Nobel adds to Obama's heavy load of high expectations

In the issue of The New Yorker on news stands, Hendrik Hertzberg's opening essay sums up why getting the Nobel Prize was not a good thing for President Obama:

He came into office on a tide of euphoria. Lately, though, his supporters have been experiencing a vague sense of disappointment. He may have saved the world from a second Great Depression and all that, but the jobless rate keeps on climbing, the planet keeps on heating up, Guantánamo keeps on not getting closed, and roadside bombs keep on exploding. He’s had eight whole months, and he still hasn’t signed a comprehensive health-care bill. Given that his perceived political problem is exaggerated expectations, does he really need a Nobel Peace Prize before he has actually made any peace?

Read the whole thing.

-- Jon Ward, White House reporter, The Washington Times

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