Obama and the Nobel Peace Prize
It's really quite simple why President Obama received the Nobel Peace Prize. It was for turning away from the belligerent, go-it-alone foreign policy of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney that so distressed Europeans and many others around the world. Obama has decided to work to build up respect for America in the Middle East and elsewhere. They love him out there, or at the very least pay him grudging respect, and everything I've read says this is paying big dividends for America's standing in the world.
So the newspapers and columnists who have called the prize "an embarrassment" or questioned whether Obama has done anything to deserve it are simply missing the point. Abandoning the Bush/Cheney foreign policy was a major step toward world peace, and the President was honored with the Nobel Peace Prize for doing so.