The Nobel Committee in Oslo has stunned the world by awarding President Obama its prize for peace, citing his "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples," Joseph Weber and Matthew Mosk are reporting.

The announcement was unexpected considering Mr. Obama received the award after winning the presidential election just nine months earlier and took office only weeks before the Feb. 1 nomination deadline.

During the press conference to announce the winner, there were gasps in the room when Mr. Obama's name was announced in Norwegian by Thorbjoern Jagland, chairman of the Nobel Committee said. Moments later, the announcement was made again in English.

The Nobel Committee said it gave the peace prize to Obama because of all he's done reduce the number of nuclear weapons. This just shows that I've got to start following the news more closely. I thought everybody still had nukes.

I heard someone say that the Nobel Committee gave Obama the peace prize just because he's not George W. Bush, but I don't buy that. I mean, with Bush we had a war in Iraq and a war in Afghanistan and detainees in Guantanamo Bay. But with Obama we've got a war in Iraq ... and a war in Afghanistan ... and detainees in Guantanamo Bay. Hey! Wait a minute!

It's not easy to win a Nobel Peace Prize, you know. Mahatma Gandhi never won a Nobel Peace Prize. Guess he wasn't peaceful enough.

Just about anybody can be nominated for the peace prize. In recent years, Oprah Winfrey and Rush Limbaugh have been nominated. So next year I'm putting my money on Stephen Colbert.

A colleague just made an astute observation. She said, "Isn't it weird that President Obama has won the Nobel Peace Prize on the same day that the U.S. has unilaterally attacked the moon?" 

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