This thread is really interesting to me, and reflects in microcosm all the different opinions and povs I have been listening to and reading in the media today.

The Nobel committee articulated very clearly their reasons for awarding the Peace Prize to President Obama. It is their perogative to award any of the Nobel prizes to whom they will.

I don't know that they have done Obama any political favor in awarding this to him. However, I think the Nobel committee has a long view, and their decision represents support and advocation of a process that holds promise for improved global negotiating and effectiveness over time. Woodrow Wilson was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in conceiving and promoting the League of Nations. The US legislature voted against the League of Nations anyway. A couple of decades later, however, the United Nations did become a solid reality. While not as effective as most people would like, the United Nations represents a significant step forward.

I think it unlikely the Obama administration will accomplish many of it's ambitious and often lofty goals in the 4 or 8 years that may be allotted. However, I do think it likely this administration will nudge the country and the world along a few inches in an effective direction. The fruits of those nudges may not be harvested until long after Obama is gone.

Change on the level of society, be it national or global, is slow and is incremental. I see the Obama administration as planting seeds, some in fertile and some in infertile ground. Who knows which of those seeds will sprout now, and which of those seeds will lie, seemingly dormant, for years or decades, then germinate.

Regarding whether he correctly accepted the award or should have declined it, after reading this thread and following the news, he was clearly damned if he did, and damned if he didn't. Having no reason whatsoever to think he would be accorded this award, he also did not have much time to contemplate the appropriate action. My impression is he accepted it on behalf of a country and a world in which a number of people, whether a majority or a significant minority, see the need for a paradigm shift, even when we are not sure what the final result will be.

One last thing. All these different points of view are the reality of the human race. I try to not make judgements (and am often unsuccessful) when some one else's pov differs radically from my own. I try to keep in mind that pov is about belief, paradigm, needs, wants, and rarely about fact or actual reality. Two things that impress me about Obama is his acceptance of reality, and his ability to understand and respect the validity of differing povs.

Well, two last things. Bill Clinton was on The Daily Show last week, and made what I consider a wise observation regarding health care reform. It was something to the effect of "we need to just stumble forward."   That is what I call radical acceptance of reality.