Why Obama? Read the the rationale of the Nobel Committee: [View All]

[Are_grits_groceries]

Barack Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize

<snip>
The committee said it wanted to enhance Mr. Obama’s diplomatic efforts. “We are awarding Obama for what he has done,” the committee said. “Many other people and leaders and nations have to respond in a positive way” to President Obama’s diplomacy.
<snip>
Thorbjorn Jagland, the chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee and a former prime minister of Norway, told reporters that Mr. Obama, who took office in January, had already contributed enough to world diplomacy and understanding to deserve the prize.

Asked whether the prize was given too early in Mr. Obama’s presidency, he said: “We are not awarding the prize for what may happen in the future but for what he has done in the previous year. We would hope this will enhance what he is trying to do.”

He said the conflict in Afghanistan “concerns us all. We do hope an improvement in the international climate could help resolve that.” Mr. Jagland had been asked by a reporter whether Mr. Obama’s selection for the award was intended to influence the American debate on troops levels in Afghanistan.

“One of the first things he did was to go to Cairo to try to reach out to the Muslim world, then to restart the Mideast negotiations and then he reached out to the rest of the world through international institutions,” Mr. Jagland said, mentioning in particular the recent United Nations Security Council meeting on nuclear disarmament.

The announcement of the prize noted the special importance the Nobel committee attached to President Obama’s vision of a world without nuclear weapons. “Obama has as president created a new climate in international politics. Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play,” the committee said.
<snip>
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/10/world/10nobel.html?_r=1&hp

Read the entire article.