Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize for Efforts at International Diplomacy

President Obama has won the Nobel Peace Prize “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.”

The Washington Post says the “stunning decision” drew gasps from the audience waiting for the announcement. The decision “sparked immediate questions from reporters in Oslo, who noted that Obama so far has made little concrete progress in achieving his lofty and ambitious agenda,” the story says.

The Nobel Committee cited Obama’s diplomatic efforts and his call for a world without nuclear weapons. Committee chairman Thorbjoern Jagland also pointed to Obama’s speech about Islam in Cairo last spring.

Obama is the third sitting U.S. president to win the prize (Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt also won it while in office) and the third prominent Democrat to win since 2002 (former President Jimmy Carter and Al Gore also won).

The New York Times also has the story.

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Updated as 12:45 p.m. CT to include TaxProf Blog coverage.