Obama's Nobel Prize All About the Future

"He won what?!"

That's how I greeted the news at 6 a.m. EDT, when my buddy April Ryan, White House correspondent for the American Urban Radio Networks, called to tell me about President Barack Obama's winning the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.

She and I were supposed to discuss Rep. Charlie Rangel's ethics investigation on my daily segment on "The Tom Joyner Morning Show," but the shocking news clearly changed that agenda.

As I turned on the TV to watch how it was playing out on television, it wasn't surprising to listen to the instant analysis, much of it hypercritical.

Why the Norwegian Nobel Committee made such a decision barely nine months into his presidency was a worthy question. So instead of popping off, I wanted to go deeper, and there is no better explanation than the committee's rationale.

"Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future. His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world's population," according to the text of the committee's announcement.

"For 108 years, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has sought to stimulate precisely that international policy and those attitudes for which Obama is now the world's leading spokesman. The Committee endorses Obama's appeal that 'Now is the time for all of us to take our share of responsibility for a global response to global challenges.'"

"Hope for a better future" — that, folks, is the key line.

In many ways, the 2008 presidential election was more about the future than the past — more about hope of what we could and should be rather than the status quo.

And the unanimous decision of the committee follows that line of thinking.

As fierce advocates for peace, the folks behind the Nobel Peace Prize clearly didn't want the award to be a lifetime achievement award.

It really speaks to the positive force of change President Obama is trying to usher in, and it helps establish a new mindset, especially as to how the United States will approach global issues.

The award also offers a challenge to America's president, because he will have to live up to the title. Like it or not, once you are a Nobel Peace Prize winner, you are in rarified air, perceived as a larger-than-life figure who is all about advancing the ideals that brought you your newfound prestige.

Yes, being the president of the United States is considered the most important job in the world, but every decision President Obama makes now on the international front will be seen through the prism of meeting the subjective gold standard of a Nobel Prize winner. Afghanistan? It puts pressure on him to make it more than about flexing American military might, to make it about truly making the world safer. He will have the additional pressure of securing peace in the Middle East. And he will have to deliver further on his pledge to heal the divide between Muslim countries and the United States.

The Nobel folks are not dumb. They are smart individuals who understand where we stand as a world, and they clearly want President Obama to represent their vision for global understanding and peace.

His haters will say that he's unworthy and that he hasn't accomplished enough to win the Nobel Peace Prize. But maybe the real question they want answered — and only he can — isn't "what have you done for me lately?" but "what are you prepared to do?"

Roland S. Martin is an award-winning CNN analyst and the author of the forthcoming book "The First: President Barack Obama's Road to the White House as originally reported by Roland S. Martin." Please visit his Web site at www.RolandSMartin.com. To find out more about Roland S. Martin and read his past columns, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

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