BREAKING NEWS: President Obama Wins 2009 Nobel Peace Prize For Diplomacy

President Barack Obama has won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts in diplomacy. The Nobel Committee made the announcement in Oslo, Norway to a clearly stunned audience. The committee chose the President for “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.” The committee also cited the President's effort to reduce nuclear warfare and arsenals between nations. “President Obama has created a new international climate." the committee said.  The announcement was met with audible gasps from the audience. The President was not mentioned as one of the top contenders to receive the award. The Nobel Committee stood behind its decision to award the President. Thorbjorn Jagland, the chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee and a former prime minister of Norway, said the President had already contributed enough to world diplomacy and international understanding to earn the award. “We are not awarding the prize for what may happen in the future, but for what he has done in the previous year,” Mr. Jagland said. “We would hope this will enhance what he is trying to do.”  The President's foreign policy initiatives have come under attack from Republicans and most notibly former Vice-President Dick Cheney who states that President Obama's willingness to talk to the United States enemies will leave the country open to future attacks. In its announcement of the prize, the Nobel Committee directly refuted that line of thinking. “Obama has as president created a new climate in international politics,” the committee wrote. “Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play.” Mr. Jagland noted: “The question we have to ask is who has done the most in the previous year to enhance peace in the world,” “And who has done more than Barack Obama?” President Obama is the third leading American Democrat to win the prize this decade, following former Vice President Al Gore in 2007 along with the United Nations climate panel and former President Jimmy Carter in 2002. The last sitting American president to win the prize was Woodrow Wilson in 1919. Theodore Roosevelt was selected in 1906 while in the White House and Mr. Carter more than 20 years after he left office. The prize was won last year by the former president of Finland, Martti Ahtisaari for peace efforts in Africa and the Balkans.

The full citation read: “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 United States 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.”

The prize is worth the equivalent of $1.4 million and is to be awarded in Oslo on Dec. 10.