Obama's Prize

I'm a little stunned by the news.  The Guardian has put up a story announcing Obama as this year's Nobel Peace Prize winner.

(the quickie readers' poll asking if he deserves it is running better than 2-to-1 against.)

I can certainly go along with the choice because he's moving us back in the right direction, but the simple fact that the nomination deadline came when he'd been in office for all of about 30 days gives the thing an air of desperation.  Maybe the world (at least the nominating committee) has been even more alarmed at our beligerence the last 8 years than I tho't.  It occurs to me that there's some probability the committee wanted to give the American voters a collective pat on the head.  Dunno.  It'll be interesting to hear Rush and Fox and Savage spin on this one.  I wonder if anybody will speculate that Obama's Copenhagen trip was actually all about lobbying the committee on his own behalf.