memeorandum: Obama, the Nobel Prize and What It All Means (Chris Cillizza/The Fix)

1:20 PM ET, October 9, 2009

Top Items:

In Surprise, Nobel Peace Prize to Obama for Diplomacy — OSLO — President Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for his “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples,” a stunning honor that came less than nine months after Mr. Obama …

Discussion: CNN, Crooked Timber, msnbc.com, Little Green Footballs, The Natural Truth, Pajamas Media, Newsweek Blogs, Think Progress, The Opinionator, PewResearch.org, The New Ledger, Wall Street Journal, Jules Crittenden, The Daily Dish, The Washington Note, NO QUARTER, Bloomberg, PERRspectives, Betsy's Page, Feministe, Lean Left, Swampland, The Note, USA Today, Another Black Conservative, Below The Beltway, The Monkey Cage, Stop The ACLU, Atlas Shrugs, Townhall.com, Iain Martin, Althouse, theblogprof, Pundit & Pundette, his vorpal sword, The Sundries Shack, Mashable!, RealClearWorld, TalkLeft, Comments from Left Field, The Caucus, Indecision Forever, Raw Story, Outside The Beltway, DISSENTING JUSTICE, Wake up America, The Moderate Voice, Democratic Strategist, Liberal Values, Hot Air, Gothamist, democracyarsenal.org and Prairie Weather

Nobelprize.org:

The Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 — 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 …

Michael Binyon / Times of London:

Comment: absurd decision on Obama makes a mockery of the Nobel peace prize — The award of this year's Nobel peace prize to President Obama will be met with widespread incredulity, consternation in many capitals and probably deep embarrassment by the President himself.

Discussion: The Corner on National …, JOSHUAPUNDIT, The TrogloPundit, Left Coast Rebel, NO QUARTER, JustOneMinute, Stop The ACLU, Taylor Marsh and The New Ledger

Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:

DNC official: GOP siding with terrorists — A top Democratic National Committee official reacted furiously to a statement from Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele mocking — and describing as “unfortunate” — President Obama's Nobel Peace Prize. — “The Republican Party has thrown …

Discussion: Media Matters Action Network, Washington Monthly, Hot Air and Weekly Standard

Mickey Kaus / Kausfiles:

What Obama Should Do With His Nobel Peace Prize — Turn it down! Say he hasn't had the time yet to accomplish what he wants to accomplish. Result: He gets at least the same amount of glory—and helps solve his narcissism problem and his Fred Armisen ('What's he done?') problem …

Discussion: Instapundit, Slate, JustOneMinute, Clusterstock, The Corner on National …, Washington Wire, The Washington Independent, Commentary, Newsweek Blogs, War in Context, No More Mister Nice Blog, Time, The New Republic, Gawker, Coyote Blog and ATTACKERMAN

Jonathan Martin / The Politico:

Limbaugh: ‘Greater embarrassment’ than losing Olympics — Conservatives pounced on the the Nobel Prize committee's decision to award President Barack Obama the Nobel Peace Prize, with talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh calling it a “greater embarrassment” than losing the Olympics.

Discussion: Ben Smith's Blog, Michael Calderone's Blog, The Huffington Post, Laura Rozen's Blog, Top of the Ticket and Andy Worthington

Glenn Greenwald / Salon:

Obama's Nobel Peace Prize — (updated below) — When I saw this morning's top New York Times headline — “Barack Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize” — I had the same immediate reaction which I'm certain many others had: this was some kind of bizarre Onion gag that got accidentally transposed onto …

Discussion: TalkLeft, The Washington Independent and ATTACKERMAN

Washington Post:

President Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize — President Obama was awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize Friday for his work to improve international diplomacy and rid the world of nuclear weapons — a stunning decision to celebrate a figure virtually unknown in the world before he launched his presidential campaign nearly three years ago.

Discussion: The Atlantic Politics Channel, Washington Wire, PostPartisan, Washington Examiner, Taegan Goddard's …, FiveThirtyEight, Wall Street Journal, YID With LID, neo-neocon, The Hugh Hewitt Show, Think Progress, Cato @ Liberty and Open Left

BBC:

Obama wins 2009 Nobel Peace Prize — US President Barack Obama has been awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. — The Nobel Committee said he won it for “his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and co-operation between peoples”. — The committee highlighted …

Discussion: TigerHawk, Guardian, Harry's Place, Clusterstock, Gates of Vienna, Biased BBC, Blog entry, The Western Experience and Newshoggers.com

Reuters:

Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize — OSLO (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for giving the world “hope for a better future” with his work for peace and calls to reduce the global stockpile of nuclear weapons. — The Norwegian Nobel Committee praised Obama for …

Discussion: Power Line, The Politico, The Corner on National …, Telegraph, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, The Moderate Voice, Right Wing Nut House, Townhall.com, Conservatives4Palin.com, Pajamas Media, Hit & Run, thedanashow.wordpress.com, Scared Monkeys, The Confluence and The Foundry

Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:

DNC: Steele And GOP Have Thrown In Their Lot With The Terrorists By Criticizing Obama's Nobel — Dems intend to go on the offensive today by holding up Republican criticism of Obama's Nobel as the latest example of Republicans desperately hoping for America's failure, placing it alongside GOP cheer …

