Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize

President Barack Obama has become the newest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, a distinguished honor that has been bestowed on just three other presidents (Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Jimmy Carter). This is not the most surprising part of it, though. The deadline for the Peace Prize nominations was just over two weeks after Obama first took office. Now the debate, primarily between conservatives and liberals, is whether Obama deserves this honor. He's been in office just over nine months and it surely comes as a slap in the face to our former president, George W. Bush Jr, who didn't receive anything like this during his two terms.

Personally, I think Obama has promise to be a great president but I don't know if it's the right time to be giving him such an award. He's in the process of fixing the numerous problems left behind by the previous administration while his own legislation is slowly edging into the Congress. As demonstrated in a recent SNL spoof, Obama hasn't finished anything he has started though he is, with his unwavering optimism and nationalistic pride, doing his very hardest.

Another question that I can't help but consider is whether this is also an issue of race. An african-american president is a tremendous accomplishment on its own. It's a huge step in the way of the Civil Rights and was highlighted during his campaign by both Democrats and Republicans. However, something that seems to be unique to Obama is his charisma that inspires all demographics to go out and vote. Young people, impoverished people, and minorities who tend to vote in very low numbers all went out and rallied support for our President during his run for the office.

To summarize, I think it's a great thing that Obama won the Prize but I'm not sure if it was the right time for something like this.

Obama: Nobel Peace Prize is 'call to action' - CNN.com