After having spent the last month overseas, I am probably not as surprised about Obama's Nobel Prize as it seems most of the talking heads on my television seem to be. It's hard to overestimate the degree to which the world is relieved to no longer have George Bush at the helm, and the admiration that exists for his efforts to pick up the pieces in a responsible fashion.
But clearly the Nobel Prize goes beyond the petty partisan politics that comprise the vast majority of local and national news coverage.
The news that President Obama has won the Nobel Prize puts joy in my heart, and should restore the faith of many in our nation. The idea that America could be the great force for good in the world is not dead, despite the greatest efforts of the Bush Administration to kill it, however inadvertently.
Pax Americana was the idea, not often a reality, that the sheer efforts of our nation could stabilize the world. In practice, our interventions were often not as well-planned (or well-intentioned, admittedly), but it seemed to work - the Cold War was won without the bloodshed we had come to expect from global conflicts.
And now the world has given voice again to the hope of the vast, vast majority of global citizens who do not hold American Citizenship, that we will once again show the kind of positive leadership that lifts millions out of poverty, that provides hope to the oppressed and comfort to the distressed.
So excuse me if I don't join the voices of cynicism, of those who feel that President Obama hasn't done enough, or that he has done too much.
Allow me my space to say thank you, President Obama, for giving the world hope again. Even if it is not fulfilled, even if there is work yet to be done, at least it is hope, and it is good.