And we assume that the Nobel committee gave due consideration before naming the president as the latest recipient.
But “due” is the word here. It’s no surprise that many feel that others were “due” the prize before Obama, who is still looking for the first time into some of the more obscure rooms, nooks and crannies in the White House.
Obama himself expressed surprise. Many others did too.
That said, the Nobel people have more than once caused eyebrows to be raised.
And no surprise either when you consider that the peace prize is named after the man who invented Dynamite.
We live in a funny world.
The pope once had armies. A president of Harvard, that ivy-leagued oasis of presumably peaceful learning, has his name on napalm, an exceedingly cruel weapon, as one of its inventors.
So perhaps Obama’s win isn’t a complete shock, just a surprise.