The Cougar

Although it was a bit of a surprise, Barack Hussein Obama was still awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for international diplomacy and cooperation between people.

On Friday, October 9th, 2009 it was announced that the 44th president of the United States of America, Barack Obama, had won the Nobel Peace Prize "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples."

This award came as a shock, and some individuals might even describe it as an upset that Obama won. Considering that a record was set with 205 nominations in this category and that the president won despite not yet serving a full year as president. President Obama was not excluded from the group of people shocked by his victory. The president was quoted as saying he was surprised and deeply humbled by the honor. Obama also said that he planned on traveling to Oslo in December to accept the prestigious award. When he receives the award a 1.4 million dollar reward will come with the prize. However Obama won’t be keeping that money for long as the 44th President said he plans to donate all 1 million and 400 thousand dollars to charity.

The committee has come under a substantial amount of heat for their selection of Mr. Obama. Critics have said that the award was too much too soon and was awarded before Obama accomplished much. The committee responded with the comment that “they couldn’t get around the changes that are taking place” and that “they paid special attention to the speech of Obama’s special vision of a nuclear-free world,” laid out in a Prague at the United Nations in April.

Obama follows the footsteps of Theodore Roosevelt, and Woodrow Wilson as he becomes the third sitting US president to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Although this award comes with a bit of controversy, it also comes with a great amount of hope and optimism as Barack Obama moves forward in his presidency.