Discussion: Weekly Standard, Open Left and Hullabaloo

Allahpundit / Hot Air:

Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize. No, really. Update: “It's not April 1, is it?” — Am I awake? … In other words, they gave him a Nobel for ... being Hopenchange-y. And you thought Mark Halperin's grade inflation was bad. This makes three times, incidentally, in just seven years …

Discussion: Michelle Malkin, The Page, CNN, protein wisdom, Newsweek Blogs, Townhall.com, Balloon Juice, JustOneMinute, Time and The Greenroom

Erick Erickson / Erick's blog:

Barack Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize: He's Becoming Jimmy Carter Faster Than Jimmy Carter Did. — I did not realize the Nobel Peace Prize had an affirmative action quota for it, but that is the only thing I can think of for this news. There is no way Barack Obama earned it in the nominations period.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, The Huffington Post, Top of the Ticket, The New Republic, Ben Smith's Blog, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Sadly, No! and Wonkette

Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:

Unexpected Developments — It's not the accustomed stance of a writer or blogger. But this one does have me at something of a loss for words. I notice the condemnation of the Taliban, the edged snark of the superciliati. But I also see Ana Marie Cox's first-off Twitter …

Discussion: Washington Post

Marc Ambinder / The Atlantic Politics Channel:

But Should He Turn It Down? — At Slate, John Dickerson writes that the Nobel committee shouldn't have awarded the prize to Obama, and Mickey Kaus urges Obama to turn it down. Kaus's reasoning is politics: Obama's narcissism problem — Kaus's bolds — will be exacerbated.

Discussion: Newsweek Blogs

Dan / Riehl World View:

BBC Call: NO FREAKIN' WAY!: Obama Wins 2009 Nobel Peace Prize — Update 2: Just came in email after a lively phone chat with the BBC producer: … Sometimes these things don't come off for whatever reason. But if it does, I'll be on the BBC TV network discussing the award with some folks from around the globe.

Discussion: Telegraph and Sister Toldjah

Mark Finkelstein / NewsBusters.org:
White House: Scarborough ‘A-Hole’ For Mocking Nobel

Discussion: Villainous Company and Hot Air

Michael Russnow / The Huffington Post:
Barack Obama, Nobel Peace Laureate: Whatever Happened to Awarding …

Discussion: Climate Progress, Gideon Rachman's Blog, MoJo Blog Posts and The Corner on National …

Richard Cohen / PostPartisan:
Palin, Vaughn, Rabinowitz Win Awards

Discussion: Washington Wire and Commentary

Associated Press:
President Barack Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize

Discussion: Townhall.com, Commentary and LewRockwell.com Blog

Sharon Otterman / The Lede:
World Reaction to a Nobel Surprise

Discussion: Newsweek Blogs, The Daily Dish, TalkLeft and BBC

Media Matters / Media Matters for America:
RedState's Erickson smears Obama's Nobel Peace Prize as “an …

Discussion: Washington Monthly

Robert Naiman / The Huffington Post:
Nobel Committee, Strategic As Ever, Taps Obama for Peace Prize

Discussion: Washington Monthly, TalkLeft, Times of London, truthout, Freakonomics and Pam's House Blend

Tom Scheck / Minnesota Public Radio:
Pawlenty to Obama: Congratulations

Discussion: Huck PAC and Ben Smith's Blog

Mary Katharine Ham / Weekly Standard:
Meet the People Who Were Passed Over for Obama

Discussion: The Confluence

CNN:
Obama awarded 2009 Nobel Peace Prize

Discussion: The Washington Independent, GOPUSA, Crooks and Liars and TPMDC

Jacob Heilbrunn / The Huffington Post: President Obama's Noble Nobel Prize

Telegraph:
Barack Obama adviser says Sharia Law is misunderstood

Discussion: Jihad Watch, Hot Air, Don Surber and Stop The ACLU

John Podhoretz / Commentary: The Michael Moore of Oslo

Chris Cillizza / The Fix: Obama, the Nobel Prize and What It All Means

Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
NOBEL ANNOUNCEMENT.... President Obama's Nobel Peace Prize seems …

Discussion: Newsweek Blogs, Swampland and RealClearWorld

Peter Beinart / Blogs and Stories:
Obama's Nobel Farce

Discussion: PostPartisan, Jezebel, Time and The New Ledger

William Kristol / PostPartisan:
Not a Parody — The magazine I edit, The Weekly Standard, features a Parody each week.

Discussion: Weekly Standard

Yuval Levin / The Corner on National Review Online:
The Nobel for Narcissism — By: Yuval Levin

Discussion: Right Wing Nut House

Amber Bellaire / Globe and Mail:
Who were the Nobel nominees?

Discussion: All American Blogger

William Kristol / Weekly Standard:
Kristol: Liberalism's Gorbachev?

Discussion: TPMDC

Matt Yglesias / Matthew Yglesias:
Nobel Prize Winner Barack Obama

Discussion: The Plum Line

Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
PRESIDENT OBAMA WINS NOBEL PEACE PRIZE.... I didn't even know he'd been nominated.

Discussion: Financial Times

Washington Post:

Afghanistan Commander McChrystal's Washington Trip Delayed — The White House has told the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan to delay a planned trip here Friday to brief President Obama and his senior advisers on his recommendation for a major troop increase.