Nobel seen as reward for not being Bush

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Five Norwegian politicians sent a surprising but unambiguous message Friday, bestowing one of the world’s most coveted honors on President Obama as a signal of the Western world’s repudiation of the presidency of George W. Bush and its embrace of a softer but still untested American foreign policy.

As word of the stunning Nobel Peace Prize selection began to take hold Friday, Americans struggled to digest the news that some first mistook for a prank and others saw as an overreach, given that the president had been in office only 12 days when he was nominated for the award.

The award was “a sigh of collective relief that George Bush is no longer here,” said Aaron David Miller, an adviser on Middle East issues to six presidents. More than any concrete contribution Mr. Obama has made to world peace, the prize embodies “the international community’s love affair” with a young, charismatic president who “listens, not lectures,” he added.

Caught off guard by the award, the White House scrambled Friday morning to strike the right tone in accepting the honor. Mr. Obama tried to appear grounded in reality, explaining that after being awakened with news of the honor, he was immediately confronted with more immediate family concerns, including the news of his dog’s birthday and a daughter’s observation that they were on the cusp of a three-day weekend.

“It’s good to have kids to keep things in perspective,” he chuckled.

Despite some early speculation that perhaps the president would politely decline the honor, Mr. Obama sent an e-mail to supporters explaining his decision to accept it.

“To be honest, I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many … transformative figures,” he wrote.

“But I also know that throughout history the Nobel Peace Prize has not just been used to honor specific achievement; it’s also been used as a means to give momentum to a set of causes,” he said, describing the award as “a call for all nations and all peoples to confront the common challenges of ch value\="226 128 147"/=

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the 21st century.”

After his embarrassment at the hands of the International Olympic Committee, which rejected Mr. Obama’s personal pitch for Chicago as an Olympic host, the Nobel award represents a clear return to the prevailing narrative of Mr. Obama’s campaign for the White House and the central theme of his early presidency - that he is attempting to “re-set” relations with the rest of the world after an icy eight years under Mr. Bush.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose country’s bitter opposition to the Iraq war came to embody the diplomatic breakdown between the U.S. and Europe under Mr. Bush, was among the first to explain how the award was being viewed overseas. The Obama choice, he explained, “sets the seal on America’s return to the heart of all the world’s peoples.”

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon agreed that the Nobel announcement represented a symbolic welcoming of the new American approach.

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