No, that’s not a joke. This, from the NYT:
OSLO — In a stunning surprise, the Nobel Committee announced Friday that it had awarded its annual peace prize to President Obama“for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples” less than nine months after he took office.
Urmmm…. OK, I guess.
Hunh?
[UPDATE]: I saw this a couple of days ago. Waaaaayyyy too timely to be coincidental. The word must have been floating for a while before today’s announcement. Based on the standards by which Ghandi was famously ommitted, I’m still scratching my head over this…
MICHAEL A. INNES 
he same Commander in Chief who is prosecuting a war in Iraq and Afghanistan and who will shortly send an additional 40000 troops to Afghanistan..How can a man who said he would order missile strikes on Pakistan, made baseless accusations agaisnt Iran be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize?……seriously this is a joke isn’t it? Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize…..maybe it should have been the Nobel Piece Prize….the guy has done nothing and even his own country is heavily divided over his Presidency.
I don’t know why you are all surprised. Al Gore won the PEACE prize for bringing attention to……. ta da!! “Climate Change”. That shows the credibility of the prize these days. And, Gore won it for a non-existent scare campaign.
Bugbugbug, I can’t figure whether you’re two people or one – but….
1. I’m surprised because the whole thing IS a surprise, from right out of the blue.
2. I’m surprised because Obama, for all his good intentions, hasn’t been around long enough for us to see the eventual outcomes of his good intentions.
3. I’m surprised because there’s no question that despite all Obama’s positive qualities and good intentions, his predecessor set the low bar on a lot of things – thereby making it a lot easier for Obama to shine.
@bugbugbug – nice copy & paste from your own blog, complete with typo. In some places, that’s considered spamming. Wonder where else you’ve dropped this?
@mike
Weird one, huh? I was hoping he’d refuse it, and look suitably humble in doing so. Instead, he’s accepted it and looked quite humble in do so. Who knows how he can capitalise on this? One thing’s for sure – the right-wing American press is going to have a field day with this, whilst the rest of us look on and once again wonder, wtf?
Yep. Interesting that we’re now witness to something truly historical: a spectacle even grander than a US electoral campaign.
The US is “heavily divided” over Obama’s presidency? As compared to what? And climate change is a scare campaign? Ok, bugbug. Whatever you say.
But still, this is entirely a wtf? moment. One of my colleagues at work is a hard core, right wing neocon who spends most of his day printing off various nonsensical articles from extreme right media and blog sites. Then he leaves them in the printer and never picks them up, until I throw them in the recycling. And by right wing, I mean the people who think Obama’s health care plan will lead to government death panels. I can’t wait to see what these geniuses have to say about this Nobel Peace Prize.
If anyone’s interested, one of the most thoughtful analyses of this that I’ve read so far is Roger Alford’s post at Opinio Juris.