The Norwegian Nobel Committee has unexpectedly awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize to US President Barack Obama. While many of Obama's supporters would have seen him as an excellent potential candidate for the prize, few would have predicted that he would win it prize so early in his presidency. Obama's right-wing opponents, on the other hand, will be as displeased today about his award as they were pleased only a week ago when his hometown of Chicago lost its bid to host the 2016 Olympics. The Nobel Committee announced its surprise decision Oct. 9 as follows:

"The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 is to be awarded to President Barack Obama for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples. The Committee has attached special importance to Obama's vision of and work for 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. Dialogue and negotiations are preferred as instruments for resolving even the most difficult international conflicts. The vision of a world free from nuclear arms has powerfully stimulated disarmament and arms control negotiations. Thanks to Obama's initiative, the USA is now playing a more constructive role in meeting the great climatic challenges the world is confronting. Democracy and human rights are to be strengthened.

"Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future. His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world's population.

"For 108 years, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has sought to stimulate precisely that international policy and those attitudes for which Obama is now the world's leading spokesman. The Committee endorses Obama's appeal that "Now is the time for all of us to take our share of responsibility for a global response to global challenges'."

The Nobel Committee's stunning decision is certain to throw Obama's right-wing opponents at home into quivering fits of self-righteous rage. They'll tie themselves in knots trying to put a negative spin on Obama's award, probably with something along the lines of it being a politically-motivated faux award from a bunch of "European socialists" to one of their own Godless ilk, or even an "affirmative action" award. They'll also read the committee's comments on the "more constructive role" America is now playing on the world stage as a slap in the face to their own previous Republican administration, perhaps suggesting that Obama won the award simply for not being George W. Bush. Right-wing Republican dead-enders will be full of nothing but hate, both for Nobel laureate Barack Obama and for the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

All I have to say is: Congratulations, Mr. President.