The awarding of the Nobel Peace Price to President Barack Obama landed with a shock on darkened, still-asleep Washington. He won! For what?

Winners of the Nobel Peace Prize since 1980:

President Barack Obama won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize today in a stunning decision designed to encourage his initiatives to reduce nuclear arms, ease tensions with the Muslim world and stress diplomacy and cooperation.

President Barack Obama thanked counterterrorism employees who work to prevent attacks on the United States and its allies, crediting them with “making real progress” in disrupting al-Qaida and other extremist networks.

Administration officials say they are ready to take swift and substantial action against Iran if that country disregards current diplomatic efforts aimed at assuring it will not become a nuclear weapons power.

On the cusp of a key legislative push, President Barack Obama on Monday filled the Rose Garden with doctors supportive of his health care overhaul, saying “nobody has more credibility with the American people on this issue than you do.“

President Barack Obama meets with doctors from across the country for a morning Rose Garden event on health care.

‘Sfunny in this hour of Afghanistan, Iran, North Korea, and Iraq that perhaps nothing tells us quite so much about the incumbent D.C. administration as its behavior regarding Honduras. The situation is this: Three months ago the Honduran military escorted the country’s president, Manuel Zelaya, out of the country in his pajamas. After the fashion of his ideological mentor, Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, Zelaya had tried to rewrite the constitution to serve a second term—with the anticipated next step of having himself declared president for life. As The Wall Street Journal notes in an editorial:

President Barack Obama had a message yesterday for the many people—including himself—who put “heart and soul” into Chicago’s losing bid for the 2016 Olympic Games. “You can play a great game and still not win,“ Obama said at the White House shortly after returning from Copenhagen, where his in-person plea did not put Chicago over the top. “Although I wish that we had come back with better news from Copenhagen, I could not be prouder.“

President Barack Obama’s spokesman says Obama is “disappointed” that Chicago lost out on getting the 20016 Olympics but not sorry he went to Copenhagen to personally appeal for the Games.

Barack Obama has pushed closer than any president in generations to creating a basic health care safety net for most Americans, yet the fate of legislation delivering on his promise is far from certain.

President Barack Obama has declared a major disaster for American Samoa, a day after an earthquake sent a massive tsunami toward Samoa and American Samoa, leaving at least 99 dead and dozens missing.

NEW YORK—President Barack Obama’s decision to travel to Copenhagen to boost Chicago’s chances of winning the 2016 Olympics has drawn criticism from some Republicans, who call it a boondoggle for Obama’s hometown allies and evidence the president has blurred his priorities. Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele denounced the visit on a conference call with reporters yesterday. He called it “noble for the president to pitch his home city, Chi-town,“ before the International Olympic Committee on Friday. But Steele said it was a distraction from more pressing issues such as health care, job creation and other urgent demands on Obama’s time.

About three dozen people attended a lunchtime protest today outside a downtown Richmond strip club that has a new banner depicting President Barack Obama as the Joker of “Batman” movie fame.

President Barack Obama and the leaders of Britain and France are publicly demanding that Iran open up a secret nuclear fuel facility to international inspectors.