Bill Mazzella has admonished the blogettes for not mentioning the Obama Nobel Prize. So let it be mentioned with Adam Nagourney summing up the reactions and pros and cons, here:http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/10/us/politics/10assess.html?hpThe intent [or perhaps intention--per Jimmy Mac below (is there a Nobel for grammar?)] of the award is one of the reasons I voted for Obama; he would slow down the rush to empire and work to straighten out the disasters of 2001-2009. That appears to be more difficult than anyone imagined. I admire Obama's serenity and calmness in the face of the cultural and political idiocy he has to work with. Maybe David Axelrod is onto to something when he opines that maybe it was awarded to the U.S. voter for bringing Obama to office.Update to the cynics: Just remember Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho (North Vietnamese) got the Nobel in 1973 for ending theslaugher in Vietnam, some 4 years after Nixon promised (falsely) to end it during the '68 presidential campaign. Tho declined to receive the award.

Margaret O’Brien Steinfels is a former editor of Commonweal. 

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