Barack Obama wind the Nobel Peace Prize!?!

First of all, I’m happy for the guy. And I quote a friend of mine off my Facebook wall:
“Nobel Peace prize already?! Wow. Shrug. That's my president!”

And that pretty much sums up how I felt when I read the headline. Looking at the conversation around the web about the award, it looks like people are trying to figure out if he deserved it, if he has done enough as President to deserve the Nobel Peace Prize- a valid question, no doubt. While the consensus seems to be that it is an award more to support further peace-keeping efforts than to award efforts that have been successful already, Obama has certainly made his presence felt from the high profile office of the U.S. presidency in efforts that have changed the dynamic of the world and driven forward many peace processes. A few examples:

1.    Obama has changed the world dynamic around the upcoming Copenhagen summit- yes, the U.S. has no climate change legislation, and, yes, Obama is not leading the charge the way I want him to, but at least there is hope, there is strong rhetoric, and there is a pervasive sense that we can break through and make something happen. Imagine if Bush were still president… the hopelessness at coming to any kind of meaningful climate change debate, the utter impossibility of him signing something that his father had not… Or McCain? Anyway…

2.    He has spoken out repeatedly on issues around race and class, something that has gotten him attacked and smeared in the media, but not rattled to the point where he has stopped speaking out- I mean, all the conversation about a post-racial presidency are way premature- what we have is the reality of how a black president changes not only what is said in the public discourse but how public discourse happens. It’s a framework change as much as it is a shift in the content of the conversation.

3.    He is making strong and sincere efforts to rid the world of nuclear weapons- similar to Regan’s anti-proliferation efforts, but much more from the perspective that we will just be better off without nuclear weapons capability around the globe, rather than from a strictly strategic military perspective.

4.    U.S. in Crisis: The man is fighting for universal healthcare during the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression- let’s just tip our hats for a moment to him keeping his priorities straight at a time like this. Yes, you throw some money to the banks so they don’t fail, but you also have to take care of the health of people- that is, in the end, all some people have. The caretaker can be the ultimate peacemaker.

Does he deserve the award? Sure. Could we have waited to see what he does in places like Israel-Palestine or Iraq or Afghanistan over the next 3 years and made more of an educated assessment of whether he’s done enough to “deserve” it? Yes. But he’s already put in a lifetime of service, broken countless racial barriers and vocally fought for hope around the globe in just under a year. Give the man an award already.