Stunning.
That had to be the overwhelming feeling among Americans as they awoke to the news early this morning that Barack Obama is this year's winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. It came in at 5 a.m. East Coast time this morning, and I literally jumped up and off my bed hearing the NPR announcer say at 5:04, "Repeating our top story, Barack Obama has won the Nobel Peace Prize."
Obama is the third sitting U.S. president to enjoy the honor, but the first to win it during his first term in office (and in his first 8 months, to boot). Woodrow Wilson was awarded the prize in 1919 after helping to establish the League of Nations, and Teddy Roosevelt took it in 1906.
But as the Washington Post reports:
In contrast, Obama is struggling over whether to expand the war in Afghanistan, preparing to withdraw from Iraq, and searching for ways to build momentum to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and assemble an international effort to stop Iran's nuclear program.
Already the conservative media establishment is mocking the prize and our president. But doesn't that contradict what they were saying a week ago, when many people were almost as equally surprised that the International Olympic Committee rejected Chicago as the potential host of the 2016 Summer Games?
Former President Jimmy Carter, the 2002 Nobel Prize winner, called the award to Obama a"bold statement of international support for his vision and commitment."
Closer to home, the St. Petersburg City Council, or at least one member of it, was apparently stung by the criticism thrown their way by the St. Pete Times and other figures for their vote last week not to allow BayWalk to be given the public sidewalk that is the entryway to the struggling shopping complex.
Councilmember Herb Polson supported a motion to bring the issue back.
This article appears in Oct 8-14, 2009.