculous.

Here's Michael Tomasky in today's Guardian - absolutely NOT a Republican writing in a paper which is DECIDEDLY progressive;

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/michaeltomasky/2009/oct/09/nobel-peace-prize-obama

From his piece

"So you have to wonder whether the Nobel committee has its tongue part-way up its cheek here"

Not its cheek. If the right wing has any brains (a proposition open to question given their post election performance) they will be saying that Lefties just can't get enough of boot licking and ass kissing. Certainly that's true of Rosenberg.

What has Obama done to justify this award? Quoting from Renard Sexton in FiveThirtyEight.com this morning:

.....The justification for the prize, while certainly unexpected and a bit tenuous, is indeed rooted in fact. Obama has long been a booster for non-proliferation, and his speech and lobbying at the UN General Assembly and Security Council proved to be quite successful.

On climate change, the Obama administration has taken the toughest line against carbon emissions of any White House so far in terms of concrete regulations by Federal agencies. The September announcement by the EPA that the agency would begin to regulate CO2 as a pollutant, verified by the Supreme Court in 2007, was a major step towards US action on the climate change issue. Though cap-and-trade or other large scale programmes are clearly the purvue of Congress, the executive branch's efforts in the realm are likely to be a major portion of the US effort.

Regarding diplomacy, the committee was likely in part referring to the re-elevation of Susan Rice's post, the US Ambassador to the UN, to a cabinet level post, as well as his public addresses and promised strategic changes toward diplomatic action over rapid military decisions - such as Iran. The G5 plus one meeting with Iran, where Undersecretary of State Burns officially met with the Iranian negotiator, and found a way forward on nuclear energy processing was the first concrete outcome of this strategy.

In the US realm, this is a great boost for the Obama foreign agenda - which certainly played into the decision by the Nobel folks. While the US political scene is often quite skeptical of the international community, the Peace Prize is a quite lauded affair. Even major Obama detractors will have a bit of hard time criticizing his win, especially after their poorly received revelry of Chicago's olympic demise. For Obama liberal supporters, it is a bittersweet moment --many have criticized the administration's foreign policy for moving to the center, particularly on war issues, and the Peace Prize designation takes a great deal of air out of that balloon.

Perhaps the happiest people in the US on this one will be the centrists - and those who wanted Obama to reshape the US image abroad. Whether the award is warranted (too soon? too uncertain?) or relevant (peace prize as we're discussing escalation in Afghanistan?, for the leader of the largest and most powerful military force in the world to be awarded a prize for peace and diplomacy is quite an interesting development.

"He now has a powerful mandate from the international community."

If one is wise, one can appreciate how important this is. If one is clueless as to the importance of the manner in which others view them, I can see why there is such consternation. Of course, one cannot act solely based on the views of others if there is a moral imperative, but barring that, it is good to check with others as to whether one has a good idea, or whether one just suffers from a false belief that they have a good idea.

Count me in as one of the "universalist types who eschew patriotism."
At the very moment Obama and his chief advisors/ministers are debating the strategy to apply to Afghanistan, whether to continue an occupation or to rely on drone warfare, awarding him the Nobel Peace Prize is downright bizarre. I can agree that Obama has committed to -- and has very selectively taken actions-- ameliorating the worst excesses of the GW Bush reign. But the USA is still occupying 2 Middle East countries. Moreover Obama continues to risk killing dozens of innocents, as has happened numerous time during his watch, every time he authorizes a drone strike. Perhaps the Nobel judges wished to buttress Obama by rewarding his quite timid first steps towards peace thus far. However, there must be dozens of little known humanitarians along the lines of Mother Teresa who better deserve a prize that explicitly honors peacemaking.

On extending an Olive Branch to our adversaries, President Obama has been awarded one of the most Prestigious Awards in the World -- The Nobel Peace Award. For his efforts and courage on a world stage to engage with the enemy, to sit at the table and break bread, to engage in peaceful dialouge with respect, and to extend to our "alleged" enemies an Olive Branch and not a Stick, the GOP jealousy ask -- But, what has he done?

What he has done, in the face of much criticism, as stated above, is to extend an Olive Branch to our adversaries, because only peace can bring peace. He has fostered and ignited the will to good, which in turn, will increase goodwill around the world. In the face of ridicule, President Obama has set the tone and direction toward unity, cooperation and oneness, recognizing our interconnectedness with all nations around the world -- that we are all brothers/sisters and souls of the one Great Life from which we have all originated from. This is a very big deal Indeed because it is a Consciousness change which will change the actions of men on earth.

Check out the rightwing web sites. They are suffering.

I took your advice. Here's Free Republic
http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/*/index

Suffering? Looks to me like they're have a great time ridiculing complete fools.

ok, so are you saying that anyone who doesn't support the president is unpatriotic or unamerican? how does this make you any better than the right wingers after 9/11 when they said anyone who doesn't support the president is unamerican and unpatriotic? sure, Bush was an evil lunatic, and i'm not saying obama is, i think there are wonderful things about him. but is it right to say that no one should have a different opinion than you about how good he's been for our country? i'm a flaming liberal and i think he's been a wimp when it comes to actually sticking to his guns and championing the issues he promised to take care of.

Obama is no wimp by any stretch of the imagination. Just because he doesn't talk and walk like a cowboy, doesn't mean he's wimp.

This is what is called a "Gimmy",
He is the commander and chief of an army that kills thousand of woman and children every month.
At the time of the award he gave the ok to kill four teenagers (Africans pirates) in cold blood.
Peace Prize... that is a laugh !