"In a stunning surprise, the Nobel Committee announced Friday that it had awarded its annual peace prize to President Obama 'for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples' less than nine months after he took office," the New York Times reports.
Said the committee: "He has created a new international climate."
Washington Post: "The committee's decision to choose Obama from among 205 nominees appears
in part to be a rebuke to the Bush administration's unilateral approach
to world bodies and alliances, most notably in its decision to go to
war in Iraq without U.N. approval."
The last sitting American president to win the prize was Woodrow Wilson in 1919. Theodore Roosevelt also won the prize in 1906.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs emails a one word reaction: "Wow."