President Obama wins the Nobel Peace Prize. Well, the Nobel Committee has certainly raised its standards since awarding one to Yasser Arafat. But not by much.

Accomplishments obviously don't mean much to the Nobel committee. Airy feel-good speeches and personal dreams of a nuclear-free world are good enough.

If they has a Nobel Prize for Comedy, the committee itself would win it.

UPDATE: If Obama wanted to show some real class he would turn back the prize saying it is too early in his tenure to warrant or accept it, and suggest it be given to the brave Chinese dissident Hu Jia, instead.

UPDATE II: And from the Times:

Rarely has an award had such an obvious political and partisan intent. It was clearly seen by the Norwegian Nobel committee as a way of expressing European gratitude for an end to the Bush Administration, approval for the election of America’s first black president and hope that Washington will honour its promise to re-engage with the world.

Instead, the prize risks looking preposterous in its claims, patronising in its intentions and demeaning in its attempt to build up a man who has barely begun his period in office, let alone achieved any tangible outcome for peace.