Obama Says He’s ‘Surprised’ and ‘Humbled’ by Nobel Prize

Obama has won the Nobel peace prize today for his "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples," and his efforts to rid the world of nuclear weapons. Obama is the first president since Jimmy Carter to win a Nobel Peace Prize. The award was decided by the Nobel Committee in Oslo, Norway this morning, while the President was sleeping. The news that President Obama has joined an elite group of world leaders, such as, Mikhail Gorbachev and Neslon Mandela was delivered by his press secretary Robert Gibbs. The atmosphere throughout the White House was not quite what anybody expected. There were no celebrations or incoming phone calls congratulating the president on his award.

As the President accepted this award, there already has been statements on how it was a "slap" to Bush's administration and his lack of a well thought out foreign policy. The award also has been said to be given to Obama as a "Welcoming back into the World community." The reaction from around the world about his award has become well known that people are mostly accepting that he won and acknowledging it as a step forward in the United States actions to become more active in foreign affairs in a good way. Recent polls have shown that Obama's popularity has increased as he pushes froward his intentions of limiting Iran's nuclear program. Obama has had success with that and Iran has agree to a new nuclear talk, which is a huge accomplishment for the United States.

Republicans however, have already began to criticizes his award. They have claimed that all he has done is talk about how he is going to fix the problem, and that the award was too shortcoming and none of his plans have even proven effective yet. Other leaders have also sided with the Republicans that the award was only based on good intentions, and not actual accomplishments.

Obama faces some struggle though on the home front. He is trying to pass all his new plans which include, his struggle to reform the health care system in America, an internal debate between whether or not to send more troops, up to 40,000 extra troops, to Afghanistan and his push for overhauling the educational system in hopes to bring the United States back to the top of the list for graduation rates and college diplomas.

I believe that Obama's Nobel Peace Prize was long overdue. Obama from the first day in office put in the executive order to close Guantanamo Bay which should have been closed already. People are criticizing him for receiving the award saying he has not done anything yet, but, he has already helped fix the economy from the poor decisions of the Bush Administration, and already has resolved an agreement from Iran to agree to nuclear talks, which could prove a huge success for the United States.

Source: The New York Times