I just want to put this out there, read it in the AJC.

5:25 a.m. Friday, October 9, 2009

President Barack Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize

By MATT MOORE

The Associated Press

OSLO — President Barack Obama won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples," the Norwegian Nobel Committee said, citing his outreach to the Muslim world and attempts to curb nuclear proliferation.

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, left, shakes hands with Zimbabwe's Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, before a meeting at the Moncloa palace in Madrid Thursday, Oct. 8, 2009. (AP Photo/Arturo Rodriguez)

File - Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., speaks during a rally in this Feb. 16, 2008 file photo taken at Northcentral Technical College, in Wausau, Wis. President Barack Obama has won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)

File - President Barack Obama speaks in the East Room of the White House in Washington, in this Oct. 7, 2009 file photo before presenting 2008 medals of Science and medals of Technology. The Norwegian Nobel Committee says U.S. President Barack Obama has won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize for "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples." (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

File - President Barack Obama walks down the Colonnade from the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, in this Oct. 5, 2009 file photo, to make remarks on health care reform in the Rose Garden. The Norwegian Nobel Committee said Friday Oct. 9, 2009 U.S. President Barack Obama has won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize for "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples."(AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)

The stunning choice made Obama the third sitting U.S. president to win the Nobel Peace Prize and shocked Nobel observers because Obama took office less than two weeks before the Feb. 1 nomination deadline. Obama's name had been mentioned in speculation before the award but many Nobel watchers believed it was too early to award the president.

"Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future," the committee said. "His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world's population."

The committee said it attached special importance to Obama's vision of, and work for, a world without nuclear weapons.

"Obama has as president created a new climate in international politics. Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play," the committee said.

Theodore Roosevelt won the award in 1906 and Woodrow Wilson won in 1919. Former President Jimmy Carter won the award in 2002, while former Vice President Al Gore shared the 2007 prize with the U.N. panel on climate change.

The Nobel committee received a record 205 nominations for this year's prize.

In his 1895 will, Alfred Nobel stipulated that the peace prize should go "to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between the nations and the abolition or reduction of standing armies and the formation and spreading of peace congresses."

Unlike the other Nobel Prizes, which are awarded by Swedish institutions, he said the peace prize should be given out by a five-member committee elected by the Norwegian Parliament. Sweden and Norway were united under the same crown at the time of Nobel's death.

The committee has taken a wide interpretation of Nobel's guidelines, expanding the prize beyond peace mediation to include efforts to combat poverty, disease and climate change.

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Associated Press Writer Ian MacDougall contributed to this report.

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October 09, 2009 05:25 AM EDT