Obama did do a lot to win the award.

The notion that restoring the world's faith in America as a great nation, lead by just, fair leaders is unworthy of the Nobel is ludicrous, small minded and clearly unpatriotic.

After 8yrs. of the Bush/Cheney regime, the world was ready to give up hope that the shining light of freedom had died out in the USA, and had been replaced by a nation that condoned torture; turned its back on scientific learning; invaded countries without cause; pursued a foreign policy based only on talking to friends (which we had fewer and fewer of each passing year) and NOT talking to enemies (the people you make peace with) a nation that was as eager as ever to use up the last of our resources while polluting as much as we ever did, while blaming it on mother nature.

Republicans under the Bush/Cheney regime replaced proper sensitivity to world opinion with outright contempt, and are/were oblivious to just how much the rest of the world hated our foreign policy rooted in preventative war based on a if you're not with us, your against us simplistic reasoning. It also didn't help that socially Southern leaders in Washington pursued regressive, anti-science, anti-environment, pro-wealthy national policies aided and abetted by Bush. To the rest of the world we had turned into a nation led by Luddites thanks to the state of 9/11 induced fear that Republicans did their best to keep hot by constantly declaring we are about to be attacked again.

If those world feelings had gone on much longer, they would have turned into a deep seated hatred of the USA and Americans not just the policies Bush/Cheney pursued.

The world saw Bush/Cheney foreign policy as shallow, callow and foolish, and were counting the minutes until they left office.

Just understanding that should make it patently obvious why the Nobel committee thought just days after swearing in Obama made moves to overhaul the policies the rest of the world found absolutely ludicrous and obstacles to progress. Hell, his merely being elected came close to inducing a world-orgasm, not because of his celebrity, but because he was clearly going to do things in accordance with the world norms which are based on rules mostly written by the USA over the years after WWII.

After 8 years of a Republican president, and almost 16 years of Southern domination of congress it will take a few years to make the lot of changes Obama wants done.

The world is eager to see him succeed, but knows that achieving success and returning the USA to a nation whose behavior fits and defines the international norms and sense of decency will take years.

The award was also an effort by the World Community to shock the still large # of oblivious Americans with a dose of reality. Any notion that the World community secretly supported the Bush/Cheney America was put to rest with this award.

Indeed the Nobel was awarded in recognition of his merely deciding to STOP wholesale the Bush/Cheney international practices that turned us from the most envied and admired nation in the world into the nation the world felt was the greatest threat to peace, even more so than PRChina and NKorea.

How far we had fallen in the eyes of the world under the Bush/Cheney regime made Obama's desire to restore the USA, still the greatest power on the planet to a nation of hope, rules and honesty worthy of a Nobel in the committees eyes. His quick follow ups to taking office and reversing various Bush rules was the solid proof they needed to again hope for a better world with the USA a great partner rather than an eternal obstacle as we were under Bush/Cheney.

A Nobel for Hope is a wonderful thing. For it rewards the ability that makes us humans able to endure and overcome even the worst pain, suffering and deprivation, and in helping to restore hope to the USA and the World is a glorious achievement. The fact that he achieved it so easily is irrelevant.