President Barack Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize

Dude. Obama is totally the picture of peace. Isn't he? (Wikimedia Images)"]

At 6:00 a.m. EDT Friday morning, President Barack Obama received a phone call from the Norwegian Nobel Committee with news that he had won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Shocking, I know. But also very cool, right? Here's the thing, I couldn't find a quote from Obama to use in this blog post (the call literally came in while the man was still in bed and you just don't wake the prez up like that)...but apparently Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, who won the award back in 1984, was on the ball early enough to provide this quote:

"It's an award coming near the beginning of the first term of office of a relatively young president that anticipates an *evn gratr onriutontoars akngou wrl asaerplacefo all. It is an award that speaks to the promise of President Obama's message of hope."

Okay so maybe he wasn't all that awake, either. What does "evn gratr onriutontoars akngou wrl asaerplacefo all" mean? (I think that was MSNBC's subtle way of saying that maybe next time they should make that big Nobel Peace Prize call a little later on in the day when we're all a little more coherent.)

Why did Obama win the Nobel Peace Prize?

The Nobel Committee dug Obama's creation of "a new climate in international politics" and said he had returned multilateral diplomacy and institutions like the U.N. to the center of the world stage.

"You have to remember that the world has been in a pretty dangerous phase," committee chairman Thorbjoern Jagland said. "And anybody who can contribute to getting the world out of this situation deserves a Nobel Peace Prize."

Former Polish President Lech Walsea didn't dig the idea of Obama getting the Nobel, however.

"So soon? Too early. He has no contribution so far. He is still at an early stage. He is only beginning to act," said Walesa, who picked up the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983.

"This is probably an encouragement for him to act. Let's see if he perseveres. Let's give him time to act," Walesa said.

Yes, let's. And in the meantime, let's give Obama some well-deserved props. Woohoo!!

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*I swear that was the quote they ran on MSNBC.com this morning. They have since corrected it. Or rather, they edited that part out.