Nobel Rewards Hope

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

President Barack Obama said he was as surprised as anyone when he heard the news that he had won the Nobel Peace Prize.  So were we.  He's only been in office nine months.  What did he do to deserve this?

Obama joins Theodore Roosevelt (1906) and Woodrow Wilson (1919) as the only sitting U.S. Presidents to have won the award.  Jimmy Carter won his in 2000, long after he left the White House.

The voting actually occured in February, so it could have been for Obama's being the first African-American man to become President.  That's accomplishment enough for some people.  Or maybe the voters saw the throngs gathering to hear his message of inspiration and hope, which after a decade of war and terrorism was like a fresh breeze.

But there's an awful lot on Obama's plate that could call into question the Nobel Committee's judgement:  the stalemate over health care reform, whether or not to send more troops into Afghanistan, what to do about the economy, etc.

Consevatives, who always seem to find new ways to demonize Obama whether it's good for the country or not, are complaining that the Peace Prize is Europe's way of dissing the accomplishments of George W. Bush when he was in office.  Given the way Bush alienated the rest of the world (and some Americans) with an arrogance that passed for diplomacy, he might have deserved some kind of an award.  It's certainly not for peace.

In this culture of diminished expectations, winning the Nobel Peace Prize is going to put a new burden on Obama's shoulders.  He will now be expected to emulate past winners such as Albert Schweitzer, Martin Luther King, Jr., Norman Borlaug (who passed away recently), Amnesty International, Anwar Sadat, Menachem Begin, Mother Teresa, Lech Walesa, Desmond Tutu, Mikhail Gorbachev, Elie Wiesel, the Dalai Lama. Aung San Suu Kyi and Nelson Mandela.  No need to ask what they have accomplished.

That way we'll know whether Obama deserves a second Nobel Peace Prize.  Which would be a real accomplishment because no person has won it twice.