Breaking: President Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize

Early this morning, it was announced that President Obama had been selected as the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. From the New York Times:


In a special surprise, the Nobel Committee announced in Oslo, which has awarded the annual prize for the president "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen diplomacy and international cooperation among peoples." The award specifically mentioned Obama's efforts to reduce the World Nuclear Arsenal.

"He created a new international climate," the committee said.

The announcement early next killer with Mr Obama - less than nine months after taking office as president the first African-American - has shocked the public by Norway in Washington.

The White House had no idea it was coming.

... A senior government official said in an e-mail message that Mr. Gibbs had called the White House shortly before 6 am and woke up the president with the news.

"The president was humbled to be selected by the committee," the official said, without adding anything else.

Obama has done to repair the fractured relations between the United States and the world, a major theme of his campaign for the presidency and since he took office as president, has pursued a series of policies to achieve this goal. He promised to pursue a world without nuclear weapons, as he did in a speech in Prague earlier this year, reached toward the Muslim world, giving a major speech in Cairo in June, and I I tried to restart peace negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians.

"Only very rarely does anyone have the same degree that Obama has attracted the attention of the world and given his people hope for a better future," he told the Committee in its citation. "His diplomacy is based on the idea that those who run the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority in the world."

"A Call to Action": President Obama On Winning the Nobel Peace Prize

In reacting to the news this morning that he had won the Nobel Peace Prize, the President struck a note of humility and recognized that the award was a nod to a vision of what is to come:


I am surprised and deeply humbled by the decision of the Nobel Committee. Let me be clear: I do not consider this as recognition of my achievements, but rather the assertion of American leadership on behalf of the aspirations held by people of all nations.

To be honest, I do not deserve to be in the company of so many figures of transformation that has been honored by this award - men and women who have inspired me and inspired the world through their courageous pursuit of peace.

But I also know that this award reflects the kind of world that men and women and all Americans, want to build - a world that gives life to the promise of our founding documents. And I know that throughout history, the Nobel Peace Prize has not only been used to honor specific output is also used as a means of giving impetus to a number of causes. And so I accept this award as a call to action - a call for all nations to address common challenges of the 21st century.

Doctors Call for Health Reform

Yesterday, the President hosted doctors from all 50 states here at the White House, coming together in a powerful testimonial to what reform is all about.

Today the White House released a new video featuring interviews with many of those doctors at the event. Their testimonies are a reminder that the people at the real frontlines of the health care battle are not lobbyists or politicians invested in protecting the status quo, but are instead the people who deal with the health and well-being of our families every day and see the need for change first hand: