OMG Obama!

[blamebrampton]

shocolate is an even keener refresher of news sites than I am, which is how she broke the news to me that Barack Obama has been awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.

And for anyone wondering why, this, and living up to this:

To my mind, he is the type of American who represents the America I imagined when I was young, and thought of it as a country that could do anything it set its mind to it. And I rather love the fact I started believing that when Americans landed on the moon and that tonight American satellites are going to drop onto the moon's crust to look for confirmation of water. And while I do point out that America can suck, it can, as it says, also rock.

ETA: As I predicted to Mr Brammers a few hours ago, media coverage is running down expected lines. The Times is expressing the decision as a 'Shock' and declared it a political decision (yes, because that has NEVER happened before!); the Sydney Morning Herald is saying that while the decision was a surprise the committee and other laureates were excited about it and it was a firm endorsement of Obama's policies of multulateralism and support for human rights;  The New York Times calls it a surprise move, and speaks about the award being given on the basis of some work achieved and more committed to, as well as the cultural shift being as important as the concrete achievements so far. The last is also the only paper I've looked at so far that has comments from the White House -- and a terrific little blog of world reactions.

I was backing Hu Jia for this year's prize, and I do grant you that it is early to give it to Obama, who wasn't even on my prediction list. That said, I am good with early if it's followed up, and he is very good at the follow up.  And it's nice to see the Norwegians indulge a little bit of optimism, I haven't seen that in the global climate since Gorby was about.

This weekend's papers will be interesting!